Editor - Steven Jay Schneider
Summary: This is probably a good book for those who want to start viewing some classic films. The selection is OK but the film write-ups are rather weak, for film write-ups I'd recommend "Kael's 5001 nights at the movies".
And as shown by the analysis below, the book has 4 flaws. First, they try to diversify film selections by time, so each decade gets more or less the same number of films - even though quality films aren't spread evenly out over time. Second, they pick a little bit of everything from every genre and every country. Thirdly, the authors prefer "serious" and "edgy" dramas to entertainment. So, Comedy/Musicals/Adventure/Westerns get short shrift.
Finally, too many "Milestone" pictures are selected. Yes, its nice that picture "Y" knocked their socks off in 1962, or that picture "X" - was the first to do blah blah, but so what?
Analysis:
Pages by Decade:
1920s: 56
1930s: 82
1940s: 91
1950s: 122
1960s: 145
1970s: 143
1980s: 125
1990s: 108
2000s: 53
Films by category (Labels not exclusive):
Comedy -250
Musical - 60
Westerns - 40
Noir - 50
Horror -120
Drama -600
Films by Director:
Bunuel - 9
Hitchcock -18
Ford - 8
Godard - 8
Altman - 6
Kubrick - 10
Cassevetes - 4
Woody Allen - 6
Speilberg - 8
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