Hollywood

For a Hollywood film fanatic, this is one delightful photo flip book that will represent a major time suck if you're not careful. Surely there are worse ways to spend your time than poring through the photos of the great and some not-so-great movies that are included here. David Thomson, the renowned film historian who is responsible for the be-all tome on the movies, "The Biographical Dictionary of Film", a volume so onerous that he can only update it every ten years or so. This book is no less ambitious in its scope, yet amazingly compact considering that it covers almost the entire history of Hollywood filmmaking from 1915 to 2001. This time he lets the pictures do most of the talking. What I like most is the choice of images used here, as they are hand-picked from the legendary Kobal Collection - a combination of film stills (some familiar, some unusual alternate shots), publicity photos, movie posters and my favorites, on-the-set photos that capture both cast and crew at work and sometimes play. One priceless photo has actors in full make-up playing poker on the set of "Planet of the Apes". Adding to the enjoyment are Thomson's pithy yet often perceptive captions on the impact of the stars and films highlighted. He organizes the book into the separate decades and provides a small introduction for each section, but it is the comprehensive photo collection that garners the most attention here. Now in a much smaller, more reasonably priced, almost square-shaped form, the paperback version is fun to share and use to reminisce with friends on everyone's favorite films. The only downside is that the print gets miniscule at this size. A treat that should be a mainstay on your coffee table.

On first opening this book, I completely lost track of time, and two hours later, realized that I was late for a dinner date. To open this book is to take a magical trip through the history of Hollywood film making. I am a film-lover, so I had been initially sceptical. However, this book does not limit itself to the usual Hollywood cliches and obvious selections. It provides a decade-by-decade analysis of the development of filmmaking in Hollywood from the days of silent films to the present, highlighting those films, directors and actors that it considers influential in contributing to those developments. There are, in addition to those films generally known to all of us and periodically aired on television, many surprise choices, especially among the earlier decades. Do not expect juicy gossip about "stars". This is a book that focuses on actors' performances, and not on their private lives. At the same time, however, the book is very accessible, due to its inspired visual layout, one that avoids the wearyingly familiar images in favor of fresher, more surprising and more thoughtful choices. I found myself wanting to rush to the video store to find those great, but lesser-known older movies that sadly have been forgotten, or of which many of us would, but for such a book, remain unaware.

This massive 600+ book is a collection of black and white and color film stills and portraits from 1915 through 2000. Brief captions are provided for each photo. Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't have any objections to the quality of the photos. I think they are quite good and there were several images that I had never seen before. But then again, I do not consider myself an expert on photographic print quality. Overall I don't think that seasoned film lovers will find much new here and it may not be worth the price to you. However, if your library of film books is scant or if you are someone who is just discovering classic movies, then this would be a great purchase. Makes a good coffee table book too!