Book Description
In this insightful book, one of America's leading commentators on culture and society turns his gaze upon cinematic race relations, examining the relationship between film, race and culture.
Norman K Denzin argues that the cinema, like society, treats all persons as equal but struggles to define and implement diversity, pluralism and multiculturalism. He goes on to argue that the cinema needs to honour racial and ethnic differences, in defining race in terms of both an opposition to, and acceptance of, the media's interpretations and representations of the American racial order.
Acute, richly illustrated and timely, the book deepens our understanding of the politics of race and the symbolic complexity of segregation and discrimination.
Book Description
American cinema has always been violent, and never more so than now: exploding heads, buses that blow up if they stop, racial attacks, and general mayhem. From slapstick's comic violence to film noir, from silent cinema to Tarantino, violence has been an integral part of America on screen. This new volume in a successful series analyzes violence, examining its nature, its effects, and its cinematic and social meaning.
Book Description
Richard Vaughn's account of the development of the American movie rating system situates contemporary cinema within the turbulent context of the history of censorship, America's cultural wars, and the impact of new technologies that have transformed entertainment. Based on the private papers and oral history of Richard D. Heffner, who headed MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration for two decades, from 1974 to 1994, it chronicles the often tense working relationship between Heffner and Jack Valenti, the long-standing currently 83 year old President and Chief Executive of the Motion Picture Association of America. It also documents the sometimes bruising encounters Heffner had with such Hollywood heavyweights as Clint Eastwood, Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, George C. Scott, Lew Wasserman, Arthur Krim, Jerry Weintraub, and many others. Heffner's memoirs reveal the conflicted behind-the-scenes history of the American movie rating system from the perspective of a man once called "the least-known most powerful person in Hollywood". Stephen Vaughn has taught the history of communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, since 1981. His previous books include Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics (1994), The Vital Past: Writings on the Uses of History (1985), and Holding Fast the Inner Lines: Democracy, Nationalism and the Committee on Public Information (1980). He is General Editor of a three-volume Encyclopedia of American Journalism, and has published a two-volume annotated bibliography in electronic format.
Book Description
For more than 30 years, the action movie has been the film genre that most represents Hollywood to the world, as action films find blockbuster success at box offices internationally. Still, the genre seldom receives the critical attention it deserves. Studying its trends, key components, and visual excesses, this new and expanded edition of Action Speaks Louder traces the genre's evolution to reveal how it has come to assume its place of prominence in American culture. With scores of in-depth case studies--including films such as Dirty Harry, RoboCop, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Armageddon, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, and The Incredibles--author Eric Lichtenfeld draws on film analysis, production histories, critical responses, studio marketing materials, and original filmmaker interviews. Up-to-date and comprehensive, Action Speaks Louder is the definitive study of the movies' most kinetic form of fun.
Customer Reviews:
update of comprehensive, insightful, timely study of action films.......2007-09-05
Lichtenfeld has worked both in making films and as a film critic and commentator, including doing extra features for DVDs of several action films. He sees this popular film genre as "derived from the Western, film noir, and the police procedural (with special guest appearances made by the disaster film and others [with an evolution] quite analogous to the horror film." Though many films depict violence and mayhem, the action film is distinguished in that it ushered in a "new violence [which] would be deployed more to pleasure audiences than to jar them." This "new violence" came about from a shift in standards marking a "New Hollywood" and related changes in structures and pacing of films and cinematographic techniques such as lingering on the violence by slow-motion and close-ups. It is these and other elements, not merely the violence and plotting, which account for the new genre of the action film. The cluster of elements reflected changes in the culture's psychic relationship with violence and what it looked for in entertainment. Bonnie and Clyde is pointed to as a seminal action film, with the films Billy Jack, Shaft, and The French Connection closely related to it in paving the way for the action film by demonstrating its popularity and giving guidance for filmmakers. Advertising, publicity, and marketing of action films has as much a part in the author's multifaceted study of this major contemporary film genre as film history, film editing, and cinematography. References to numerous action films over the past couple of decades make for enjoyable as well as engaging and stimulating reading.
Bang Bang Philosophy.......2007-08-10
Useful because it shows there is a deeper level of impact than just the shoot 'em up bang-bang to the typical action picture.
Required Reading.......2007-06-25
Lichtenfeld's book is required reading for anyone interested in the contemporary action film. Beyond its obvious merit as the best book available on the genre, I can recommend it as a model of genre criticism. I've used this as a text in my course on action cinema at Wesleyan where I teach it as an exemplar of genre studies. Lichtenfeld offers a compelling thesis about the genre's popular/cultural appeal without losing sight of industrial imperatives. This book does much to balance to often overly theoretical writing on the subject by offering a grounded, historically-minded account. Moreover, Lichtenfeld's critical observations are spot on, and his descriptions of scenes and sequences will send you back to the films again and again. The additions to the new edition further shore up his argument and expand the scope of films. It is also a fun read!
An action fan's dream.......2007-05-27
Being both a lover of film and a student of history, you can imagine my interest in this book. Who can deny the impact movies have had on the 20th (and now 21st) century? And what type of film most exemplifies what movies are capable of? Action, brother. Action.
I was introduced to this book and this author through a radio talk show I heard recently. Mr. Lichtenfeld came across as extremely intelligent, likeable and very knowledgeable about his subject matter. I immediately ordered the book from Amazon.
I read it through in one weekend (it's so accessible to even non-film students) and I couldn't believe how much I learned about movies that I had watched over and over again all my life. Mr. Lichtenfeld treats the topic with reverence without once losing the joy of what makes these movies great: the characters, the chases, the explosions and, of course, the lines. His breakdowns of each landmark film and his separation of them into specific categories makes it so easy to follow the development of the action genre over the last half century.
Even the bad films (my apologies, Mr. Seagal), of which there are many, are used as examples of the importance and social influence this genre has had on recent generations. They're all in here: science fiction, superhero actioners and even westerns, of which I have a particular fondness, are discussed.
I will pass this book on to my other film-loving friends with my highest recommendation. And now I'm off to watch 'Lethal Weapon' for the 56th time, albeit with a new outlook.
Finally action movies get their due! It's about time.
Yippy Ki Yay...!.......2007-05-27
Considering how dominant the action film is in American popular culture, it's pretty astounding how little serious scholarship there's been about this important genre, outside of feminist rants (albeit justifiable), or overly intellectualized, post-modern deconstructions written by and for the miniscule audience of academics. ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER is the rare book which is written for the rest of us - for the educated, curious movie-goer who wants to think more seriously about movies we know and might even love.
While he's not above placing films in their historical context, or speculating about their larger meanings and their influences on society, author Lichtenfeld never loses sight of the fact that these movies are commercial enterprises - mass entertainments made within the confines of a commercial marketplace. He explores creative choices made by filmmakers and writers, and the book is peppered with interviews. Aware that form is content, Lichtenfeld delves into the stylistic features of the movies. He also explores how technological advances patently change the nature of these movies.
ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER combines the details fans love (think of a great DVD commentary) with serious scholarship. And best of all, it's highly readable (think extended New Yorker article) - not bogged down by the obfuscating, post-modern jargon that dominates academia. Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- hardhead or hothead
- Reality=?
|
The Blood Poets
Jake Horsley
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810836696 |
Book Description
This thought-provoking and insightful study of 40 years of American violent cinema ties together the multiple disciplines of psychology, criminology, censorship, and anthropology. The study is divided into two volumes: Volume 1: American Chaos, From Touch of Evil to The Terminator, and Volume 2: Millennial Blues, From Apocalypse Now to The Matrix. Horsley raises a new dialogue between scholars and movie buffs as readers struggle to find their own answers to the connection between the need to portray and the need to watch violent films.
Customer Reviews:
hardhead or hothead.......2001-02-18
"Jake Horsley seems to arrive from out of nowhere, yet here he is--an almost fully-developed and only slightly stoned sensibility. This hothead fantasist offers the excitement of a wild, paranoid style. he lives in the movies, explodes them from the inside, and shares his fevered trance with us. But he doesn't lose his analytic good sense. he's not just a hothead, he's a hardhead, too. Maybe he could use more humor, but couldn't we all? (Intelligent movie criticism is being swamped in seriousness.) He's a marvelous critic. Tackling a new movie, he'll hang in there until he's balanced and sound. It's always a surprise."-Pauline Kael,
Reality=?.......2001-02-14
Although the book may get some what dilirious at some points it certanly shoes a more alternative revue to alot of movies that we all thought where out there. You get a feeling that the author is in one way trying to distroy Hollywood but still shoes appraisiasion to Hollywood movies. I would get it to show you an alternative side to movie revues.
Average customer rating:
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Violent Affect: Literature, Cinema, and Critique after Representation
Marco Abel
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 080321118X |
Book Description
Violence: most of us would be happy if we never had to experience it, and many are driven by the belief that nonviolent spaces exist. In Violent Affect, however, Marco Abel starts from a different, potentially controversial assumption: namely that violence is all-pervasive by ontological necessity. In order to work through the implications of this provocation, Abel turns to literary and cinematic works such as those by Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Harron, Patricia Highsmith, the Coen Brothers, and Robert DeNiro, contending that we do not even know what violent images are, let alone how they work and what they do.
Countering previous studies of violent images based on representational and, consequently, moralistic assumptions, which, Abel argues, inevitably reinforce the very violence they critique, Violent Affect instead turns to the concept of “affect” as a means to explain how violent images work upon the world. Arguing for what he calls a “masocritical” approach to violence, Abel’s analysis attends to the affects inherent to violent images with the goal of momentarily suspending judgment of them, thus allowing for new, unanswered critical questions about the issue of violence to emerge. Abel suggests that shifting from representational understandings of violence toward an account of its affective forces is a necessary step in developing more ethical tools to intervene in the world—for acting upon it for the betterment of the future.
Book Description
While Weber, Spohr, Mendelssohn, and Berlioz were all conductors of repute, it was the thoughts and practices of Richard Wagner that laid the foundation for the modern virtuoso conductor. Though he was more celebrated for his dramatic operas, Wagner’s experience as a conductor brought a set of practices and principles that affected the interpretations of future generations, and conductors continue to pursue his example today.
This book examines Wagner’s conducting career and the principles of his musical performance. It then tracks the central European style through some of the greatest figures of modern music—Nikisch, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Weingartner, Furtwangler, Toscanini, Walter, Klemperer, Beecham, Boult, and others through to von Karajan, Bernstein, and George Szell. In each case Holden, himself a professional classical conductor, traces the rise from apprenticeship to international acclaim, comparing rehearsal technique, the baton, eye contact, repertoire, tempo, recordings, vision, style, and performance practice. The result is a deeply informative, intriguing, and highly readable portrait of the finest exponents of the conducting tradition.
Average customer rating:
- Wagner the Conductor
- wagner knows his stuff
|
Wagner on Conducting
Richard Wagner
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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On the Performance of Beethoven's Symphonies and Other Essays (Dover Books on Music)
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Score Reading: A Key to the Music Experience
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Treatise on Instrumentation
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Handbook of Conducting
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The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (Cambridge Companions to Music)
ASIN: 0486259323 |
Book Description
Wagner initiated Romantic image of the conductor as fiery, omniscient dictator of the podium. Here are his eloquent essays on role of the conductor, musical interpretation, many other topics. Still exciting and valid for the modern reader.
Customer Reviews:
Wagner the Conductor.......2001-06-08
This fascinating little book started life as a newspaper article titled "Uber das Dirigiren" in 1869. Wagner directed it at instrumentalists and vocalists, rather than conductors.
It is a practical record of Wagner's experience as a conductor. Besides being a composer, Wagner was a kapellmeister of considerable experience. During his lifetime, the job of conductor was undergoing tremendous change. It is quite interesting to read Wagner's thoughts on the subject.
Highly recommended.
wagner knows his stuff.......2000-04-11
as a student of conducting i think this is an excellent book describing all their is to know about the craft.
Average customer rating:
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On Conducting
Richard Wagner
Manufacturer: IndyPublish.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1404354131 |
Book Description
The older conductors of this stamp if they happened to be less gifted than those mentioned, found it difficult to cope with the complications of modern orchestral music--mainly because of their fixed notions concerning the proper constitution of an orchestra. I am not aware that the number of permanent members of an orchestra, has, in any German town, been rectified according to the requirements of modern instrumentation.
Download Description
The older conductors of this stamp if they happened to be less gifted than those mentioned, found it difficult to cope with the complications of modern orchestral music--mainly because of their fixed notions concerning the proper constitution of an orchestra. I am not aware that the number of permanent members of an orchestra, has, in any German town, been rectified according to the requirements of modern instrumentation.
Average customer rating:
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On Conducting: A Treatise On Style In Execution Of Classical Music
Richard Wagner
Manufacturer: Reprint Services Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0781201136 |
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