Customer Reviews

Film/Genre

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a groundbreaking study, sure to change thinking about the notion of genre, within film studies and beyond. The book is also written with a wonderful sense of humor, even though this is a serious study. Don't pick this up if you just have a light interest in genre films, but if you want to think long and hard about the very category of genre itself. I'd say the book was worth owing for the massive bibliography alone.

Too be as short as possilbe: Anybody who is even slightly interested in the field of genre theory should read this book.

It doesn't matter if you're a genius or not if you can't communicate with everyone else. Rick Altman needs to go back to school and learn how to write. To be be fair though the man does raise interesting and important points on Genre Theory, but again such knowledge is useless if it cannot be discerned from the large amounts of fluff he has in this book as filler. He never gets to the point and the points he does have can be summarized very easily.

One man's opinions blown up to textbook proportions is what this book is centered on. Altman assumes an ignorant reader in his spotty descriptions of genre and its development and subsequently deluges the reader with bizarre references and highly conservative opinions presented as well-understood fact. Genre history is touched upon but never developed, and chapter divisions are somewhat random. What Altman chooses to develop is never fully realized and his reasoning is less than understood.

i found it to be empty. liked information, but had difficulty in furthering