Customer Reviews

A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been teaching college film studies courses for about twenty years and I have been using Cook's book that whole time. It's an amazing effort which covers over a century of cinema from virtually every corner of the globe. Each edition has become larger and more exhaustive. So now we come to the fourth edition and I start to wonder when do we get TOO large and exhaustive?

The book is over 900 pages long. There are twenty-one chapters. Too much for a semester-length course - probably too much for two courses! I'd estimate there are ten thousand names (film titles and filmmakers). As an instructor, I look at it all and ask myself where do I even begin cutting to make it manageable for my classes? As a student, I'd guess you would ask, "how much of what I'm paying for am I going to actually read and learn about?" Seventy dollars isn't too bad compared to other college books of this length, but if you only read a third of it...?

A lot of film classes, sadly, my own included, tend to give you the greatest hits - the same fifty or so classics and nothing more. Cook rejects this and offers you literally hundreds of films that sound fascinating and make you want to see them. However, he seems so concerned not to exclude anything, that he name-drops. He'll devote a section of the book to films from a particular country and you get the impression, he's never seen them himself. He's just including them so the book won't be incomplete. There's no easy answer. He could ignore that country's cinema entirely and someone would criticize that decision. Instead he goes on and on about films you'll never see and won't be learning anything about.

I have a few personal criticisms of the new edition. Disney's animated films, he claims, are beyond the scope of the book, but then he discusses Japanese anime at some length. He has a section devoted to "splatter" exploitation films which includes pictures of a decapitated woman, a man with a drill going through his head and something really, really bloody coming out of ... well, you get the idea. If it were me, I'd cover Disney and skip the splatter section - or at least show fewer pictures. Am I just too old fashioned?

Cook has an especially difficult job with current world cinema. Like any other aspect of history, how do we really know what contemporary films are going to be classics fifty years from now and which will be forgotten? I agree with him some of the time: his detailed analysis of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I disagree sometimes too: do you really think Moulin Rouge is going to be considered a "landmark" film even a decade from now?

Finally, a plea, not just to David Cook but to all cinema book authors: Stop including shot by shot break-down photos from classic films! Do you really think we need to see A DOZEN PAGES of the Odessa Steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin?!! Can we all agree that video now makes these films readily available to any film buff and certainly to any college offering a cinema class? There are SIXTY photos taken from Citizen Kane alone. I know it's supposed to be the greatest film ever made, but won't readers just go out and see it for themselves?

So for the film fan who wants an entire college-level education on world cinema in a single volume, I cannot recommend this edition highly enough. For a student choosing cinema as a major, or for their graduate studies, it's going to be a great resource. But I envision two other people who may be reading this book. One's a student standing in line at the campus bookstore overwhelmed and demoralized by the sheer size of the thing in the shopping cart. The other is an instructor like me, who's wondering how I'm ever going to chop this opus down to something usable.

This book has a ton of information; but I challenge you to extract that information without pulling your hair out first. It was a required text for class and I dreaded every assignment from it. It has pages that are well organized and communicate information and interest very well. But, it also has pages and pages and pages that read like a first draft or outline, complete with unexplained tangents. The author and his editors have such a thorough knowledge of the subject that they miss the numerous and illogical side trips they make in the text. Side trips would be fine if the core message were clear. To be a truly effective teaching tool or an efficient reference, this book needs to be overhauled, restructured, redesigned, and re-indexed.

i bought this for my international film class. It does a thorough job of explaining each movie and each important scene. It spans from early film making to pretty much and other film in this industry. The author does a good jub at giving the readers useful information about each different era too. I didn't understand some of the text, i thought it was kind of hard, but all in all not a bad book.

I purchased this book for my "20th Century Cinema" class in College. I liked it enough to keep it.

Very well organized but could have more information in each item.
Gives a good overview of the history of cinema and about names who had a role in it

I recieved this book in less than 48 hours after purchase via Media mail! Described as very good, the paperback had a crease on the front cover but there were no marks in the book so I agree with description. Priced very low. The package looked like USPS dropped it out of the truck and ran over it a few times but the book inside was not damaged because of the tough envelope and bubble wrap. This is my first purchase of a used book here and I am Completely satisfied.

This book is great for those who want to study the history of film, or are interested in film making at all.

This book reads like a novel rather than like a textbook. The writing is charming and the content is fascinating. To whomever criticised the daunting size of the book, I say this: Use whatever you want. Students should learn to filter what they read and separate the essential from the trivial. This is a reference volume, not a capsule.

I was amazed that one reviewer prefers a more tangible and less complex format for this book. I just pray that the reviewer meant no real disrespect. This is a history book man, not a comic book. Don't expect this book to fascinate your five-year old niece. As far as history books go, it is accurate, to the point, and interesting. Mise-en-scene and montage? This book contains, good, comprehensible definitions of mise-en-scene and montage. Perhaps you need to read the book carefully. Or recommend another volume that is better, why don't you?

like! shipped in good time (for standard shipping) and book was in really good condition.

the book was just as described and in perfect condition. fast shipping. a great transaction--would definitely buy from this seller again!