The Movies That Changed Us
Reflections on the Screen
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Nick Clooney, one of America's most respected film critics and historians, presents a distinctive catalog of movies that have influenced and altered not only the world of cinema, but also the world in which we live.
Since the advent of moving pictures, there have been films that exist as more than just entertainment. These rare movies have touched the collective soul of the public with such passion and artistic skill that they have actually changed the way we view life, history, and ourselves. Some have transformed the way movies are made and viewed -- and some have actually transformed us.
In The Movies That Changed Us, Clooney explores, explains, and theorizes upon twenty films -- reaching from 1998 back to 1915 -- that forever shifted our perceptions about race, religion, sex, politics, and the very definition of humanity. From the ambitiously epic -- though manifestly racist -- Birth of a Nation, to the controversial violence of Taxi Driver, to the mythic idealism and visual cornucopia of 2001:A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, Clooney relates the stories behind the camera in an informative, engaging, and personal chronicle of cinema and society.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Few things in Hollywood get the movie-going public more riled up than lists. The American Film Institute's ranking of the 100 greatest flicks, for instance, touched off a firestorm of protest when it was released. Now film historian and former American Movie Channel host Clooney joins the fray, with his roundup of 20 movies that changed American culture. They're not necessarily the best ones, he says, but they all sparked something in the country's social or political consciousness. On the list are some gimmes (Dr. Strangelove; The Graduate), some correct but unsavory picks (Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will) and some surprising exclusions (Saving Private Ryan gets in, but Apocalypse Now doesn't-come again?). With each selection, Clooney offers a brief plot summary, and then demonstrates how the movie altered America-or at the very least, Hollywood. Taxi Driver, for instance, inspired John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt, while Star Wars "changed the way we make movies." Clooney's arguments are convincing enough, but many of the entries share a lame coda: that the movie "changed things." It's particularly heartening to see him resuscitate old gems, though; films from the '30s (e.g., Boys Town and Morocco) take up a full quarter of the list. "The story of film is far from over," Clooney notes, as if the noted movie buff can't wait to pen a sequel. Readers might quibble with his list, but then, that's half the fun..
