The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era

Great stuff! Read this book and you'll understand why movies are a business first, art second. Always have been and always will be. Contratry to the legendary portrayal of first generation American Jews as not much more than greedy nickelodeon merchants, this book proves how they succeeded because they were not only great commercial visionaries, but also because they were great businessmen. Great human stories!

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.

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.If you want to read about the business structure of Hollywood during its beginnings, this is the book for you. I cannot recommend it enough.

An easy to read writer, Thomas Schatz details how the studio system worked from the silent era to its final collapse in the 1960s. He illuminates both the art and the business of films, with keen analysis of how producers, directors and screenwriters created such fine art (and rich profits) -- especially the producers, who are more the authors of Hollywood films than any other group.He convincingly portrays MGM's Irving Thalberg as a genius of art and commerce and MGM's Louis B. Mayer as a clod (except when dealing with difficult stars).Schatz offers telling portraits of many others who did their best work under the constraints of the Hollywood system. He details the major studios' styles and how they evolved over the years. It's clear he has read file cabinets of documents, from endless -- but revealing -- memos to how much the stars made(!).He also puts the film industry in social and cultural context; he even says the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1940s and 1950s were a disguised form of anti-semitism.In the end, Schatz offers a convincing alternative to the auteur theory.

Schatz's examination of Hollywood's inner workings during its Golden Age (from just before the rise of talkies to about 1960) is enlightening, informative and entertaining. It's authoritative in its presentation of how studios worked--backing up Schatz's viewpoint that the studio system was as much responsible for the overall quality of that era's films as any other factor (including the stars and directors)--yet it doesn't forget to entertain with intriguing and (dare I say it?) gosspy tidbits about many landmark films and legendary filmmakers. A solid read and, as Steven Bach says in the foreword, an important book.