American Cinema/American Culture

Book Description

Developed to accompany the Annenberg-funded telecourse American Cinema, and written under the aegis of The New York Center for Visual History, this text offers a fascinating look at the interplay between the movie industry and mass culture in America.

Ideal for film appreciation and film and culture courses found in Cinema Studies, English, History, American Studies, or other departments, American Cinema/American Culture first examines the industry, its narrative conventions, and its cinematographic style.

Following this introduction, students are exposed to the sweep of film history in the U.S. using five genres as the bases for discussion and focusing on the point at which each had the greatest affect on the industry, film aesthetics, and American culture.

Finally, the book concludes with a look at Hollywood post World War II, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, television, the counterculture of the Sixties, directors from the film school generation, and the trends of the Eighties and Nineties.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent as a Historical Text Book.......2007-03-24

So, I expected this book to be a bit more fun. Unfortunately, the fun element is missing. However, in fairness, the book serves as a thorough textbook for the history of American Cinema and its techniques and various genres. I did enjoy reading about the early studio system and the vast amount of control this oligopoly held. There were some very good critiques and studies of specific films, and a bit about specific actors and actresses. Even a bit about directors. Though packed with information, the book just lacks an entertainment value that it could and should have pulled off based on the subject matter.

The different genres studied include:

Westerns
War Movies
Silent Films
Film Noire
Screwball Comedies

As well as an overall dissertation on Classical Hollywood Style and its various techniques.

Not very good..........2005-03-05

I got this book for a class on the history of cinema. Unfortunately, as the title implies, it only deals with American Cinema. If this is a book for school, check out the class to see if foreign films and film history will be discussed. This book is, again, as the title implies--one-sided. Most of the movies it discusses, gives away crucial plot-points and endings. Some movies that I've been dying to see were ruined in just one or two sentences. This book is also very puffed-up and biased (I don't know any other way of explaining it). Many times throughout the book, Belton seems like James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio", and goes on and on about the greatness of Hollywood, actors, director's, and films with nothing negative to say. It's not at all critical of anything and the author frequently inserts his own interpretation of films into the general text, which I found a little pompous. The book does offer up some interesting facts about the early history and the birth of cinema, but there's something about the way this book was written that makes it hard to stay interested. I think the chapters about film genres exaggerate the importance of some of them, and neglects other genres completely, ie. Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Sci-fi, Animation, Epics, etc. Again, question the instructor and/or look at the class syllabus before siging up if this is the only book for this class. I don't believe this is a comprehensive and unbiased view of cinema and it's history.

A very useful beginners guide to American film........2003-01-08

Years ago I took an intro-level film class at a community college. This was the text for the class. It was accompanied (at least in my class) by a PBS video series that combined film clips with interviews and historical information. Going into the class I had little more than a passing interest in film and film history. But after taking that class, my passion for film has grown exponentially with each year. But back to the book, I really liked this book and highlighted my way from the front cover to the back cover. There are of course limitations to this book. Firstly, it deals only with American films. Secondly, this book barely breaks the 300-page mark - hardly a comprehensive volume. You aren't going to get any information on John Cassavetes here or anything. Now if you have a chance to use this book in conjunction with the PBS films, I think you'll do much better (in fact I think the vids even give a nod to Cassavetes), but even then please note that this material is for an INTRO-level film class, and won't be much good for someone who already knows a fair amount about American film. But with that in mind, the book still has a lot to offer someone looking to introduce themselves to film history.

The first third of the book starts with the birth of film, moves quickly on to the Hollywood studio system, and walks us through the basics of film style (camerawork, lighting, editing, etc.). The second third covers the basics of film genre; there is a chapter about film noir, one on comedies, one on war films, and one on westerns. This second section was particularly useful to me. I could read each chapter, jot down a list of promising titles, hit my local video store, and I was good to go. The third section covers American film after World War II. In this section things seem a little compressed. 110 pages for 50 years of film? A lot is lost on the cutting room floor. But there's lots to dig into all the same. There's a chapter on Hollywood during the McCarthy years (yikes!), one on film's evolution during the emergence of television, a chapter on 1960s counterculture films, one on the film school directors of the 1970s and 1980s, and finally a pretty weak chapter on film in the 1990s. Oh yeah, and at the end of the book there's a handy glossary (in case you're ever stuck on what point-of-view editing is) and a pretty thorough index.

Again, not a book for someone who already has a good feel for film history. But definitely a great resource for someone new to film studies, or for someone who has trouble finding a movie at Blockbuster on Fridays. It did a great job getting me excited about movies, and I imagine its done the same for others.... A good companion to this text (or possibly an all-out replacement of it) is Scorsese's VHS/DVD, "A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies."

Movie spoiler.......2002-10-08

This would be a great book to read if you have no intention of watching the films discussed within, or if you've already seen them. On quite a few films, it tells the whole plot, in detail, from opening to end credits.

I also don't like the prose of the author, as he excessively uses sentences "in quotations". The writing structure is very formulaic and boring. The "5 paragraph essay" format is good for high school students learning to write, but imagine an entire book written that way. I can only read it for 15 minutes before losing interest.

The book does, however, provide plenty of examples from a variety of films.

Book Description

At a time when the studio is making a stunning comeback, film historian Thomas Schatz provides an indispensable account of Hollywood's tradional blend of business and art. This book lays to rest the persistent myth that businesspeople and producers stifle artistic talent and reveals instead the genius of a system of collaboration and conflict. Working from industry documents, Schatz traces the development of house styles, the rise and fall of careers, and the making-and unmaking-of movies, from Frankenstein to Spellbound to Grand Hotel. Richly illustrated and highly readable, The Genius of the System gives the definitive view of the workings of the Old Hollywood and the foundations of the New.

Customer Reviews:

A must for anyone interested in hollywoods's golden age.......2005-03-08

Thomas Schatz does a remarkable job of diagraming the rise of the studio system in Hollywood. The book is remarkably easy to follow (compared to any of Andrew Sarris's works) and includes numerous photographs. He focuses most on the trials and tribulations of Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and MGM and their distinct, integrated studio styles (He mentions RKO as well).

Irving Thalberg, David O. Selznick, Daryl Zanuck and Hitchcock are featured prominently and rightfully so. Also, includes many of the behind the scene battles between studios and directors/ producers.

There are some minor criticisms though. He almost completely ignores Paramount and Colombia. And the decline of the studio system is sparse compared to the rise of. But aside from that, this book is an enjoyable read and recommend it to anyone who is fascinated with early hollywood

Fascinating, but buyer beware.......2004-08-02

Schatz's book is well-rounded and nicely structured. It was a good decision on his part to take a round-robin focus on each studio instead of trying to mix them together, as some authors have. All of the studios had different ideas about what they wanted to achieve in their work, so this approach makes sense. Twentieth-Century Fox and Paramount were left out completely, but Schatz was clearly trying to choose one studio of each type of size and characteristic so as to keep control of the scope of the book.

I did find a glaring error--the finale to "Babes in Arms" was not the minstral number, but the song, "God's Country." In a book of this size, or of any size for that matter, errors will creep in, so it isn't the kiss of death. However, if the reader is familiar with MGM musicals, it may be a small turn-off.

Also, I wasn't satisfied with the epilogue. Instead of citing examples of the comeback of the studio system (LucasFilm, for instance), Schatz simply outlines the creative decline of Alfred Hitchcock. Huh.

Slight shortcomings aside, this book is very entertaining. I wish my film studies textbooks had been this interesting.

A refreshing take on Hollywood where business men are stars!.......2003-11-26

Film theorist Andre Bazin once wrote "The American cinema is a classical art, but why not then admire in it what is most admirable, i.e., not only the talent of this or that filmmaker, but the genius of the system." Quite simply author Thomas Schatz had done just that with this groundbreaking and wondrously entertaining history of the Hollywood studio era.

Up until its publication in 1988, film history had been defined by the "auteur" school of thinking where the director is the supreme artist who nurtured the art form. The studio executives- the money men- were relegated to the background and often depicted as crass capitalist who often hindered the creative process.

In Schatz's eyes, men like Carl Laemmle, Darryl F. Zanuck, David O. Selznick, Harry Warner, and Irving Thalberg were intuitive geniuses who understood the art of storytelling and were able to systematically deliver that art to the masses with drive and innovation. From the low rent beginnings of the Nickelodeon to steady decline of the studio system amid the dawn of Television, these men set standards that are sadly not met by today's faceless conglomerates. They all created "the movies" as we fondly perceive it and Schatz lets the creation of 20th century popular culture unfold with a finely turned narrative sweep.

Fantastic resource of film history, and a fun read to boot.......2003-01-07

It's rare that one can read a book containing so much dry information such as the budgetary concerns of many many films, and still be captivated by the storytelling enough to make it work. This book reads like a well-crafted novel, with the main characters being a handful of studio executives. What results is an utterly readable, insider's look into the business of filmmaking in the studio era. The artistic genius of some of these men is acknowledged, but largely, their business dealings are highlighted. If you're afraid of such business talk, don't be. The author makes budgets and salaries an interesting and integral part of the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who just loves movies and wants to learn more about how it all started. I also recommend this book to anyone who is in or getting into the producing biz now. What a helpful and inspirational resource. My only regret is that there is just no way that I can remember all of the information that I read in this book. That's why I refer to it as a resource in the title of this review and why I will use it as such for years to come.

Just an excellent book on the subject.......2000-07-28

Prof. Schatz does not suffer from the scholar's disease of academic-speak and writes a book that clearly demonstrates his expertise on the studio structure. Most books I have read extended the view of the outsider looking in at the star system and not the economics of the studios. "Genius of the System" chronicles the history of the studio's business, that is to say the economics and the people behind the economics.

Book Description

The 1990s saw a shock wave of dynamic new directing talent that took the Hollywood studio system by storm. At the forefront of that movement were six innovative and daring directors whose films pushed the boundaries of moviemaking and announced to the world that something exciting was happening in Hollywood. Sharon Waxman of the New York Times spent the decade covering these young filmmakers, and in Rebels on the Backlot she weaves together the lives and careers of Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction; Steven Soderbergh, Traffic; David Fincher, Fight Club; Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights; David O. Russell, Three Kings; and Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich.

Customer Reviews:

Rebels With A Cause... (4.5 stars).......2007-06-27

Ahhh the 90's...Going to the movies became a whole other experience. Just as directors of the 70's and 80's left their mark as groundbreaking filmmakers with new and innovative techniques, so these rebels of the 90's gave us new experiences on the big screen to awe us to delight. Although there were many that could be talked about for decades to come, "Rebels On The Backlot" by Sharon Waxman tells us the story of six of the most rebellious of the bunch. Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David O. Russell, David Fincher, and Spike Jonze. What a group!

The subtitle of this book, 'Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered Hollywood Studio System' is the focus of this book, and the story is not always pretty. Waxman goes into some depth into the making of such films as "Boogie Nights", "Pulp Fiction", "Traffic", "Three Kings", "Fight Club", and "Being John Malkovich" among some others by these now famous, but once struggling filmmakers. They were not always likable lads, often more like spoiled and thoughtless prima donnas alienating many around them, but one thing is for sure, they were geniuses with great visions, visions they wanted done their own way not chopped and edited or rewritten by those who thought they knew better. The big studios often scoffed at their ideas, saying audiences just couldn't handle the films these artists envisioned, the independents caught on but couldn't always afford the high price it would take to create their masterpieces. So these six were often left to deal with the big studios, which was often like a war.

Waxman begins at the beginning. Each director's life from childhood and the effects it had on their filmmaking is delved into. Their early beginnings in the industry,trying to get a script noticed, attending the film festivals, the fights on and off the set(Russsell and George Clooney actually duked it out on the set of Three Kings),the frustration of not being understood,the long road to seeing their visions completed(often asking for things in their contracts that the biggest of the big didn't even get, like final cut), their rise to fame and reactions from both the critics and the filmgoers. She leaves no stone unturned, often revealing some very personal information, all very well researched and with the cooperation of the directors themselves, and including lots of great quotes as well.

It's a well written, extremely detailed, and enthralling read for fans. Told in chronological order so that each chapter records the progress of each film. Also included is a picture section, a P.S. section with insights, interviews and even letters written to Russell by George Clooney, and a nice time line. Although there were a couple of times where I felt the Author injected her own very opinionated points - and not always agreeing, it kind of put me off at first - I still found this book to be a fascinating page-turner and a must read for fans and aspiring filmmakers alike. One that gives a truly up close, behind the scenes, and very personal look at some of our favorites that moved filmmaking into the 21st century.

4.5 stars for making me want to view these films all over again(and again)...enjoy the read...Laurie

Inexcuseable, too many errors.......2007-04-03

I am currently reading this book and came on here because I spotted several errors in the text and wanted to see if anyone else had noticed this. I totally agree with a previous review that says the numerous errors will make you question everything. It is an interesting read, but it is just unforgiveable that even obvious things like plot points in films, casting, etc. are wrong. I noticed a few and let them go, thinking that I must be the one that was wrong. As it went on I thought wait a minute and started checking things out only to find that, in fact, they were wrong! Bad enough that the writer is irresponsible, but wasn't there a fact checker around?! As the other poster stated, when facts that are obvious and easily checked are wrong, it kind of ruins the readers experience and does have you wonder what else might be false. Inexcuseable.

Rebels On The Backlot.......2007-03-16

While, by my definition, the directors here can hardly be considered rebellious, in Hollywood terms they certainly are. All fought the Hollywood machine. A machine that retreats from creativity, controversy and originality, always seeking the middle ground and, ultimately (all they really care about), profit. I was by no means an admirer of all the films here, but so fascinating are the accounts of their journey from idea to screen that I watched the films again in order to view them in a new light. This is an exhaustively researched and entertaining book. It's also full of juicy anecdotes and gossip (probably scurrilous). I think anyone interested in films and their tortuous journey to the cinema will enjoy it.

The errors you spot will make you question everything else........2007-02-08

Like several of the other reviewers I initially enjoyed the book and felt comfortable that the stories were coming from a credible reliable source. Unfortunately the further I got into the book the more errors and implausible scenrios that came up the more I felt like I might be reading something that was 50% fiction. What a shame - once the book lost its credability I quickly lost interest and skim read a lot of pages. If I want to read made up stories about directors I'll just do it myself. As a New Zealander the worst offense for me was when she said that Peter Jackson is an AUSTRALIAN! Thats about the same as me saying that Speilberg is Canadian - hey, the countries are right next to each other so who cares. The book then stated that somebody landed at Auckland airport and promptly hired a car to drive 800 miles to Wellington to talk to Peter Jackson...thats very dramatic but very odd - most people would have walked the 5 minutes to the domestic terminal and flown to Wellington which takes about an hour.
This book rates about the same as an E-Hollywood true story which is all the more shameful if the author really did do as much research as she claims.

If you write a bio, why ignore the wife? An example of bad journalism.......2006-09-03

If you take the time to write a biography of a person, isn't it part of one's research to interview their wife? Donya Fiorentino was married to or lived with David Fincher for 5 years and gave him a daughter. When they met, he was directing Pepsi commercials, and when they split up, he was an auteur. For some reason, Sharon Waxman made no effort to interview or contact Donya, and dismisses her in two sentences as an alcoholic and drug addict. In fact, Donya has been sober for 6 years, is a brilliant and creative photographer who has an edgy side to the Fincher story that has never been told. I know the truth; as Donya's physician I have heard her compelling story. Waxman also does not mention that after their divorce, she married Gary Oldman. This was written with my patient's permission, who was very hurt by this book's publication.

Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System

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Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking and the Studio System

Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System
Thomas Schatz
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0075536234

Customer Reviews:

Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking and the Studio System.......2000-06-11

A well written book which explores Hollywood genres with easy to read examples of classic Hollywood movies, and their effect on the movie-going public of the day. Comprehensive and absorbing.

Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties (Texas Film Studies Series)

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Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties (Texas Film Studies Series)
Christopher Anderson
Manufacturer: Univ of Texas Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0292704577

Book Description

The 1950s was one of the most turbulent periods in the history of motion pictures and television. During the decade, as Hollywood's most powerful studios and independent producers shifted into TV production, TV replaced film as America's principal postwar culture industry. This pioneering study offers the first thorough exploration of the movie industry's shaping role in the development of television and its narrative forms. Drawing on the archives of Warner Bros. and David O. Selznick Productions and on interviews with participants in both industries, Christopher Anderson demonstrates how the episodic telefilm series, a clear descendant of the feature film, became and has remained the dominant narrative form in prime-time TV. This research suggests that the postwar motion picture industry was less an empire on the verge of ruin--as common wisdom has it--than one struggling under unsettling conditions to redefine its frontiers. Beyond the obvious contribution to film and television studies, these findings add an important chapter to the study of American popular culture of the postwar period.

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excellent history of the studio system

The Hollywood Studio System: A History
Douglas Gomery
Manufacturer: British Film Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844570649

Book Description

Despite being one of the biggest industries in the world, the "dream factory" that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System fills that gap. It is the first book to describe and analyze the complete development, operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entities that produce and distribute most of the films we watch.
Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations that was firmly in place by 1930. For the next three decades, the movie industry operated according to these principles. Cultural, social, and economic changes ensured the demise of this system after WWII. Beginning in 1962, Lew Wasserman of Universal Studios emerged as the key innovator in creating a second studio system. Gomery relates the history of these two systems using primary materials from a score of archives across the United States as well as a close reading of both the business and trade press of the time. A number of previously unpublished photos illuminate the narrative.

Customer Reviews:

excellent history of the studio system.......2007-02-13

Doug Gomery has written a fine book on the history of the Hollywood studio system. Whereas earlier treatments of this topic tend to neglect the period after the rise of television, Gomery does an excellent job of covering that period as well. One argument in the book that scholars will recognize as original is that the studio heads have always been quite concerned about distribution issues and that even though they no longer directly control the majority of movie screens they still have a lot to say about what gets screened and where. There is considerable detail in the book on the history of each of the major studios based on archival materials and interviews. This book should be required reading, in short, for anyone writing about Hollywood in the future.

Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios

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Interesting
Love Me, Love my Orson
Readable, of course, but not all that was promised
A New Look at the Bad Films of a Genius
Welles's Battles, Sympathetically Portrayed

Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios
Clinton Heylin
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1556526202

Book Description

Revealing the facts rather than the myths behind Orson Welles' Hollywood career, this groundbreaking history analyzes the career of one of the most well-known American filmmakers. Exploring why Welles' films never matched his youthful masterpiece Citizen Kane, this investigation delves into the enemies that hounded him, his unwaning faith in his audience, and the brilliance of his films—before they were butchered by the studios. Based on shooting scripts, schedules, internal memos, interviews, articles, lectures, and personal correspondence, this work creates a concrete picture of his professional and artistic struggles and successes. This heartbreaking tale brings to life the intelligent, perceptive, and passionate man who, for all his failings as a person, was utterly uncompromising in his art.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2007-09-02

If you have ever seen Citizen Kane and enjoyed Orson Welles' performance, I think you will enjoy reading this book. The author tends to badmouth other critics which is pretty funny, but he also gives a nice insight into the life of Orson Welles. Pretty interesting although I wouldn't call it the EASIEST read. Fairly easy though.

Love Me, Love my Orson.......2006-10-31

Heylin doesn't have much good to say about Simon Callow's ongoing biography of Orson Welles, sneering at him for making it so long and involved. I can see him criticizing Callow for relying on John Houseman and Michael McLiammoir if they are supposed to be so unreliable, but why criticize him for not wrapping up his biography in two volumes and extending it to a third? You'd think he himself (Heylin) was some minimalist purist, but he's written far more hackwork himself than Callow ever will. Think oif a topic, Heylin's written an angry book about it.

If Orson Welles didn't have any emotional problems that led him to studio disputes, then I'm Tallulah Bankhead. Were all the studios conspiring against Welles because he was a dangerous man? I doubt it. But maybe ninety per cent of them were. There was still a fatal weakness in Welles that led to the mistakes among the six studio films Heylin counts over and over again. It's a door that swings both ways, but until the day comes that people realize it, there will always be a place on the shelf for books that paint Orson as an innocent victim of studio malice, Othello to Iago's "motiveless malignity."

Readable, of course, but not all that was promised.......2005-09-12

This book is heavy on argumentation. Whatever newly researched material it provides (and whether it provides much at all is debatable) is wound up in the fiber of a polemic the likes of which we haven't seen since the glory days of the Andrew Sarris-Pauline Kael Wars. I wish there had been a little less nonchalant jab-shooting at those with whom the writer doesn't see eye-to-eye, and a little more substance that was new.

That said, I will concede that this book is, naturally, highly readable. But bear in mind, it would be hard to imagine a book about any aspect of a life like Welles' being anything but readable. Having read Leaming's friendly biography and the Bogdanovich interview book (This is Orson Welles), however, I have to say everything here feels more than merely familiar, like something I (as a reader of books on this topic) have known for years now.

It begins to look as if a resifting through the same plate of sand is all we are going to get from further books about Welles, barring some sort of major uncovering of tapes, films or personal papers. And that doesn't appear likely at this point.

A New Look at the Bad Films of a Genius.......2005-06-17

Orson Welles did the movie 'Citizen Kane' and should have gone on to further greatness. Instead it appeared that he had peaked early and did litle for the rest of his careet.

In this extensively researched book, Clinton Heylin uses shooting scripts, schedules, internal memos and much more to come to a different conclusion. He says that the subsequent five movies Wells made were effectively ruined in post-production editing and cutting. For instance his movie 'The Lady from Shanghai' was cut from 155 to 86 minutes.

I suspect we will never be able to see a 'Director's Cut' of this movie, the 69 minutes that wound up on the cutting room floor were probably thrown away. So looking at the script and what recollections remain after half a century will have to do.

Mr. Heylin does point out some of the problems that were self inflicted, disappearing for a few days at critical times for instance. The book remains, however, a condemnation of the movie production system. I suspect this remains today as I look at the number of re-makes of old movies, the sequels, and how few original groundbreaking movies get made.

Welles's Battles, Sympathetically Portrayed.......2005-06-14

When _Citizen Kane_ was released in 1941, it was hailed by critics as a marvel, a film that had accomplished by innovations in plot, theme, photography, and sound what no movie had done before. It was as thick with meaning and style as any play or novel; the enormous numbers of books and articles devoted to it since that time, and its continuous inclusion on any list of great films, confirm how important a work it is. Orson Welles, new to Hollywood, young, brash, and brilliant, had delivered a masterpiece in his very first try. He had made the system work in ways it never had before. He would bring further new and innovative works from Hollywood, it seemed certain. But Welles never again had the freedom that he was able to use on _Kane_, and only made five further movies within the Hollywood system. How did this happen? In _Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios_ (Chicago Review Press), Clinton Heylin has given a useful and informed summary of the troubled give-and-take that resulted in the studios taking all his films except _Kane_ away from Welles at the vital editing stage. "I believe that the only good work I can do is my own particular thing," Welles once said, looking back and using the idiom of the sixties. "I don't think I'm very good at doing their thing."

Heylin comments extensively on other commentators on the Welles productions, because he has set out to redress what he sees as a misinformed analysis that has laid blame on the inner demons of Welles himself for his shocking failure to follow up _Kane_. For instance, Charles Higham wrote twenty-five years ago that Welles blamed others for wrecking his work, but that the real culprit was Welles's own fear of completion. This was, according to Heylin, "a neat little box in which to wrap any enigmas the work itself threw up." It was simple, and attracted many other commentators, and even cost Welles an investor for one of his later projects. However, Heylin shows that Welles was eager to get his films done, finishing them against the odds and against the shortsightedness of studio heads. Welles was not undone by his own inner failings, but "by real people, with real motives." In the stories about each of the six films here, Heylin shows that after _Kane_, Welles directed some fascinating films whose flaws are not due to his own inability to complete them, but to his inability to complete them in his fashion. _The Magnificent Ambersons_, _The Stranger_, _The Lady from Shanghai_, _Macbeth_, and finally _Touch of Evil_ are all covered here in fine detail, and their individual problems laid out.

One of the sound ideas that Heylin stresses is that not all the complaints the studios had against Welles ought to have been based on their financial worries. It is true that Welles didn't care much about making money, nor did he take pains to get the money men on his side in his endeavors. Welles could, when he wanted, work fast and inexpensively; _Kane_, for instance, was not a particularly expensive movie, and its glorious effects are all the more wonderful for being, on the whole, simple and cheap. Welles could film many pages of script in a single take, using combinations of shots that could compress ideas in an economic model any studio would embrace. He was certainly difficult to work with, self-indulgent and not only flouting Hollywood rules but disappearing from the studios at just the time when he should have been there to support his own versions of his films. Heylin takes the stance, however, that Welles was over and over again a victim, and _Despite the System_ marshals an impressive collection of facts (shooting scripts, rewrites, memos, and of course, other authors' books of interpretation) to support such a view. Against the system, Welles had considerable triumphs, but the subject here is his defeats, and they are told with sympathy; his admirers will read this book with a heartbreaking sense of loss.

Hollywood's Other Blacklist: Union Struggles in the Studio System

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good raw material --- good stories ---- not great analysis
Hollywood's Buried Labor History

Hollywood's Other Blacklist: Union Struggles in the Studio System
Mike Nielsen , and Gene Mailes
Manufacturer: British Film Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 085170509X

Customer Reviews:

good raw material --- good stories ---- not great analysis.......2004-01-06

Untold and almost lost history of labor battles in Hollywood in the 30's and 40's. Good solid information, lots of facts, but not really strung together as well as one would like. It's the raw story of the Industry, and the way it used the Mob to keep out the Communists, while decent progressives got smeared, smashed, and squeezed out cause caught in middle. Which is already more analysis than the book offers....if you're willing to take the raw material and analyze for yourself, it's worth giving it a read.

Hollywood's Buried Labor History.......1998-03-30

This is the only book in print that tells the dramatic story of the Hollywood labor wars of the 30's and 40's--the mob takeover of IATSE, the rank and file who fought back, and the blacklisting of up to 1000 studio workers, making IATSE members the major victims of the Hollywood Blacklist. Buried history at it's best!

Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the Origins of the Studio System

Average customer rating:

A Must Read

Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the Origins of the Studio System
Diana Altman
Manufacturer: Carol Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1559721405

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read.......2004-05-13

I never understood the relationship between the theater companies on the east coast and the production companies on the west coast until Altman's book. Filled with first-hand anecdotes passed down from her father, an MGM talent scout who discovered Joan Crawford, Jimmy Stewart, Ava Gardner, and many others. Excellent addition to film history.

The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood's Big Studio System

Average customer rating:

Best book on Hollywood I've ever read

The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood's Big Studio System
Ronald L. Davis
Manufacturer: Southern Methodist University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0870743589

Customer Reviews:

Best book on Hollywood I've ever read.......2005-07-11

Did you know Coco Chanel designed costumes for three films? Do you know the difference between a first, second, and third AD? Do you know what a key light is? Can you tell the difference between a Paramount film and an MGM film? This book addresses them all beautifully and entertainingly. It is immensely readable and is based on oral histories kept in the collections of SMU -- all the Hollywood greats are quoted extensively. The book is broken down into logical chapters (actors, costumes, music, the set, etc) and you'll have trouble putting it down. Good for any film buff's collection.

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