- Paperback: 1008 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; REV edition (Nov 16 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375709401
- ISBN-13: 978-0375709401
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.8 x 5.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#228,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #60 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Reference & Collections
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs who disagreed with London-born critic Thomson's strongly opinionated summations. This latest upgrade which includes 300 new entries promises to do the same. Thomson retitled it, he says, "because so much is fresh and different." Now that the reference includes talents who've shot to fame during the past decade or so, including Renee Zellweger ("great range") and Ben Affleck ("boring, complacent and criminally lucky to have got away with everything so far"), it is truly massive, running the gamut from Abbott and Costello, who achieve the "lyrical, hysterical and mythic," to Ghost World's Terry Zwigoff, "a rare, individual voice". A critical minimalist, Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words, such as Johnny Weissmuller: "No subsequent Tarzan ever matched him the loincloth was retired." He deftly distills entire movies down to single sentences, with Internet-like linkages. Since his Haley Joel Osment profile sneaks in a critique of Spielberg's A.I. ("Osment was uncannily good as the robot/puppet coming to life, but ultimately betrayed by the inability of his director to keep control of the very ambitious material"), the hypnotized reader feels compelled to seek his lengthier comments on Spielberg: "Schindler's List is the most moving film I have ever seen." After the publication of a 1994 edition, the Internet Movie Database became one of the book's major competitors, linking nearly a half million performers with over 260,000 titles, but one still turns to Thomson for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With an immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb into the very soul of film. Agent, Laura Morris. (Oct. 11) Forecast: Older readers will want to replace their earlier edition with this one, while an author tour, radio giveaways and advertising in the New York Times Book Review and Film Comment will attract a new generation.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
First published in 1975 and updated in 1981 and 1994, this dictionary returns with 300 new entries, mostly on emerging actors and directors from the last decade (e.g., Luc Besson and Reese Witherspoon), bringing the total to 1300. Film scholar Thomson (Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick) offers extensive but not comprehensive coverage, with entries ranging from a couple of paragraphs to several pages. He seems to write about whoever interests him, leaving some unexplained gaps. For example, he profiles Jeff Bridges but not father Lloyd or brother Beau and includes a fine tribute to the late critic Pauline Kael but ignores Roger Ebert. The book contains a lengthy appreciation of TV talk show master Johnny Carson that probably doesn't belong here. Like other serious film writers his age, Thomson admits that he no longer finds movie-going the "transforming experience" it once was, adding "I think I have learned that I love books more than films." This probably shapes some of his outspoken opinions. For example, writing about Tommy Lee Jones's recent career, he says, "He became coarse or was it depressed? and you felt he had lost faith in the business as his checks grew bigger." Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies covers far more figures, in less detail than Thomson, though Thomson seems to value opinions as much as facts. Some readers may resent Thomson's dismissal of Paul Newman or John Ford's "appallingly hollow" Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley ("a monstrous slurry of tears and coal dust"). Halliwell's remains the first choice for a ready reference in film biography collections. If budget permits, large public libraries and college film collections should consider Thomson's book as a browsing title owing to its trenchant, sometimes witty, prose and its up-to-date coverage. Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great argument starter, if nothing else,
By fml66 "fml66" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (Hardcover)
Yes: this book is going to tick off a lot of people. Thomson's style and criticism are an acquired taste. I bristle and shake my fist at a number of his opinions. I don't think Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson and Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman are great actors; Thomson does. Thomson has contempt for many of the directors and actors I respect and love. He thinks Humphrey Bogart is "a limited actor, not quite honest enough with himself." He calls Orson Welles a "charlatan." He calls the incomparable Hitchcock "an impoverished inventor of thunbscrews who shows us the human capacity for inflicting pain, but no more." He idolizes lesser-known directors like Yasujiro Ozu and sniffs condescendingly at celebrated figures like Akira Kurosawa. Yet, Thomson makes no pretense that he's writing for everybody. Nor did Pauline Kael, for example, make such pretense. As Thomson himself writes, "Indeed, the stance taken here as your needling, provocative, argumentative companion at the movies takes it for granted that in the reading you will begin to compose your own response." That says it all. Some people read film critics because no matter how much you disagree with them, they have something worthwhile, witty, thought-provoking, or just plain infuriating to say. Why else read film criticism at all? This book is a nearly thousand-page rollicking journey through some of the major figures of film, and it belongs on every film lover's shelf. I pick it up and refer to it often, and want to throw it across the room almost as often.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Challenging Book!,
By
This review is from: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (Hardcover)
David Thomson is the gadfly of film criticism. He has gathered his thoughts into his biographical dictionary, now in its fourth edition. His dictionary, however, is like no other biographical dictionary. Compare it, for example, with Ephraim Katz' "The Film Encyclopedia," which is also mostly a biographical dictionary, and which I couldn't imagine being without. Katz' bios are long and leisurely. For noteworthy film people Katz tells in detail their life stories from cradle to grave, including comments about the important films in their career (always about their circumstances and how they were received generally by audiences and critics rather than his own evaluation), and ends with a long, usually complete, film list. I can sit for hours reading Katz, always being led from one biography to another. I am informed, I am entertained, but I am not challenged. Katz and his successors (Katz passed away in 1992) are historians more than critics, at least in "The Film Encyclopedia." Thomson, on the other hand, doesn't devote a lot of time to the life story. What he does offer is a very idiosyncratic analysis of his subject's work. If you wish, he writes critical professional biographies. His critical analyses are usually at variance with the common wisdom and challenge the reader at every step of the way. One has to ponder what Thomson has written with almost every sentence. Katz is wonderfully informative about the indisputable facts of a film person's career. Thomson is wonderful about making you think about the parts that are disputable. If Katz helps us to become better informed, Thomson helps us to grow as film lovers.I would not be without Thomson's biographical dictionary any more than I would be without Katz' film encyclopedia. No other book makes me think as much about film. No other book can cause me such dismay, because I come to fear that my earlier opinions were completely off the mark and that I had understood nothing. Sometimes, in fact, they ARE off the mark, and sometimes they are simply different from Thomson's. There are a number of directors whose works I own almost completely on DVD or VHS and that I thought I understood. That was before I began reading the various editions of Thomson's dictionary. I am less smug now, a little more confused, and, perhaps, a lot closer to the truth (if there is one). Is "Under Capricorn" really among Hitchcock's greatest achievements? I'm still not convinced, even if Thomson is. And there are times too when I think that Thomson is too fussy, too atuned to what his subject's work lacks rather than to its special qualities, the frequent bane of critics. I doubt that Thomson would mind my differing judgments, but I don't think he would want me to make them facilely. Read Thomson with great profit... and at your peril. Fortunately for David Thomson, being forced to drink hemlock went out with the Athenian state more than two millenia ago. Fortunately for us, he keeps producing new and larger editions of his wonderful challenging book. I wonder if he likes animals and little children...
4.0 out of 5 stars
Annoying, in a wonderful sort of way,
By
This review is from: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (Hardcover)
In the era of the Internet Movie Database, one may wonder what use a film encyclopedia could possibly have. After all, the IMDB can cover far more ground, provide a far wider range of information than any film book could. And it never needs to be reissued. Yet, the latest version of Thomson's work proves there still is use for a good film reference book. Thomson's book may lack the width of IMDB but it beats it in terms of depth. Filled with bite-sized insights and concise explanations about movie people from D.W. Griffith to Reese Witherspoon, this is a work of passion, precision and knowledge. No one will agree with him on everything, even on most things. But, his skill at argument makes his opinions impossible to dismiss, and he rarely seems unfair. He recognizes when he represents the minority opinion on a subject (as with director John Ford, whom he has little admiration for) and rarely dismisses an interesting subject out of hand.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
