The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960

It’s a surprise to find that a textbook more than thirty years old is not only still relevant, but also a pleasure to read.Bordwell and his colleagues show how economic, technical and cultural factors joined to create what they call the classical Hollywood movie. They define that form as emphasizing continuity of character, time and location, all tied together by cause and effect. The Hollywood movie hews close to the Aristotelian dictum that nothing should be in the presentation that does not further the narrative. (The reference to the philosopher is mine, not the authors.) The book is beautifully written with logically and clearly developed analyses to show how the authors reached their conclusions.To insure that they were not just taking the “big” movies as indicative of the Hollywood style, the authors almost randomly selected 100 movies from a list of almost 30,000 made between 1915 and 1960. (I say almost because certain movies were excluded either because they were not made in the United States or because prints were not available.) At first I was skeptical of using this kind of statistical method, but I soon relented. The authors were able to show the similarities between below “B” movies and what we now call blockbusters.I was a bit disappointed at first that the period covered ended in 1960 before the advent of steadicams, Dolby sound and non-linear editors. Yet the discussion of how the introduction of tungsten lighting, sound and new screen ratios changed the Hollywood movie while the basic form still survived made it easy to infer how these later developments changed movies while enabling the same movies to keep to the classical form.The book deals not just with technical change but also with phenomenon that effected movie aesthetics like the move from the studio system to the independent producer system, the union structure of the work force, and even a publication like “American Cinematographer” (The magazine of the American Society of Cinematographers).The book has two sections of smallish black and white illustrations. I recommend a second bookmark at these images to ease flipping back and forth.Many students of cinema have heard how Gregg Toland used deep focus to create the look and art of Citizen Kane, yet the authors call attention to the fact that other cinematographers of the time were using deep focus; that Toland was criticized by his peers for the fancy camera work; and that in later years Toland moved away from the more extreme forms of the technique.By clarifying exactly what the Hollywood style is, this book has changed some of the ways I watch cinema. Deeper awareness of the classical model has not only allowed me to more critically watch Hollywood movies, but has also led me to distinguish how art movies, European movies, and experimental movies differ from the Hollywood model.

If you love classic cinema you will enjoy this text. Great images and information on the origins of cinema through the end of the Golden Age.

Got this book for a film class I was taking in college. It provided me with what I needed, at the best price online.

This is the quintessential history of Hollywood at its peak.

Probably the only book of this sort; ambitious as it is informative, well written and wide in the scope of research; a true classic in the field of cinema history...Obligatory reading for all who want to understand, study or write about American cinema; BOTH classical and contemporary, the book is also useful to other students of cinema...

This is a real marathon to get through.The pages are unusually set out in 2 columns and each page seems like you are reading 2 pages.It at times is very heavy going,with too many unintelligible academic phrases.It is far too heavy to carry around so I read it in bed to help me get to sleep.It spends a very long time in the silent era.More than half the book had passed before it got to the sound era.I felt that it did not deal with the introduction of sound in sufficient detail,whereas lighting had too much space devoted to it.There are some good and well written chapters,but these are outweighed by the dull ones.

Arrivato in una confezione di carta plastificata tutta aperta e libro ovviamente rovinato. A parte questo, il libro sembra interessante, un bel mattoncino, non l'ho ancora iniziato.

Important book if your a film scholar but much too dense for the average reader. This is much more an academic textbook rather than historical look classical Hollywood cinema.

A classic in its field, it's pretty much unavoidable if you're studying Film