Celebrity: Dominick Dunne

While an interesting documentary, I can't tell if the people producing it were trying to shine a light on the terrifying creature Dominick Dunne was.... and he didn't even know it. Dominick Dunne is clear that he is an absolute Hollywood and celebrity fan. He wants only to hob knob with the Hollywood elite and thus he moved from New York to LA at his first opportunity. He spend his life in pursuit of living in the limelight with the beautiful people... and even though it cost him dearly, so much was his desire to be one of them... nothing stopped him. He got his kids involved in the Hollywood machine and that, more than anything else, likely lead to the death of his daughter.

In this documentary he talks with pride about how he (he says) destroyed the career of the Judge involved in his daughter's case. Assuming that is true, to me, that is terrifying and short sighted. Judges enforce the law. To use celebrity status to go after someone doing his job is just despicable. The hard job would have been to use his celebrity status to get the law changed. No destroy someone's life -- not even the guy that killed his daughter. Why stop with the Judge? Why not go after the doctor's that didn't save his daughter? No, Dominick goes after the person who can't fight back -- a Judge - who is not allowed to.

He then talks with pride about how he is proud of his ability to use his power (via Vanity Fair) to be judge jury and executioner with regard to people that he doesn't like. Of course, in the press you can write what you want and never be questioned about your assertions. He sees this as a good thing. That is terrifying. He spent the rest of his career targeting celebs that, in his mind, were not worthy of fair treatment. Though he talks about how celebs get special treatment he seems to not even consider his role in trying to prejudice large portions of the public against that celebrity. That isn't journalism. And if journalists are going to change their role into self appointed PR People, we need new laws to address this.

I am thrilled to see that Dominick Dunne is dead. At least his reign of terror is over. I only hope that people do not follow in his footsteps.

A caveat here: I had the occasion to write to Dominick Dunne, and I will never forget how kind he was to me, a total stranger. He was the real deal.

This is an excellent documentary that gives us a great feel for Dunne's entire life, career and the kind of person he was. It shows him talking with people and working, still going strong, and talking bluntly with the interviewer.

This documentary begins with Dunne giving some sort of speech and talking about how a maitre d' was forced by Frank Sinatra to punch him. The way he told it, the audience laughed. But Dominick Dunne never forgot, and could never listen to one note of Frank Sinatra singing again.

Certainly he had a life that many people would have loved, but the way he describes his social lifestyle here, it ruined his marriage to Lenny, the love of his life, a beautiful woman who just couldn't handle the crazy whirl. For Dunne, meeting celebrities, dining with them, going to their parties, writing about them, was heady stuff.

His personal life was filled with tragedy. His father beat him so that he had welts on his body; he never felt as if he belonged anywhere; he and Lenny had five children, two of whom died as infants.

His daughter, his "treasure," Dominique Dunne, was strangled by an ex-boyfriend. The Judge gave him 2-1/2 years and then thanked the jury on behalf of the families. Dunne stood in court. "Don't thank them on behalf of my family," he yelled. Security dragged him out of court. "You kept this jury from hearing important evidence," he yelled as he was removed.

"I ruined him," Dunne told the interviewer. "He went from Supreme Court to juvenile court to traffic court to no court. I ruined him. And I'm so happy." He finally found his milieu in celebrity crime -- a growth industry, starting with the high-profile Menendez case and enjoying a great career at Vanity Fair. At the time of the interview, he was covering the Phil Spector trial.

Despite being 82 and looking every minute of it, Dunne was a vital man who worked until he died, a year after this documentary. He had been a television producer, writer, an alcoholic who spent six months in a cabin by himself, and befriended, mingled with, entertained, and wrote about some of the most famous people in the 20th and the first part of the 21st century. And for all that, he was remarkably human.

Good documentary, interesting, and entertaining.

Interestingly, I happened to watch two biopics in succession on two wildly divergent personalities: one a respected and reserved noted Vanity Fair magazine contributor and popular crime novelist Dominick Dunne and the other a flamboyant, outgoing celebrity promoter and producer Allan Carr ("The Fabulous Allan Carr." If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, I would highly recommend watching them both in succession as well - the two films are fascinating and enlightening.

However, with the many differences in backgrounds and personalities of Dominick and Allan, they both shared (and had in spades) one major characteristic: a love of all things celebrity. (You will have to read my review of "The Fabulous Allan Carr" to get my insight on Mr. Carr.)

Back to this excellent biopic, I began my love affair with Dominick Dunne (as a college student from afar) when I got my first subscription to Vanity Fair magazine. I wish I could recall the first article I read by him.

Coincidentally, I am also a huge fan of his son Griffin after enjoying his performances years ago in "An American Werewolf in London" and "After Hours" and for many years did not know they were even related. I am highly anticipating (and have pre-ordered on Amazon) Griffin's memoir "The Friday Afternoon Club" which is to be released on June 11, 2024.

Back to Dominick, as an ardent literary fan (and English and Literature Minor), I found his writing style and content to be both riveting and entertaining, and this documentary exceeded my expectations. I should also mention that I have several of his novels and especially treasure his autobio "The Way We Lived Then." As in that novel, his self-awareness and self-reflection in this film I found to be both touching and sad. I loved him for his candid openness, and his outspoken quest for justice was for me understandable and much appreciated. Had I lost a child (or any loved one for that matter) to domestic violence or violence of any kind, it would spark a relentless fire in me as well. His murdered daughter Dominique exhibited beauty, wit and promise in her performance in "Poltergeist" - what an unbelievably senseless loss.

Sadly, this documentary was Mr. Dunne's personal swan song as well and was made about a year before he passed I believe. He had much more to give as he and others ironically noted in this film. He even said he didn't feel he had written his best novel yet.

If you are a fan and as entranced as I am by Mr. Dunne and his writings, I highly recommend you watch this and also the above-noted biopic on Mr. Carr. I hope they are both resting in peace with their beloved families and friends. God bless.

This documentary shows what a driven man Dominic Dunne could be if he set his sights on something - or someone. And how he changed himself at the age of 50, after his wife left him. He conscientiously changed his outlook and how he earned his living. And he continued with that until the end of his life.

I have always been a massive fan of his writing. And his son's acting. I am not sure how I feel about him now that I have seen the documentary. He seems to have taken "the pen is mightier than the sword" to a whole new level - and found people who not only allowed it, but paid him very big bucks to do it.

I have always been a fan of his books, but am thinking that this is seeing how the sausages are made.

That said, it's an excellent documentary with many people from his life being interviewed, including close family. It's well worth the watch.