Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life

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I'll leave you with a final quote, which sums up his overall philosophy, "Find what you love and do it as well as you can. Michael Caine delivers another book this time with the intention of delivering some tips to wannabee actors/actresses and to people that are good doing something. I wanted to look back at all its fun and all its misery and struggle, its comedy, its drama, its romance and its tragedy and find in this long and eventful life the lessons I've learned.

This is not a biography as we are used to, this is more some pieces of history followed by advices, by lessons learnt. It is at times a little flat, stilted, and there are odd inflections where he obviously thinks he's coming to the end of a sentence but isn't.You won’t read this but I am grateful for every word and take great pleasure in your continued success as a person, husband, father, grandfather and one of the most adorable actors I’ve have the pleasure to watch. One of our best-loved actors Michael Caine has starred in a huge range of films - including all-time favourites - from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hollywood blockbusting Dark Knight trilogy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules. In reality, it has been one huge learning curve, from his unlikely beginnings as the son of a Billingsgate fish porter to pursuing his dream of being an actor, finding success and managing every twist, trick and turn to stay at the top of his game. This is the second Michael Caine's book that I read and, as the first, it was a very pleasant reading. According to his book (and there is no reason to doubt the content) he is calm, polite and professional while on set; he is organised and well prepared in advance of arriving; he doesn't drink to excess or go near drugs; he turns every difficulty into a positive and, has been married 50 years (how many actors can claim that?

I'd been looking forward to this one for a while, and deliberately chose the audio version, as I figured listening to the actor himself tell his story was the best way to experience it. Then, I switched to the audiobook read by the author himself and just loved listening to Michael Caine tell his story in his own sublime voice. Caine not only waxes lyrical about his friends and family but entire sections of the book read like extended acknowledgements to those who've helped him on his way, from the bloke at the butter factory where Caine was working who first told him about the Stage newspaper, to Hollywood royalty John Wayne.

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 . There were some items and situations frequently re-explained, oftentimes very closely to the last time these things were mentioned. Later on in the book, Caine takes the easy way out when forced to acknowledge the scandal surrounding Woody Allen – who directed Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), the film that won Caine his first Academy Award – claiming that the allegations against Allen came as a "great and terrible shock" to him. The greatest trick, as he says, has always been ‘to grasp every bloody opportunity that appears in front of me’. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.