Movies Books

This book is one of the better for a Star Trek's fan. In their chapters are many sketches and original pieces of the series. The designs of Matt Jefferies for the sets, (Part1), the design of the original Enterprise, (- born almost like a Warbird?-, Parts 2,3 & 4), the shuttlecraft and the weapons (Parts 5 & 6). Brillant the Part 7 with The Lost Set and the original scale model of it, (great ! ). The following chapters show the wardrobe by William Ware Theiss in sketches and tests, the make-ups of Fred Phillips (the ears of Spock, the green skin and deformity of Vina, klingons, romulans, etc.), and the accessories created by Wah Ming Chang, (did you know that he received a payment of U$S 520.00 for the design of the original phaser ?). This book shows the courage and innocence of those first pioneers that created the most famous adventure of the Universe, Star Trek.

Book Two explains even further the history of the Protoss, and brings forth the legacy of Adun (which Starcraft players will recognize from 'En Taro Adun'). While the author never fully explains where this 'Ulrezaj' comes from, the story makes up for it with a good storyline and a climatic battle in the end.

Also, for people who are looking forward to Starcraft II, this book would be a good read since it's starting to hint at possible connections to the upcoming game. For anyone who's seen the Terran singleplayer trailer for SC2, you'll remember Zeratul mentioning something about a secret that threatens the whole universe. In "Shadow Hunters", the preserver Zamara inside Jake Ramsey also mentions a secret that will threaten all existence. Connection? Maybe. The book also gives a lot of insight on the character of Valerian Mengsk (son of Arcturus Mengsk), who is supposed to play a pivotal role in SC2.

How could this book be anything less than great, it has the greatest subject matter, STEVEN SPIELBERG!

I read in a recent magazine article on a well-known, old-time film director of a war between critics and moviegoers. A war? First I've heard of it. Generally speaking, classic movies that received ecstatic reviews from the majority of critics went on to achieve equal acclaim from the general public. My book examines many such films in detail from all three versions of "Back Street", through "From Here To Eternity" and "The Jolson Story" to "Sunset Boulevard", "Teacher's Pet", "Union Pacific" and "Wells Fargo". The reverse is also true to some extent. Both critics and public hated "Applause" when it was first released. Although the movie has now gained a considerable cult reputation, the majority of critics still don't like it. Admittedly, however, there have been a few notable disagreements between critics and public. "All My Sons" is such a proposition. The public hated it, but the critics gave it the green light and I tend to agree with my colleagues. On the other hand, "Adventure" is still a movie we critics all actively dislike, but John Q. Public showered with money (nearly $10 million, to be exact) when it was initially released. But perhaps tastes change. It's often said the films that stormed the box-office 50 years ago would be lucky to take in a few cents today. Frankly, I disagree. I think pictures like "A Place in the Sun" or "A Letter to Three Wives" or "Mr Smith Goes To Washington" would still create a box-office bonanza.

The Screen: A Communication Block Buster
The Church and the Screen : A Short History
An Experiment in Christian Screen Criticism
Dream and Reality: A Psychology of Viewership
Viewing and Discussing a Feature Film
Using the Short Films
Critical Viewing of Television
Children, Youth, and the Screen
Notes
Appendices:
Books and booklets for Further Study
Sources of Film Discussion Guides
Film Rental Sources
A Partial Listing of Relevant Films and Shorts

This book is about Ubu films, Australia's first experimental film makers who was the brain child of Albie Thoms. Well before PM Gough Whitlam resurrected the Australian film industry with generous grants dished out soon after he came to power in December 1972, Ubu films had been making experimental films and screening them in Sydney, often at the student cinema at Sydney University. Ubu was located in an unprepossessing cellar in Redfern, a Sydney suburb, which was a lot tougher and less fashionable than it is now. Ubu was also the unsuspecting nursery for a number of cultural movements whose influence extended well beyond its tiny offices. That cellar also, due to Albie's kindness, was the cellar from which Sydney's first true underground, experimental and psychedelic magazines ("Chaos" and "Lucifer") were produced by Stephen Skinner. These magazines were printed on a press associated with Inky Stephenson, an old friend of Aleister Crowley.
It is interesting to note that Stephen Skinner later migrated to London, where, with magazines still in his blood, he produced a number of magazines for the late Robert Maxwell, before striking out on his own to produce Healthy Living, Goldlife, XL magazines and Feng Shui for Modern Living. What he learned about magazine production in the Ubu cellar in Sydney fuelled him, in the same way that Felix Dennis learnt his craft helping to produce Oz magazine in London.

Finally, a sophisticated, imaginative and substantial collection of essays on the novel for a new generation of scholars, students, and people interested in literature. Professor McKeon has done a terrific job of balancing classic founding essays, the latest contemporary thinking, and unique (even adventurous) perspectives on a genre for which he is an established expert. McKeon's scholarly home is the 18th century, where he has been celebrated for his own contribution to the theory of the novel. In this collection, he has deftly moved his choices between standards like Ian Watt, E.D. Hirsch, Joseph Frank, and Northrop Frye, modern critics like Georg Lukacs, Marthe Robert and Walter Benjamin, and contemporary theorists like Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon, and Kwame Anthony Appiah. What emerges is an often fascinating look at the varied ways the novel has been understood as both literary genre and cultural product throughout its history. Not only will this be an instant hit for teachers of literature, for whom it will provide a flexible and inspiring framework, but for anyone who delights in ideas and the contemplation of culture--this will be their book to take to that desert island.

Just finished this book and was hoping to order the next in the series
but can't find it. Hope they are still writing these books!!

By the Grand Master of American Historians, the late Bruce Catton and his son William.

In "Two Roads to Sumter" the Cattons brilliantly analyze how the Kentucky roots of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis molded their character and their Allegiance to the Union, but also why those two great men chose to walk down different roads in the quest of keeping the United States united.

Always thought of as a kind, gentle man - which he indeed was, Lincoln nonetheless emerges from the Catton work as someone in the Sam Waterston (himself a Lincoln admirer of great standing) lawyer role on "Law and Order" - passionate, yet a pragmatist - and someone who was willing to compromise as he was to stand firm on principle. Lincoln detested Slavery, and was willing to do all he could to preserve the Union - but he chose to be pragmatic in those crucial, fatal months between the outcome of the 1860 election and the firing on Fort Sumter - staying quiet up to the inauguration, and appearing to be uncertain in those last two months before Beauregard gave the order to open fire. David Detzer in "Allegiance" has criticized the great man for this approach, submitting to the reader that a Jacksonian approach to the South might have prevented war.

But - it might have forced the "war hawks" hands much sooner, and that point is well taken by the Cattons. Their premise is that the South was ready and willing to go to war - and might have felt that way from the Kansas-Nebraska Act on. Unlike Detzer, the Cattons applaud Lincoln for staying the course, and being the brave and true man he was.

By contrast Jefferson Davis - who was described by Sam Houston as being as "ambitious as Lucifer" - and with his pointed beard even bore a sad resemblance to him, comes off better than he has at the hands of other historians. The Cattons were among the first to show that while Davis was uncompromising in his views on Slavery and state's rights, he was a fervent believer in the Union who unlike Lincoln had actually shed blood in battle for this nation. They describe his outstanding tenure as Secretary of War in Franklin Pierce's administration; his role in the Gadsen Purchase, in establishing the Camel Corps, in urging the building of railroads across the country. In all this Davis took the high road of country first, region second, even if he was also bettering the South.

When push came to shove however, Lincoln chose the Union, while Davis eventually became an uncompromising acolyte of secession and the south as a separate entity, even if his initial decision to leave the U.S. Senate and declare for a Confederacy was a reluctant one.

An immensely readable history of the story of two Americans - Lincoln and Davis, and the events leading up to the Civil War. To be placed alongside the three great titles on Secession and Fort Sumter - Detzer's "Allegiance"; Swanberg's "First Blood", and Klein's "Days of Defiance".

And put it back together again.
There are many good books on the market that specialize one or two aspects if films and/or the film industry. However this book "Understanding Movies" by Louis Giannnetti, takes you from near ground zero to a good understanding of such aspects as:
Photography
Mise en Scène (pronounced meez on sen, with the second syllable nasalized)
Movement
Editing
Sound
Acting
Drama
Story
Literature
Ideology
Theory
The films used for examples range from classics to contemporary. You will have seen most if not all of them. The author did not go off in some mission to describe some weird out of the way movie. This helps you focus on the subject being discussed.
A side benefit is that this book is a great picture book to remember your favorite movie and occasionally the one you missed.