By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up!
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Few people have lived the “American Dream” like Hollywood actor Tom Sizemore. Born into poverty on the bad side of Detroit, (which begs the question: Where is Detroit’s good side?), he worked his way into a successful career as a film and TV actor, appearing in blockbusters like Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, Heat, Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down with A-list actors like Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino by top-of-the-line directors like Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg and Michael Mann. Sizemore had a huge house and a Porsche; a sizeable bank account and a respected career; and more important than all of that he had a loving wife. For years there was a lot in the press about Sizemore’s addiction and legal problems, and finally he has a chance to convey his side of the story. By Some Miracle I Made it Out of There is his story of how drug addiction tragically cost him all of that and more.
By Some Miracle I Made it Out of There (the title is a variation of a line Sizemore’s character Sergeant Horvath delivers in Saving Private Ryan) wastes no time with redundancies or needless side stories, and it is never dull. Sizemore is well-educated and articulate, (he has a master’s in fine arts and loves Shakespeare), which came as a surprise to me, because he plays tough cops and criminals, working class men and soldiers in films so well. The straightforward delivery and anecdotal narrative style leads me to believe that the book was probably compiled and edited by co-author Anna David from a series of interviews with Sizemore, something like what celebrity biographer David Ritz did with Don Rickles and Paul Shaffer for their respective memoirs, but Anna David’s effort proved more skillfully and effective. By Some Miracle is not by any means a great piece of literature or a complete and highly detailed chronicle; it is a cautionary tale; a simple story well-told and thankfully makes no attempt to be anything else.
What struck me most was Sizemore’s level of honesty (he confesses to being a “softy” and a “momma’s boy”); he names names and tells the truth point blank; criticizing himself and others with equal ferocity. But what I really found refreshing is his lack of excuses; he takes full responsibility for the hurt he caused himself and those who cared about him.
For me a book is effective if it helps me understand myself better. As I was reading I recognized my former self, my actions and my feelings; it brought me back to a time when my life was also in turmoil (although with a different set of adversities), and I was, by circumstance, fortunate enough to be given a second chance.
The book ends optimistically and positively, despite the fact that we and Sizemore come to the sad realization that his years of making A-list pictures are over and he has wasted time and opportunities that he will likely never get back. By Some Miracle I Made it Out of There is gritty, terse and candid; and probably the best first-hand account of drug addiction, relapse and recovery I have ever read.
F. Scott Fitzgerald also said “there are no second acts in American lives.” By the end of By Some Miracle I Made it Out of There, I hoped that Tom Sizemore will eventually prove him wrong.
