performing arts

For the authors to call this massive large-format 857-page book "an introduction" is to display a modesty commensurate with their magnificent achievement. Reading this book is not a burden; carrying it around, however, most certainly is. While handier books like the brief "Film, an illustrated historical overview" (1998) by Andrea Gronemeyer and Goldlilock's favorite (just the right size) "A History of Film" (1995) by David Parkinson are entertaining and informative, the Bordwells' book is an entire education in Film History. Not just the artistic movements, but the roles played by national and international politics as well as the good, the bad, and the ugly of the business of film making are covered thoroughly. Almost 3000 films are cited.

Clearly, the authors could have done more. The 25 years of Hollywood film production between 1970 and 1995 receive only that many pages of text, about the same as is given to all of Europe during the same period. That detail of coverage is consistent, in fact, with the rest of the book, but readers who are accustomed to histories' becoming more detailed as they approach contemporary times may feel a little let down. They shouldn't. There are enormous treasures to be mined here already, and were the Bordwells to add still more material, we might not be able to lift this tome at all.

I used this book in a film studies class about four years ago and I kept it because of the wealth of information. For the first time I understood the different epochs of film not only in the U.S. but also around the world. I was introduced to a wider variety of international film and the work of Eisenstein, Renoir, Kurosawa, and others. I highly recommend this book for the concise language, easy explanations, and beautiful black and white and color reproductions from many films. This book is a page turner.

this is one of the most comprensive and clear books on film history. Just great to use it as a main reference book to college student