From Library Journal
In this informative and entertaining work, Haberski (history, Marian Coll.) uses historical perspective, logical and chronological structure, and an unassuming but convincing voice to trace the shifting role of movies in American culture. The representations from significant social and film critics (Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, and others) are well selected, and fresh insights are gleaned from archival sources. Haberski examines the "lively art" in a lively fashion, centering not on the content of movies but on their positioning in the contrived hierarchy of the arts. Accounts of the epic challenges faced by Theodore Dreiser in making An American Tragedy into a film, Iris Barry's establishment of the film collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and Lincoln Center's launch of its first film festival are revealing and engaging. The work's culmination in an atavistic lament over the current "vanishing of cultural authority" and the powerlessness of critics is forgivable because of its contagious delight in the wit, wisdom, and words of the critics who shaped American film culture. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Ann Fey, Rockland Community Coll., Suffern, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"This brilliant feat of cultural storytelling re-stages a running tussle between traditional ideas about high Art and spontaneous popular appreciation that has wracked English-language film writing."―Audience Magazine
"A splendidly researched and argued account of American film criticism's first golden age."―Bright Lights Film Journal
"Producing an interesting survey of familiar ground from a unique perspective, Haberski has written a book that will serve both serious students of the cinema and those looking for an introduction―a fine achievement."―Choice
"In this fine study of movies and cultural critics, Raymond Haberski does what few other writers on the subject manage: He places the endless debates over the cultural value of movies within the larger question of what culture should be. . . . A good read and an important work."―David Steigerwald
"A provocative study. . . . While there are many titles dealing with film culture, It's Only a Movie! takes the subject much further and ponders the strangest of societal phenomenon, America's love affair with motion pictures, the ramifications of this media in kneading contemporary thought, and the relevance of aesthetics in an information age."―Film & History
"The author raises some fascinating and controversial issues about filmmaking, such as how a director can become a genuine artist while turning out commercial pictures in the factory atmosphere of a film studio."―Gene D. Phillips
"My hope is that somehow―despite television, the Internet, and the flood of bland journalism―the old critical prowess can be revived. There was gallantry in that chivalric jousting, even if the knights were frequently errant."―John Simon, National Review
"Haberski's survey of film criticism makes compelling reading, covering a subject on which rather little has been written."―Journal of American History
"Thought-provoking and meaningful. . . . If you are interested in 20th-century American culture, art, sociology or, most importantly, film, then you will want to take a look."―Lexington Herald-Leader
"In this informative and entertaining work, Haberski uses historical perspective, logical and chronological structure, and an unassuming but convincing voice to trace the shifting role of movies in American culture."―Library Journal
"This is the story of how an entertainment became an art―how people learned to take movies seriously without losing the pleasure movies give. It's a longer and more complicated story than it might seem, touching on many personalities and ideas, and, in doing it full historical justice, Raymond Haberski's book tells us something, as well, about how American culture acquired its self-confidence."―Louis Menand
"A must-read for critics and would make a sure-fire addition to the library of movie buffs everywhere."―Online Film Critics Society
"If you like thinking about movies, rather than just sitting for some entertainment, and are interested in the American history of film criticism, this is a book you will enjoy."―Schmack
"Engages with issues of fundamental concern to anyone with an involvement in film studies."―Sight and Sound
"This witty take on the importance of movie marketing includes excepts from influential critics such as Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris."―Variety
"Examines the origin of film criticism, exposes the critics who got a little too critical and even explores whether cinema is an art worthy of critique."―Video Age
"The story Haberski tells has, in current Hollywood parlance, a good arc."―Wilson Quarterly
From the Inside Flap
What happened to the movies? Elevated from their origins as nickelodeon amusements to the pantheon of the arts by critics in the 1950s and 60s, they are often derided today as senseless entertainment. Even Roger Ebert has lamented, "An art form will forever be in a separate category if you can attend it while eating Twizzlers." In It's Only a Movie! Raymond J. Haberski traces the rise and fall of film as art, from its early twentieth-century beginnings to the modern age of the financial blockbuster. Haberski begins by looking at the barriers to film's acceptance as an art form, including the Chicago Motion Picture Commission hearings of 1918-1920, one of the most revealing confrontations over the use of censorship in the motion picture industry. He then shows how movies overcame the stigma associated with popular entertainment through such watershed events as the creation of the Museum of Modern Art's Film Library in the 1930s and the heated battles between movie critics Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris in the 1960s.
Kael and Sarris's arguments heralded a golden age of criticism, and Haberski focuses on how Kael, Sarris, James Agee, Richard Schickle, Roger Ebert, and others, created "cinephilia." Described by Susan Sontag as "born of the conviction that cinema was an art unlike any other," this love of cinema flowered around coffee houses, universities, art theaters, film festivals, and, of course, foreign films.
The lively debates over the place of movies in American culture began to wane in the 1970s, and in provocative and insightful prose Haberski blames the critics' loss of cultural authority and the increasing irrelevance of the meaning of art. He concludes with a persuasive call for the re-emergence of a middle ground between art and entertainment, "something more complex, ambiguous, and vexing-something worth thought."
From the Back Cover
"Haberski does what few other writers on the subject manage: he places the endless debates over the cultural value of movies within the larger question of what culture should be. The essays on Theodore Dreiser and Pauline Kael are masterful . . . . Neither an apologist nor a snob, Haberski relies on consistent common sense. . . . a good read and an important work."-David Steigerwald, author of The Sixties and the End of Modern America "In the course of addressing important questions about the declining influence of movie critics in American society, Haberski challenges us to deal with conflicting views of popular cinema as art and as entertainment. He offers an opinionated and discussion of a subject that has received surprisingly little attention."-Robert Toplin, University of North Carolina Wilmington "The author raises some fascinating and controversial issues about filmmaking, such as how a director can become a genuine artist while turning out commercial pictures in the factory atmosphere of a film studio."-Gene D. Phillips
About the Author
Raymond J. Haberski Jr. is assistant professor of history at Marian College in indianapolis.
