Movies as Politics by Jonathan Rosenbaum


Movies as Politics
Title : Movies as Politics
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0520206150
ISBN-10 : 9780520206151
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 350
Publication : First published May 31, 1997

In this new collection of reviews and essays, Jonathan Rosenbaum focuses on the political and social dynamics of the contemporary movie scene. Rosenbaum, widely regarded as the most gifted contemporary American commentator on the cinema, explores the many links between film and our ideological identities as individuals and as a society. Readers will find revealing examinations of, for example, racial stereotyping in the debates surrounding Do the Right Thing , key films from Africa, China, Japan, and Taiwan, Hollywood musicals and French serials, and the cultural amnesia accompanying cinematic treatments of the Russian Revolution, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. From Schindler's List, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Piano , and Ace Pet Detective to the maverick careers of Orson Welles, Jacques Tati, Nicholas Ray, Chantal Akerman, Todd Haynes, and Andrei Tarkovsky, Rosenbaum offers a polemically pointed survey that makes clear the high stakes involved in every aspect of filmmaking and filmgoing.

Movies as Politics Reviews

  • Justin Decloux

    The shakiest tome of Rosenbaum writing.

  • Alin

    This book could be divided into three parts:
    criticising mainstream media and movies from a leftist point of a view (a subject Rosenbaum will later dedicate a whole book: Movie Wars)analysing well known art house films and recommending and offering details about hard to find films.
    His criticism of american media,ranging from critics to the distribution system didn't quite appeal to me as an european,and I think that if you are reading this book or are familliar with the this critic and his views you aren't likely the kind of man who likes Ace Ventura or will fooled by false ads.That is of course an important message but the author misses the crowd.
    The articles dealing with movies you can easily find (Solaris,the films of Leo Caraux,Schindler's list,Playtime) are the best ones,because his insights on them are well researched and well written,offering us a new way of looking at them and at movies in general.
    I haven't seen many of the more obscure treats so I can't judge those movies,but his writing on them is as good as in the rest of the book.I think for recommendations the internet is better source,as Rosenbaum writes colums on this subject both on his website and on DVD Beaver.
    What's the best thing about the book ? It's writing style.The prose is rich and references encourage the reader to document them in other places.
    It's weak side:it doesn't know for whom it's written for ? The casual watcher or the hardcore cinema fans ?
    This book is worth reading,but I hope other books by this critic will be more universal in their treatment of "politics".

  • Blair

    This collection changed the way I thought about fim criticism. I leaned on it HARD when I published my first essay, "In Defence Of Film Criticism". Rosenbaum is the Orwell of film criticism, in the sense of economy of language.

  • Luke

    One of my favorite books about movies. Includes a hilariously scathing review of Star Wars, which always rings true even to a lifelong fan like myself.