Listen And Learn
Even though you might be a devoted reader - like I am - I would strictly recommend to listen to this book instead.
If you're looking for a straight-up celebrity memoir then Blowing the Bloody Doors Off isn't that book. You'd be better off tracking down Caine's two autobiographies. What's It All About (1992), and The Elephant to Hollywood (2010), detail his Cinderella-like journey from humble beginnings - he was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in 1933, and grew up in a poor, working-class family in South London's Elephant & Castle, his father was a porter at Billingsgate Fish Market and his mother a charwoman - to Hollywood stardom.
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off is something of a companion piece to his two previous volumes, and is best read as such, rather than on its own since there are enough occasions in its pages where the author explicitly refuses to repeat stories he's already treated readers to – such as how he met his wife of 45 years, Shakira.
(The story is legend: he saw his future wife in a commercial on national TV, figuring she is an actress form South America, ready to leave for her home country the next morning, luckily meeting a friend in the lobby of his London hotel who told him that Shakira was first of all more from an India background and also working in London, like, only blocks away - so Caine got in touch, they met, fell in love and got married a few weeks later).
His Idea of this book is by far more philosophical as he is trying to teach us a lesson about how to survive movie business and as a matter of fact any other business as well. And I have to say - his devotion and determination is really something to learn from.
I recommend to download the book at audible.com: listening to his life lessons in not only his own words but read aloud with that iconic voice is a treat on itself.
There's something refreshingly wholesome about Caine's unpretentious attitude, even if it doesn't always make for the most thrilling reading.
Check It Out:
And maybe get inspired to watch one or two of his movies again - as he says himself: Some are really bad, some are really good, I just did so many ...and I have learnt from any of them."
I personally recommend "Alfie", "Hanna And Her Sisters" and "Dressed To Kill". And then there is another movie I actually just found out about after having read about the remake: "The Icpress Files" where Caine creates his personal myth of style and masculinity.
Maybe the sexiest in movie history.
