The New Biographical Dictionary of Film [Hardcover]

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...

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.

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.