The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen [Paperback]

Nick Clooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2003

Nick Clooney, one of America's most respected film critics and historians, presents a distinctive catalog of movies that have influenced and altered not only the world of cinema, but also the world in which we live.

Since the advent of moving pictures, there have been films that exist as more than just entertainment. These rare movies have touched the collective soul of the public with such passion and artistic skill that they have actually changed the way we view life, history, and ourselves. Some have transformed the way movies are made and viewed -- and some have actually transformed us.

In The Movies That Changed Us, Clooney explores, explains, and theorizes upon twenty films -- reaching from 1998 back to 1915 -- that forever shifted our perceptions about race, religion, sex, politics, and the very definition of humanity. From the ambitiously epic -- though manifestly racist -- Birth of a Nation, to the controversial violence of Taxi Driver, to the mythic idealism and visual cornucopia of 2001:A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, Clooney relates the stories behind the camera in an informative, engaging, and personal chronicle of cinema and society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Few things in Hollywood get the movie-going public more riled up than lists. The American Film Institute's ranking of the 100 greatest flicks, for instance, touched off a firestorm of protest when it was released. Now film historian and former American Movie Channel host Clooney joins the fray, with his roundup of 20 movies that changed American culture. They're not necessarily the best ones, he says, but they all sparked something in the country's social or political consciousness. On the list are some gimmes (Dr. Strangelove; The Graduate), some correct but unsavory picks (Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will) and some surprising exclusions (Saving Private Ryan gets in, but Apocalypse Now doesn't-come again?). With each selection, Clooney offers a brief plot summary, and then demonstrates how the movie altered America-or at the very least, Hollywood. Taxi Driver, for instance, inspired John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt, while Star Wars "changed the way we make movies." Clooney's arguments are convincing enough, but many of the entries share a lame coda: that the movie "changed things." It's particularly heartening to see him resuscitate old gems, though; films from the '30s (e.g., Boys Town and Morocco) take up a full quarter of the list. "The story of film is far from over," Clooney notes, as if the noted movie buff can't wait to pen a sequel. Readers might quibble with his list, but then, that's half the fun. Agent, Joanna Pulcini.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this extremely readable work, Clooney, former host of the cable channel American Movie Classics, examines one German and 19 U.S. films that "changed us," with content that was either on top or ahead of the curve. Thus, a great film like Citizen Kane does not make the cut, as it did not change society, but Boy's Town, The Birth of a Nation, and Taxi Driver do. Each of Clooney's short essays underscores why one particular film profoundly affected the viewing audience, for better or worse, whereas thousands of other merely "entertained." Some readers may question whether a film was really so influential, but Clooney is thought-provoking, and his occasional interviews with the original film personnel are alone worth the price. An interesting accompaniment to more scholarly studies of audience reaction, including Passionate Views, edited by Carl Plantigna and Greg M. Smith, and Janet Staiger's Perverse Spectators, this is highly recommended for all cultural studies collections.
Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ., TX
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books (November 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743410440
• ISBN-13: 978-0743410441
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,109,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clooney changes our ways of looking at movies, February 2, 2003

By 

Don F. Dunwell (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen (Hardcover)

To be truthful, Nick Clooney doesn't really change the way we look at movies. Rather, he provides some profound insights into movies and how they affect us. By doing so, you'll never see a movie as you formerly did after reading the book. For he spotlights how certain movies, special movies that stand alone, change the way that we see the world, conduct our lives, create our moral benchmarks, even peer into our own souls.
If you're seeking movie reviews, this book will take you beyond the ordinary parameters that we've come to expect and thrust you into a realm where you will ponder the immense power of this medium.
For me, personally, one of the most telling chapters dealt with Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." The movie has always been high on my list of well-made, powerful expositions on the seamier side of our political and social underbelly. But, after reading Clooney's insights into this "movie that changed us", I can clearly see the reverbrations that it has wrought in our world.
Clooney writes with verve and wisdom, two qualities not always joined together. For the film aficianado and those intrigued by social history, this book is a must. It is a book that will provoke discussion and argument, but for which we are all richer for having read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Nifty Concept, Poorly Executed, September 16, 2005

By 

A. Bowdoin Van Riper (Vineyard Haven, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen (Hardcover)

Few movie fans will dispute Nick Clooney's underlying point: That some movies change the way we, the audience, looks at the world. A wonderful book could be written around that idea, each chapter tracing the impact of a different movie. _Movies That Changed Us_ is, unfortunately, not that book.

Clooney's grasp of historical context--or, to be charitable, his presentation of it--is too narrow and too shallow to do justice to the points he's trying to make. If you're going to make the case that a movie "changed us" you have to be able to draw the Before and After pictures in convincing detail. You also have to be able to show that the movie itself was a catalyst for change . . . not just an indicator of larger forces that actually brought the change about. Clooney (especially when writing about changes outside of the movie business) frequently fails to do this,

The chapter on _The Graduate_ suggests that Clooney recognizes this problem. He argues that the movie (with its jaded view of romance, sex, marriage, and social norms) "killed the romantic comedy." It's an interesting argument, but what if the same shift in attitude that made _The Graduate_ incomprehensible to the middle-aged parents of 1967 made the romantic comedies of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s incomprehensible to their kids? Clooney never even considers the possibility.

The same problem sinks the chapter on _The Big Parade_, one of a cluster of films from the twenties and early thirties that painted war as bleak, unheroic, and tragic. Clooney credits such films with making the West slow to move against Hitler . . . but couldn't the too-fresh memories of 10 million young lives lost in a pointless war have been behind *both* the films and the hesitancy to go to war again? Clooney never stops to ask.

The book also suffers from sins of omission: Connections that seem so obvious and important you can't imagine why Clooney doesn't mention them. Why argue that the "Omaha Beach" scene in _Saving Private Ryan_ is powerful because of its realism, and *not* contrast it with the far more "Hollywood" battle scenes later in the picture? Why spend a chapter on the 1964 anti-war movie_Dr. Strangelove_ and not connect it to the nuclear-disarmarment movement that had been gaining strength since 1946? Why write about the impact of _Star Wars_ and talk only about computer-controlled cameras . . . not the "summer blockbuster" category that it (and _Jaws_) more or less created?

I study and write about popular culture for a living, but when I bought this book I *wasn't* expecting a scholarly tome. I was looking for something entertaining and thought-provoking to read at lunch . . . unfortunately, it isn't even a good lunchtime book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, January 29, 2003

By 

Chris Ward (Stamford, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen (Hardcover)

Nick Clooney's book is entertaining, informative and insightful. After reading this book you will never look at classic films the same way. Highly recommended.