Customer Reviews

A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1980

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The book's title alludes to the 1954 essay by Francois Truffaut, "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema," in which Truffaut describes the "current" trends in French cinema and calls for a change. He, along with Godard, Rivette, Varda, Rohmer et. al, proceeded to enact a French cinema revolution -- the nouvelle vague. It is in this spirit that Ray outlines a certain "tendency" of classic Hollywood cinema: a formal and narrative paradigm. Ray's book is a brilliant tour-de-force analysis of the persistant ideological and formal registers that have come to define the "classic" Hollywood style. He begins with the 30s, with the codification of the studio system style, and moves to the present of the book's publication. Ray provocatively moves from an analysis of narrative conventions -- the frontier/western story, such as the much-adapted Huck Finn, as a persistent theme in American cinema -- to a shot-by-shot breakdown of the conventional Hollywood scene. Implicitly, the book, like its forebear, asks for some sort of shift in the seemingly intransigent formula that has become the Hollywood movie. How does the "same" Hollywood movie bespeak the same American ideology? The book has proved invaluable to me as a lover of movies as well as someone who wants to speak/think astutely about film. Each time I dip into the book, I am rewarded by a new insight. And, after reading a number of scholarly film books, I can say that this is one of the best written. Hey, the guy is a beautiful writer! For those of you who don't want to "think" about movies, this is not a film-for-fun book; it's for those who take movies seriously as an aesthetic/ideological form. And, as its been in print for twenty-years, it clearly is one of the most important books in American film scholarship.

While I have always enjoyed going to the movies. I know little about them on an academic level. Reading Ray's book gave me a new understanding and higher appreciation for movies. After reading this book I was able to enjoy watching a movie more because I understood the art better. He has keen insight and I truly enjoyed reading his book. At times however the text was complex and caused a small amount of difficulty for me. But the extra work put in reading this book is well worth it. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the movies and is interested in learning more.

A Certain Tendancy of the Hollywood Cinema is without doubt one of the finest books that I have ever read. Ray enlightens and entertains like a true master. Ray's crisp prose opens up a new world of understanding and thought about Hollywood. He makes old ideas seem new while providing new ones. Anyone who has ever seen a movie should read this book. After reading this book, you will never view the silver screen the same way again. Movies will become infinitly more enjoyable as you understand them on the deepest levels of their creators. A Certain Tendancy of the Hollywood Cinema is a true tour de force.

This is the worst book I have ever read on film. Ray waxes philosophical and intellectual over film exhaustively, yet fails to understand film as an art. "A Certain Tendency" is only applied to films from the pre 1980's period, I can only assume this is because his theories are lost and become broken when applied to modern film. This book could have been a well written fifty pages if Ray abstained from numerous, short sighted examples of his failed theories.

I unfortunately had the pleasure of using this text in conjunction with a Contemporary Film class. This book cannot be used for what Hollywood Cinema has become or was becoming in the 1970's. If you happen to take a class in which this book is required and you love movies for their entertainment or art, drop the course. Any instructor who assumes the mantle of Ray's theories cannot have appreciation for and assign value to films as artistic texts.

However, if you like the idea that all film is a simple regurgitation of the like themes, characters, and faceless historical contexts; and that film in itself can never be compelling and original; and that film can never truly teach, inspire, or edify...then this book is for you. It's central theme of "Avoidance of Choice" on the thematic level (i.e. film always makes an attempt to satisfy two contrasting ideologies and present them as cohabit, like individualism and collectivism; meaning film never promotes the value of one over the other), is confusing, contradicting, and above all exhausting.

Ray is an articulate writer, favoring long, multi-syllable words used in a mind-boggling context of confusion often eliciting the feeling that he is a desperate theorist, grasping at straws to support weak, simplistic ideals. While his intelligence is genuine, his consumption in a background of English, and most likely rhetoric, makes for an un-compelling dissection of film and their meaning.