Books by Bill Mesce

One of the most controversial films of its time, The Wild Bunch is the epitome of the no-holds-barred filmmaking of the 1960s and 1970s. It revived the career of volatile, self-destructive director Sam Peckinpah - it also hung on him the label him "Bloody Sam". This book tells the complete story of the film's production, reception and legacy.

An industry professional's insider's look at the craft, practice, and business of screenwriting, exploding some of the most popular myths about writing for the movies by showing how little relevance they have to actual working conditions. Analytical essays stand side by side with not only the author's own in-the-field experiences, but commentary offered by veteran industry pros.

Peckinpah's Women examines the confluence of factors that worked with, and often against, Peckinpah's cinematic voice to divine a recurring positive theme regarding women in those films that form the heart of his body of work: his period Westerns.

Artists on the Art of Survival examines the lives of artists as some continue to struggle to find their place, others have managed to carve out a niche for themselves, and still others have, for a variety of reasons, moved on to something else.

Examines the evolution of the thriller from the heyday of the Hollywood mogul era in the 1930s when it was primarily bottom-of-the-bill fodder, through its maturity in the World War II years and the noir-breeding 1950s, its commercial and critical ascendancy in the 1960s and 1970s, and finally its subsequent box office dominance.