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Adult Books - Nonfiction - Arts - Movies & Television
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Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.
Harris, Mark (author).
Feb. 2008. 473p. Penguin, hardcover, $27.95 (9781594201523). 791.43.
REVIEW.
First published January 1, 2008 (Booklist).
Film critics and historians can turn out some of the deadliest prose on the planet, so when the odd Pauline Kael or David Thomson rises above the stereotype, it’s always a cause for celebration. Add Mark Harris to the short short list of film writers who can tell a story. And what a story it is! Harris uses the Academy Award nominations for Best Picture of 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Doctor Doolittle) as the lens through which to view the cultural revolution of the late 1960s as it affected the movies. Moving back and forth in time in the manner of some of our best narrative nonfiction fiction writers (from John McPhee to Laura Hillenbrand), Harris tracks the genesis of each of the five movies as they came to reflect the building war between Old and New Hollywood: Doctor Doolittle, of course, represents the old way, a mediocre, big studio musical determined to milk the last possible dollar from the cash cow that was Sound of Music, while Bonnie and Clyde, the brainchild of two precocious Esquire editors, was unquestionably the avatar of the New World. The backstory on the films never fails to fascinate—a perfect blend of cultural commentary and film-business analysis—but the miniportraits of all the personalities (from dying Spencer Tracy to fish-out-of-water Dustin Hoffman to wunderkind director Mike Nichols to dozens more) are unfailingly spot-on, always delivering something about these overexposed celebrities that we didn’t know or hadn’t thought about in just that way. No contest, this is one of the best film histories ever written. Don’t miss it.— Bill Ott
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Features That Discuss This Work:
1. Notable Books : 2009
2. Booklist Editors' Choice : Adult Books, 2008
3. Top 10 Arts Books : 2008
4. Top of the List : 2008
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