From one of the world's most acclaimed directors comes an absorbing and informative look at the evolution of American film and how the medium both shaped Scorsese's own artistic vision and influenced the whole of American culture. Hundreds of film stills, many in color, plus dialogue, quotations, and other sources add to and illustrate each chapter's overriding theme.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
An academically trained filmmaker (NYU film school) who is among today's most innovative directors, Scorsese presents an engrossing, idiosyncratic memoir of his experiences with motion pictures, including recollections of his first boyhood journeys to movie theaters and the impressions the films made on him. In analyzing American film since the silent era, he especially highlights Westerns, musicals, and gangster movies, genres that originated in America. As a freewheeling director who has shunned Hollywood, Scorsese is intrigued by maverick directors like Erich von Stroheim, who brought about their own downfall by bucking the system, as well as by the more effective iconoclasts who were able to produce great films while playing by the studios' rules. Though this volume is essentially the script of the successful 1995 TV series of the same name commissioned by the British Film Institute and later rebroadcast on PBS, and while the cinematic illustrations portrayed on the screen are obviously lost in book format, there is much here for the serious film student to consider. Recommended for academic libraries and cinema collections.?Richard Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An engaging and lavishly illustrated look at American film, from the master director. Based on the scripts of two documentaries on American film by Scorsese and writer/director Wilson, this is less a history than a catalogue raisonn‚ of the films that have shaped Scorsese's own works. He is a notoriously devoted film buff, and his knowledge of cinema is both encyclopedic and deeply, even humbly, practical: ``The more pictures I make, the more I realize that I really don't know. I'm always looking for something or someone that I can learn from.'' One of the rewards of this book is the number of filmmakers, such as Boetticher and Ulmer, and films, such as Silver Lode, that Scorsese retrieves from obscurity--the filmography at the end is not to be missed. As a director, he is understandably a strong proponent of the auteur theory and its emphasis on films as personal expressions. In fact, this book is organized around various modes and manners of directing, from the ``Director as Storyteller'' to the ``Director as Smuggler'' to the ``Director as Illusionist.'' Scorsese and Wilson's discussion of the difference between directors who worked subversively within the system (smugglers such as Fritz Lang) and those who worked against the system (iconoclasts such as Orson Welles) is particularly revealing, as is their analysis of the three uniquely American genres: musicals, Westerns, and gangster films. However, in line with this work's coffee table aspirations, Scorsese and Wilson often tend to favor ``let's go to the highlights'' film appreciation over rigorous film criticism. This book also suffers from its screenplay origins--it doesn't read nearly as well as it plays--but it is a worthy albeit idiosyncratic window on American film and its shaping influence on a major director. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommed book to supplement the programme,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (Hardcover)
This book is more of a transcript of the 4½ hour long master piece of the documentary, but it's curtainly worth the money. Here you have all the still pictures from the hundreds of film Scorsese comments in his programme. A book for every filmbuffs bookself.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful companion to the DVD.,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (Hardcover)
This extraordinary book on the last hundred years American cinema is an exceptionally well written, edited and researched document of the film, without any of the usual scholarly classroom didactics or conceited Hollywood self-congratulatory posturing. Scorsese's humble voice is evident throughout, and it is one of self-confidence, clarity and enthusiasm. The book is a wonderful companion to the DVD.
4 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
TYPICAL PICTURE BOOK,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (Hardcover)
YOU WOULD THINK THE AUTHORS WOULD WRITE SOMETHING. THEY PROBABLY TALKED AND TRANSCRIBED WHAT SCORSESE SAID. YOU FIGURE WITH A GUY LIKE SCORSESE THAT HE WOULD HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT HIS FAVORITE MOVIES AND THE MOVIES THAT INFLUENCED HIM SO MUCH. HE DOES NOT DO THAT IN THIS BOOK. IT IS FULL OF NICE PICTURES, BUT NOT MUCH AS INFORMATION GOES. YOU EXPECT TO LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT THE MOVIES HE LOVES BUT HE DOESN'T GIVE ANY USEFUL INFORMATION. HE PROBABLY THOUGHT THAT IF IT HAD A LOT OF GLOSSY STILLS OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIES THE BOOK WOULD SELL. THE THING IS THIRTY DOLLARS AND NOT REALLY WORTH IT. HE SEEMS TO BE SAYING THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER WHEREVER YOU READ ABOUT HIM OR SEE HIM ON TV. HE IS AN EXPERT BUT WHY DOESN'T HE SHOW THAT IN THIS BOOK. IT IS VERY VERY SKIMPY AND UNLIKE HIS MOVIES LACK CONTENT. IF HE SPENT MORE TIME WITH THE BOOK INSTEAD OF HAVING SOMEONE ELSE WRITE IT AND THEN CHECK AND OKAY THE BOOK, THE BOOK MAY HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE SOMETHING OF A GREAT BOOK ON FILM AND FILM HISTORY AS WELL AS THE FIRST GREAT FILM CRITICISM BOOK BY A WORKING FILM DIRECTOR SINCE THE BOOKS OF TRUFFAUT. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. WHAT HE SHOULD DO NOW IS REWRITE THE BOOK FOR THE PAPERBACK RELEASE. THIS BOOK IS NOT WORTH THE WEIGHT.
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