The Great Movies II [Hardcover]

Roger Ebert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

From America's most trusted and highly visible film critic, 100 more brilliant essays on the films that define cinematic greatness.

Continuing the pitch-perfect critiques begun in The Great Movies, Roger Ebert's The Great Movies II collects 100 additional essays, each one of them a gem of critical appreciation and an amalgam of love, analysis, and history that will send readers back to films with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm—or perhaps to an avid first-time viewing. Neither a snob nor a shill, Ebert manages in these essays to combine a truly populist appreciation for today's most important form of popular art with a scholar's erudition and depth of knowledge and a sure aesthetic sense. Once again wonderfully enhanced by stills selected by Mary Corliss, former film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, The Great Movies II is a treasure trove for film lovers of all persuasions, an unrivaled guide for viewers, and a book to return to again and again.

Films featured in The Great Movies II

12 Angry Men · The Adventures of Robin Hood · Alien · Amadeus · Amarcord · Annie Hall · Au Hasard, Balthazar · The Bank Dick · Beat the Devil · Being There · The Big Heat · The Birth of a Nation · The Blue Kite · Bob le Flambeur · Breathless · The Bridge on the River Kwai · Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García · Buster Keaton · Children of Paradise · A Christmas Story · The Color Purple · The Conversation · Cries and Whispers · The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie · Don’t Look Now · The Earrings of Madame de . . . · The Fall of the House of Usher · The Firemen’s Ball · Five Easy Pieces · Goldfinger · The Good, the Bad and the Ugly · Goodfellas · The Gospel According to Matthew · The Grapes of Wrath · Grave of the Fireflies · Great Expectations · House of Games · The Hustler · In Cold Blood · Jaws · Jules and Jim · Kieslowski’s Three Colors Trilogy · Kind Hearts and Coronets · King Kong · The Last Laugh · Laura · Leaving Las Vegas · Le Boucher · The Leopard · The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp · The Manchurian Candidate · The Man Who Laughs · Mean Streets · Mon Oncle · Moonstruck · The Music Room · My Dinner with Andre · My Neighbor Totoro · Nights of Cabiria · One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest · Orpheus · Paris, Texas · Patton · Picnic at Hanging Rock · Planes, Trains and Automobiles · The Producers · Raiders of the Lost Ark · Raise the Red Lantern · Ran · Rashomon · Rear Window · Rififi · The Right Stuff · Romeo and Juliet · The Rules of the Game · Saturday Night Fever · Say Anything · Scarface · The Searchers · Shane · Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs · Solaris · Strangers on a Train · Stroszek · A Sunday in the Country · Sunrise · A Tale of Winter · The Thin Man · This Is Spinal Tap ·Tokyo Story · Touchez Pas au Grisbi · Touch of Evil · The Treasure of the Sierra Madre · Ugetsu · Umberto D · Unforgiven · Victim · Walkabout · West Side Story · Yankee Doodle Dandy

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At times, Ebert's second collection of 100 essays on great (but not, he's careful to point out, the greatest) movies reads like an anthology of recycled reviews from his Chicago Sun-Times column, especially when he gets talking about the bonus features on DVDs. But anyone looking for a crash course in cinema viewing—regardless of whether they've been through Ebert's first Great Movies collection (published in 2002)—will find plenty of rewards here. Some of the selections may be obvious (12 Angry Men; West Side Story), but Ebert constantly surprises, not just in the foreign film selections but in the elevation of cult favorites such as the "bizarre masterpiece" Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. In praising older films, Ebert often takes the opportunity to criticize modern Hollywood, and his attacks can get snarky (for example, is it really unthinkable that Annie Hall would beat out Star Wars for an Oscar if they came out today?). Given Ebert's preferences, it's not surprising that fewer than a dozen American movies from the last two decades make the cut. Some of his choices are sure to spark debate; two Japanese cartoons, for example, may strike some as excessive, especially since the treatment of live-action Japanese directors barely extends past Kurosawa. Then again, it's hard to imagine a better purpose for such an anthology than getting people talking about—and watching—movies. 100 b&w photos. (Feb. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When Ebert, inarguably the nation's most prominent and influential film critic, published the first Great Movies (2002), he stressed that it wasn't intended to canonize the "100 best." The second collection of his loving celebrations of films that rise above the pack bears out that claim. The lineup here is equally strong, encompassing Hollywood classics vintage (The Grapes of Wrath, King Kong) and modern (Annie Hall, Mean Streets), silent movies (Birth of a Nation, Sunrise), and foreign masterworks (Rules of the Game, Children of Paradise). Ebert demonstrates the breadth of his taste by including several animated features, including the Japanese animes My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. In contrast to his daily newspaper reviews, written on deadline and usually after a single viewing, these pieces reflect Ebert's long, thoughtful, informed familiarity with these films. His impeccable credentials as an accessible populist encourage thinking that his recommendations of such elevated fare as stroszek and Au Hasard, balthasar may be taken to heart by mainstream moviegoers who avidly follow his newspaper and TV reviews. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1St Edition edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767919505
• ISBN-13: 978-0767919500
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Ebert is the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic from the Chicago Sun-Times. His reviews are syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and Canada. The American Film Institute and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago have awarded him honorary degrees and the Online Film Critics Society named his Web site (rogerebert.com) the best online movie review site

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Great Movies II" is Great, February 18, 2005

By 

Bob Reece (Frederick, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Movies II (Hardcover)

As always, Roger Ebert does not let his readers down with his new book, "Great Movies II." Like its predecessor, "Great Movies I", "II" looks back at films that were released before Ebert started writing film reviews for the "Chicago Sun-Times."

Ebert reviews many of my all time favorites in this book -- "The Searchers", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Paris, Texas" and so many more.

Most of you probably only know Ebert through the television program, "Ebert & Roeper." If so, you're loosing a luxury of great film critique writing that Ebert provides through the Chicago newspaper and online at http://www.rogerebert.suntimes.com.

Ebert does not just review films - just about anybody can do that, instead, he analyzes them and shares with the reader something deeper found in the film than one may ever realize. The reader is left with a deeper appreciation not only of the movie reviewed but also of the art of filmmaking in general.

I hope that Ebert will continue to grace us with his film thinking in future volumes as well.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some Surprises Liven Up a Typical "Critic's Choice", September 25, 2005

By 

Trevor Seigler (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Movies II (Hardcover)

Roger Ebert isn't your typical movie reviewer; he takes the time to evaluate a film, highlight its good points and bad, and let you know what he really thinks of it (as opposed to some studio-paid shill who automatically praises whatever's sent down the pipeline). And Ebert collects some of his favorites in "The Great Books II", a continuation of the previous collection from 2002. To be sure, there are plenty of obvious "artistic classics", but it's the suprises that make this a worthy read.

Ebert's reviews are presented alphabetically, with no frills. It's his writing that he's known for (apart from his show with the late Gene Siskel and now Richard Roeper), and that's what carries even the more boring choices. Heavy on French New Wave and Japanese cinema, sometimes the book could get to be too much for people looking for a casual recommendation. But even if you get tired of hearing about Godard, Cocteau, and every single French or Italian director who ever lived, there's plenty else to keep you interested.

It's the surprises that make this book work for me; who would've thought that a critic with the esteem of Ebert would give time to movies like "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles"...and not only talk about it, but praise it? As Ebert admits in the introduction, these aren't necessarily the *greatest* movies, but they're great for what they represent, what they speak about, and what they mean to continuing generations of people who discover them for the first time. "Spinal Tap" gets equal play to "Rashomon", "Scarface" is praised *for* Al Pacino's performance (most other peer reviewers cited him as the reason it didn't work), and "Say Anything", "Moonstruck", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "Saturday Night Fever" get some well-deserved praise.

What Ebert is doing with these reviews is that film criticism doesn't have to be "All Truffaut, All The Time"; you bring to a review what you like about the film, and what makes it work for you. And that's true whether you're talking about Nigel Tufnel's guitar amps or Ingmar Bergman's camera angles and lighting choices. Ebert proves you don't have to be a snob to be a film critic. It's your perspective, anyway, that's all that should matter as long as you bring intelligence to it and can back up your position.

To be sure, Ebert's affection for foreign films gets to be a bit much, but the point is that he wants to expose readers not only to the obvious choices for any aspiring film-lover but to those films that he loves, and why. If he leads you to seek out some obscure flick that he praises for three pages-worth of the book, then he's done his job. And if you come away from it understanding why he chose to include the film in a book titled "The Great Films", then it's time well spent.

Roger Ebert does first-rate criticism not only on the films that everyone would expect, but also on the films that few would think merit "serious" criticism. That's what makes "The Great Movies II" such a delight. And that's what makes Roger Ebert the greatest at his craft.

So pick up "The Great Movies II", and hope that "The Great Books III" is just as good.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific read for any fan of film, February 21, 2005

By 

Craig (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Great Movies II (Hardcover)

While Ebert's annual collection of reviews make for an enjoyable read, this second collection of "great" movies, like the first, is an essential for the movie fan.

One of the reasons I enjoy Ebert's film criticism is that he's open to finding something good in movies from all genres, never showing the bias that I see from too many critics. That range shows in his choices here, which run from classics like "The Grapes of Wrath" to brilliant works of anime like "Grave of the Fireflies." I've always thought of Ebert as the "common man" among movie critics, and this book furthers that reputation.

Each entry is given 3-4 pages of discussion, and a picture is also included from each film. More than just a review, these entries explain what makes each film "great" in Ebert's view. While I might not agree with every selection, it's difficult to argue with his reasoning for their inclusion. For all films, he looks beyond the obvious reasons for greatness, focusing on cinematography in individual scenes, music selection, and other items that are often overlooked by those of us who have only seen the film once.

I get the feeling Ebert has hundreds more of such films on his list, so I'll forward to the next collection. With excellent writing and strong arguments, I'd highly recommend this volume for any movie fan.