"Raised as a Calvinist and so forbidden to partake of 'worldly amusements' such as movies, Paul Schrader defied his upbringing to become first a leading film critic, then a star pupil among the US 'movie brat' generation of the 1970s: writing the coruscating screenplays for Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and directing such provocative pictures as Blue Collar and American Gigolo. Maturity has never sated his appetite for attacking 'difficult' material, from adapting Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation for Scorsese, to filming the singular lives of Mishima and Patty Hearst." "Schrader on Schrader is a tour through this formidable body of work, including some of his finest critical essays, and updating the story to include recent successes Affliction and Auto Focus, plus his adventures in the making of the horror 'prequel' Exorcist: The Beginning."--BOOK JACKET.