Customer Reviews

Steven Spielberg (Pocket Essential series)

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Poorly written, riddled with descriptive errors, padded with verbatim redundancies and IMDB boilerplate. Easily the worst book on film I have ever paid money for. (I had wanted to buy something cheap so I could test out my new Kindle...) When Clarke's descriptions aren't categorically inaccurate they are simply banal, plausible-sounding generalities. His technical vocabulary is on par with a Film Studies sophomore. His industry diagnostics are as authoritative as your average user comment on Ain't It Cool News. The book feels like a throwback to film studies monographs published in the early 60s, when the high-profile emergence of auteurism spiked public demand for director profiles but the publishing houses did not yet have editors in place who could distinguish between insightful criticism and empty hack-jobs. I googled Clarke's name and was shocked to see that he teaches at the university level. To the tenure committee at Hereford College of Art: take note.