Book Description
An encyclopedic look at several dozen of the most well known "people" of literature, television, mythology, and film.
From detectives and criminals (Dick Tracy, Perry Mason, and Norman Bates) to the greats of theater (Hamlet, Shylock, Romeo, and Juliet), the book covers and uncovers the history and influences of major characters of fiction.
The three writers use a variety of styles and approaches, (one essay is told from a canine's point of view), and the tone ranges from scholarly to open comedy.
Customer Reviews:
A great concept-- but not particularly well done.......2007-05-19
I read a review of this book in a magazine, and I was intrigued by the concept: Michael Hart's "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History" deals with actual people; wouldn't it be possible and useful to do the same with fictional characters? Yes, it would, but, unfortunately, the authors don't execute the concept very well.
The problem for me isn't the rankings. After, all, they're admittedly subjective, and in the end, they don't matter that much any way. The thing that I found jarring at first-- and then grating as I read on-- was the uneven quality of the essays. I suspect that this was in part due to the simple fact that there are three co-authors. It would be very difficult to coordinate the styles and lengths of the essays.
More seriously, though, they clearly didn't attempt to coordinate the point of the essays. That is, some of them are straight biographies. Some are pop-cultural analyses of the significance of the characters. Some are political screeds. Some are failed attempts to be cutsie, best illustrated by the essay supposedly written by an author's dog. Many of the essays read as though they were responses to homework assignments that were written at the last second by a student hoping that his teacher will mistake generalities and clever wordplay for content.
Now, this isn't to say that I hated the book; in fact, I actually liked it. It's just that it disappointed me. With a little more authorial discipline-- or maybe stronger editorial control-- it could have been a GREAT book.
So, in summary, I think it's worth reading, and it's entertaining, but I believe it could have been so much better.
Okay Bathroom book........2007-03-21
My sister bought me this book and I was really excited to read it because my friends and I would sit around and discuss topics such as this. It appears that a group of people took advantage of an idea most of us have had and did not deliver anything more than essays that remind me of papers I wrote 3 hours before they were due. Sometimes I never understood why they thought the character was influential, sometimes their influence seemed extremely exaggerated and sometimes I was not sure whether they undertsood influence. The only reason I gave the book 2 stars is because it reignited my desire to have discussions a=on topics such as this.
Don't Get It..........2007-02-16
A list that includes such potentially fleeting charactors as Buffy The Vampire Slayer as high as #44 and the demotion of a universally recognised near 70 year old charactor such as Superman to #64 is highly doubtful in its seriousness or its intention.
I don't believe they would write the same list even 12 months from now.
A bathroom is where this book belongs........2007-02-05
I found the book title to be very fascinating and looked forward to reading about people who have shaped our society and ourselves. What I found was self-indulgent humor that was not particularly funny and in fact often times trite. Were the authors drunk when they wrote this?! It's full of side bars and I guess what they consider jokes; though none were funny. The #24 person they listed was Odysseus who they claim tried to avoid the Trojan War by pretending to be insane; that plan having failed, he tried to join the Air National Guard in Texas. The book eventually wound up being a politial satire to slam our government I guess.
Then the authors suggest having a St. Lupercalia'a Day in which we have a day to celebrate orgies to keep the clergy happy. What?! Are you kidding me? This book is completely inappropriate. It would have been a wonderful book if the authors could have kept from drinking while writing it.
Could have been better.......2007-01-09
I had read an article that excerpted some of the essays in this book and loved the concept. It's fascinating that 101 of the most influential people who have shaped our society were not even real people. However, this book was a bit of a disappointment. After reading through 2 or 3 articles, I just skimmed the rest. To be honest, the title was much more compelling than the essays were.
Book Description
Hailed as the definitive work upon its original publication in 1975 and now extensively revised and updated by the author, this vastly absorbing and richly illustrated book examines film as an art form, technological innovation, big business, and shaper of American values. 80 black-and-white photos.
Customer Reviews:
Out there.......2007-09-02
I have only read the first 3 or 4 chapters so far, but the editor has no linear stream of conciousness. He meanders along in his thought process with no logical structure in mind. Interesting take on the history of American movies.
A Grand Discourse on Filmdom and Society........2006-12-10
The author shows how movies not only reflect our society but influence it as well.
Are you a film buff, a history buff, or both?
Then this book will fascinate you from start to finish.
Interesting Course Reading.......2005-09-28
This is a great book that was required reading for Steven Ross' "Film, Power, and American, History" course at USC. Not only was it very relevant and well organized, but genuinely interesting too!
Great Classic work.......2005-02-15
This is a must read in the social and cultural history of American cinema.
Perfect.......2003-12-05
Sklar's Movie Made America was assigned as my textbook for a film class I just finished here at UCLA. At first I thought it to be a bit boring, especially because I thought it was just repeating what the professor had discussed in class. However, when I truly began to appreciate this book and take the time to read every word, I realized that Sklar not only presents the facts, but synthesizes the history of American cinema in innovative and interesting contexts. He discusses the way that film, from its start, has changed America as a social body, as a political body, as an economic body, and as a body in of itself.
Certain chapters were intriguing because they took standpoints different than any other author. And while the words are a bit dated, last revised over 10 years ago, it still has a spooky sense of relevance.
Overall, a wonderful book. If you're interested in the history of American film, here you go. I'm not selling this one back to the bookstore during Buy-Back time. That's for sure.
Book Description
During the highly charged years of World War II, movies perhaps best communicated to Americans who they were and why they were fighting. These films were more than just an explanation of historical events: they asked audiences to consider the Nazi threat, they put a face on both our enemies and allies, and they explored changing wartime gender roles. We'll Always Have the Movies shows how film after film repeated the narratives, character types, and rhetoric that made the war and each American's role in it comprehensible.
Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry have watched more than six-hundred films made between 1937 and 1946—including many never before discussed in this context—and have analyzed the cultural and historical importance of these films in explaining the war to moviegoers. This extensive study shows how filmmakers made the chaotic elements of wartime familiar, while actual events became film history, and film history became myth.
Customer Reviews:
Some Great Films Overlooked.......2006-04-08
I was disappointed to see that some pertinent films of WWII were left out of this book. Lillian Hellman is mentioned for two lesser known works, but excluded completely are, "Watch on the Rhine"(1943) and "The Little Foxes"(1941)which deal directly/indirectly with fascism. "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) with Charles Boyer and Olivia DeHavilland, about refugees and their struggles, has been omitted.
There were missed musicals, such as "Babes on Broadway"(1941)with Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney which had entire scene, and original song/subplot devoted to the refugee children from Britain. "For Me and My Gal",(1942) Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, portrays WWI experiences to WWII audience. Also, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) was in production during Pearl Harbor attack and script was adjusted to promote more support for WWII.
Additional exclusions were the homefront "Hargrove" films with Robert Walker and Donna Reed--"See Here, Private Hargrove"(1943), and "What's Up, Corporal Hargrove"(1944). The "Male Animal" (1941) with Henry Fonda, is set on a college campus, but has politics/extremism focus. "Janie Gets Married" (1946) Joan Leslie, is a light comedy about a new bride helping her husband adjust to post WWII lifestyle.
This book deals with more "serious" films of the era, but the lighter, comical, and musical creations also conveyed ideals, feelings, directly or indirectly re: WWII.
cultural study of wide-ranging influence and effects of American WWII movies.......2006-04-02
World War II films have always been recognized as quintessential patriotic movies. There are anecdotes of young men going directly from movies such as "Salute to the Marines" and "Fighting Seabees" to military recruiters. But the co-authors take a more analytic look at the broad category of American popular movies during the World War II years. They find that the category was more diverse than generally realized, and that its purposes and effects were more subtle than seen in the inspiring films of military exploits. For example, the movie "Casablanca," for all its film noirish intrigue and memorable performances, "presented [the Germans] not only as bad but also as defeatable." This was undoubtedly an important message for the American public in the early days of the War when the Germans appeared invincible in their conquest of the nations of Europe. Surveying the wide, diversified field of WWII films, the authors with academic backgrounds in literature at Illinois State U. examine how many films went beyond simply evoking patriotism to maintaining support for the War on the "home front" and to forming perspectives and expectations on it and characterizing the enemy. The wartime films dealt with all significant aspects of the War, including portrayals of Russians, British, and other allies. The cycle of the films in relation to the course of the War is a thread of the wide-ranging, multidisciplinary study in a readable style appealing to film-lovers as well as ones interested in popular culture, social history, and cultural studies. Preston Sturges' June 1944 release "Hail the Conquering Hero" coming near the end of the body of wartime films deals with the adjustment of servicemen returning to civilian life.
Book Description
A witty and penetrating look at the celluloid culture of the 1960s by the Village Voice's celebrated film critic.
In The Dream Life, Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman turns his attention to the 1960s, the era when politics and culture became one. With wildly entertaining reinterpretations of key Hollywood movies (such as Dr. Strangelove, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, and Shampoo), Hoberman reconstructs the hidden political history of 1960s cinema. Meanwhile, against the pageantry of four national elections—1960 to 1972—he describes the formation of America's spectacular, image-laden political culture.
In the era when the missile gap, the sexual revolution, and the Vietnam War became inseparable from the triumph of television, the development of political image-making, and the advent of Pop Art, American politics, mass media, and publicity became the new social spectacle. Through meditations on the personas of Che Guevara, John Wayne, Patty Hearst, Jane Fonda, Ronald Reagan, and Dirty Harry, Hoberman moves deftly between the political backgrounds of movies and the fantastic dimensions of politics, producing a brilliant and comic cultural history of the rise of our mass-mediated politics.
Customer Reviews:
The Movies and America in "The REAL Greatest Generation".......2006-11-04
I saw this book at the university library and I like it. I'll use it as one of my sources because I plan on writing the defining book of the movies in the 1960's someday. The cover of Clint Eastwood for "Dirty Harry" is a classic. One weakness to this book is that there are no photos to keep it entertaining and Hoberman left out some other important movies from the decade. But it was ironic that choose "Blow-Up" as the movie that defied the decade considering it started three things: It was the first movie to ever delt with life after JFK's murder, it was the movie that started the porn film (in the few short years after this movie, there were sexually charged films like "Belle De Jour" and "I Am Curious (Yellow)," right up to "Deep Throat") and it started the feminist movement. We all know that Tom Brokaw wrote a book in which he believes the World War II era was the greatest generation. But I think the Baby Boomers (which includes my divorced parents) made it that title and I think the years 1963 to 1974 (from Kennedy butchered in Dallas to Nixon embarrassed over Watergate) was the REAL greatest generation and look at some of the movies that came out in that time like "Tom Jones" up to "The Godfather Part II." This does make for a good reference book.
A fine history evolves which uses the film world as a reflection of cultural change.......2005-10-05
Here's a new cultural history of the Sixties - through the eye of the camera as it considers the social and political impact of movies and theater of the times. Using key Hollywood productions from Shampoo to Bonnie and Clyde, senior film critic at the Village Voice Hoberman provides a lively reconstruction of the politics behind the films, examining with actors and subjects with a critic's eye for detail. A fine history evolves which uses the film world as a reflection of cultural change.
Excellent book about 50s-70s movies and culture.......2004-01-26
This is a great book. It touches on an almost dizzying number of milestones, from the fifties TV show ''The Next Voice You Hear'' to Brian De Palma's movie ''Blow Out.''
The point of the book, if there is one that can be easily summarized, is that political and cultural events (especially films) first became genuinely inseparable during the 1960s (not dissimilar to the points that Marshall McLuhan made in ''Understanding Media'' and Daniel Boorstin made in ''The Image: or What Happened to the American Dream'' while history was happening; but, as Hoberman points out, that history could not have been fully understood by those prophets in the midst of it).
This is a masterfully rendered cultural history. Hoberman's style can get breathless at times, and there are a lot of films and events to keep up with, but the narrative (and the analysis) are involving, cogent, and thoughtful. Think ''The Dirty Dozen,'' ''Easy Rider,'' ''Bonnie & Clyde,'' ''Blow Up,'' ''The Wild Bunch,'' ''Shampoo'' (and songs like ''The Ballad of the Green Berets''): they're all here, along with the cultural context that they fed into and the ''dream life'' that they helped construct.
Magical Mystery Tour of the Sixties.......2003-11-24
This is a wonderful book (I devoured it over a weekend). It examines the relationship between American social and political life and the movies during the turbulent decade of the Sixties, although the book actually covers films well into the Seventies. The book argues that this relationship was a two-way street, with the movies being influenced by what was happening in society, but also that the movies influenced politics and society. For example, Hoberman asserts that Kennedy's fascination with James Bond and secret agents and Nixon's obsession with the movie Patton to some extent influenced the style and substance of their presidencies. Another overarching theme of the book is how the Western, that most American of movie genres, evolved almost beyond recognition through the course of the Sixties and early Seventies (from The Alamo to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid).
Among the films prominently covered in the book are Blowup, Spartacus, The Manchurian Candidate, Bonnie & Clyde, Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch, and Dirty Harry, but the book also discusses more obscure films such as Tell Them Willie Boy is Here and Wild in the Streets. That most quintessential of all Sixties films, Woodstock, is oddly absent from the book.
A couple of quibbles: Hoberman quotes Norman Mailer far too often and it would have been nice to have a true bibliography rather than having to rummage through the source notes. That aside, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in either the social history or films of the Sixties--you will not be disappointed!
Book Description
This outstanding collection of the best film history scholarship gathers recent essays and supporting documents to illustrate the power of movies to change, and be changed by, American society. The book follows movies from their beginnings in nickelodeons to the current state of Hollywood globalism. It illustrates that movies have played an important role in shaping and reflecting how millions of Americans see and think about their world. The essays show to a great extent exactly how and why movies have a unique influence on all aspects of American culture, including ideology, politics, and race relations.Editorial introductions place these readings in historical and ideological context, and lists of recommended readings and screenings give guidance for further research. This is the ideal collection for anyone interested in film history.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully written with excellent articles.......2007-05-31
I read this book for a history and gender studies class in college. I learned so much about American history, film history, and the history of gender roles and portrayals. It is an easy read with engaging articles and extensive bibliographies for further reading.
Average customer rating:
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American Dreamtime: A Cultural Analysis of Popular Movies, and Their Implications for a Science of Humanity
Lee Drummond
Manufacturer: Littlefield Adams Quality Paperbacks
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Average customer rating:
- Criticism and Nothing But
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Australian Movies and the American Dream: (Media and Society Series)
Glen Lewis
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0275926753 |
Book Description
Lewis introduces Australian films from the 1920's and 30's and then focuses on thirty films produced between 1975 and 1987. He suggests that part of the reason for Australia's film success may lie in America's identification with a simpler culture and the portrayal of "wild west" type territory which is often found in Australian films. He also points out that various aspects of American culture have seeped into Australian culture and now appear in their films, making them more appealing to an American audience. He concludes this insightful study with a projection analysis for the future of Australian cinema. With its up-to-date content and analytical approach, this book will be valuable to anyone concerned with mass communication and society, cinema studies, media, or U.S.-Australian relations.
Customer Reviews:
Criticism and Nothing But.......2004-12-22
If you want to get an understanding of how the American dream relates to Australian cinema, this book is not as good a bet as it sounds, as it only touches on that idea a few times. The bulk of the book is basically standard, not even particularly academic, though up to a Pauline Kael caliber, film reviews. Lewis restricts his criteria for inclusion to only the top ten grossing films for each three year period. The majority of these reviews don't address the book's main theme, which is largely restricted to the first and last chapters, and even then, it leaves you wanting more, because he isn't giving you what he promised. As a collection of film reviews, it's not bad, but Lewis does not successfully do what he sets out to do, namely, to relate Australian movies to the American dream. If you want an overview of high-grossing Australian films, this may be helpful, but aside from documenting a few differences between Australian and American culture one could find anywhere, this really will not help you if you are interested in an approach with which to address other films, cultural attitudes, etc., all of which the opening chapter, not to mention the promotion implies that Lewis will do. The fact that this guy has a Ph.D. is most astonishing--he does what graduate students are always told not to do.
I should also point out that there are a very high number of typographical errors, even by Praeger standards, which suggests that Lewis did not re-read his text before he sent it to the publisher, which might explain why this book is so slight. He explains that criticism has always been more accepted in America than theory, but that doesn't excuse a book that sets out to be about a specific topic to be just a set of film reviews. I did love the way he makes John Milius look stupid at the end, though.
Average customer rating:
- Not what I expected - Where are the images??"
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Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema (Cinema and Society)
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1860643973 |
Book Description
Whether we love it or hate it, Christmas has always played a special role in the cinema, and Christmas movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street have a special place in popular affections. Christmas at the Movies takes a good look at these popular films, decoding the messages they convey about popular preoccupations and attitudes and about the different societies that produce them. Written in an entertaining and illuminating style, this book gives a brand new view of Christmas and its rituals.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected - Where are the images??".......2006-04-14
Okay - probably my bad for not really reading through the description in-depth but this is NOT a book of images of Christmas in the movies - it's more a discussion of those movies. There are limited photos of course -- but not what you would expect from a book with this title. I sent it back before reading because I was interested in more of a photo book so I can't judge the overall content but do want other potential buyers to know what the book is really about.
Average customer rating:
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Images of American Life: A History of Ideological Management in Schools, Movies, Radio, and Television (Suny Series in Education and Culture)
Joel H. Spring
Manufacturer: State Univ of New York Pr
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0791410692 |
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Career Movies: American Business and the Success Mystique
Jack Boozer
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
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ASIN: 0292709110 |
Book Description
Achieving the American Dream became inextricably linked with career/business success after World War II, as an increasingly consumerist America learned to define the dream through possessions and status. Not surprisingly, Hollywood films in the postwar years reflected the country's preoccupation with work and career success, offering both dramatic and comedic visions of the career quest and its effects on personal fulfillment, family relations, women's roles, and the creation (or destruction) of just and caring communities. In this book, Jack Boozer argues that the career/business film achieved such variety and prominence in the years between 1945 and 2001 that it should be considered a legitimate film genre. Analyzing numerous well-known films from the entire period, he defines the genre as one in which a protagonist strives for career success that often proves to be either elusive despite hard work, or unfulfilling despite material rewards and status. Boozer also explores several distinct subgenres of the career movie--the corporate executive films of the 1950s; the career struggles of (single, married, and/or parenting) women; the entrepreneurial film as it is also embodied in texts about immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities and business-oriented femmes fatales; the explosion of promotionalism and the corporatization of employment; and, finally, the blurring of work and private life in the brave new world of the televirtuality film.
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- The 47 Ronin: A Story of Samurai Loyalty and Courage
- The Beatles As Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology
- The Circle of Life: Rituals from the Human Family Album (Introduction By Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
- The Company of Strangers
- The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
- The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious Searcher
- The Films in My Life
- The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (Distributed for British Film Institute)
- The Films of Randolph Scott
- The Fountain
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