Customer Reviews

Movie Game Book: A Serious Pursuit Of Film Trivia

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The title is a misnomer - Movie Game Book: A Serious Book of Film Trivia. Yes there is a single trivia question listed every other page in the border and yes every 10 pages or so there are two pages which test your film knowledge via question and answer. But the other 8 page of each 10 are two page outlines of various film related subjects and themes - everything from important directors, to influential ideas (e.g. McCarthyism) to specific film studios.

So, as the bulk of the film is a film studies outline - if you have an interest in short but interesting capsules - I would recommend it. Particularly if you don't have a Hollywood-centric view of films. World films, directors and studios are significantly covered and one of the more enjoyable aspect of the book.

Some of the language is less than polished as it was obviously transcribed from a French edition. They could also do with a bit of proof checking. For example, on the subject of film blockbusters they list Gone with the Wind with 11 Oscars when it won 8 Oscars and another two wins were plaques - the math still falling short of 11. Yet on the next page they mention that Titanic with 11 Oscars beat Gone With The Wind's total. The writers/editors also do too much editorializing. It's fine to have a home country bent but when you are on the topic of film "Blockbusters" and you write "From The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) to The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, 2004), great spectacles have been Hollywood's pride and glory. A Frenchman, nevertheless, has managed to match them: Jean-Jacques-Annaud. Always energetic and spectacular, whether in an anthropomorphic saga (The Bear), a thriller set in the Middle Ages adapted from Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose), or in joyful pursuit of the tribe of the Ulams in Quest for Fire." Point being that if you are writing about true blockbusters in film history when you start discussing The Name of the Rose (and spend one quarter of the two pages allotted to do it) you truly have lost perspective.

Ending on a positive note, the book is absolutely loaded with beautiful black & white and color prints of film scenes along with film posters, star photos and the like. The shots are quite beautiful and well presented on good quality paper. One only wishes the footprint of the book were slightly larger to show these terrific shots off even more.