When some film buffs speak of "New Hollywood," they are referring to the artistic renaissance of the late 1960s and '70s, when directors like Scorsese and Coppola shook up the studio system; others use the label to describe the blockbuster phenomenon launched in the '70s by
Jaws and
Star Wars, and continued by even-more-corporate behemoths ever since. For King, the term encompasses both, and he ambitiously attempts to show how the Hollywood product of the past three decades differs from that of the studio era in filmmaking style ("post-classical," he calls the more recent kind), industrial context, and sociohistorical context. He has a good handle on both the commercial and the artistic aspects of cinema, which is necessary for comprehending the topic, and he states his case in an academic yet generally accessible manner. He gets theoretical at times, but through such effective procedures as a detailed comparison, down to each film's average shot length, of
Spartacus (1960) and
Gladiator (2000), he clearly demonstrates the progression--or regression--of the industry.
Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Library Journal
Examining American filmmaking from both a social and an industrial standpoint, King (media, Brunel Univ., West London) seeks to define the "New Hollywood." He begins with an analysis of key films from Tinseltown's Renaissance in the late 1960s (e.g., Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider) before exploring changes in the realms of film authorship, genre, stars, narrative vs. spectacle, and big screen vs. small screen (TV) in the 1980s and 1990s. His discussion of genre is one of the most reasonable to be found anywhere. Also illuminating is a comparison between Spartacus and Gladiator from such perspectives as director/camera detachment and average shot length (ASL). It will not surprise veteran moviegoers that Spartacus's ASL was 7.89 seconds while Gladiator's was 3.36. (King also realizes that Gladiator bears much resemblance to 1964's The Fall of the Roman Empire.) This work, which may be supplemented by Ray Greene's more downbeat Hollywood Migraine: The Inside Story of a Decade in Film, confirms that British film historians generally outperform their American cousins. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.
Kim Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
