Thinking about Movies

A complete introduction to analyzing and enjoying a wide variety of movies, for film students and movie lovers alike Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying, Fourth Edition is a thorough overview of movie analysis designed to enlighten both students and enthusiasts, and heighten their enjoyment of films. Readers will delve into the process of thinking about movies critically and analytically, and find how doing so can greatly enhance the pleasure of watching movies. Divided roughly into two parts, the book addresses film studies within the context of the dynamics of cinema, before moving on to a broader analysis of the relationship of films to the larger social, cultural, and industrial issues informing them. This updated fourth edition includes an entirely new section devoted to a complete analysis of the film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, along with many in-depth discussions of important films such as Citizen Kane and Silence of the Lambs. The chapter on television integrates a major expansion distinguishing between television in the digital era of the convergence of the entertainment and technology industries in comparison to the era of broadcast analogue television. The final chapter places film within the current context of digital culture, globalization, and the powerful rise of China in film production and exhibition. The authors clearly present various methodologies for analyzing movies and illustrate them with detailed examples and images from a wide range of films from cult classics to big-budget, award-winning movies. This helps viewers see new things in movies and also better understand and explain why they like some better than others. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying, Fourth Edition is ideal for film students immersed in the study of this important, contemporary medium and art form as well as students and readers who have never taken a class on cinema before.

List of Figures ix How to Use This Book xvi Acknowledgments xix About the Companion Blog xxi 1 Introduction 1 Fatal Attraction and Scarface 2 Narrative Structure 27 Jurassic Park and Rashomon 3 Formal Analysis 61 Rules of the Game and The Sixth Sense 4 Authorship 87 The Searchers and Jungle Fever 5 Genres 111 Sin City and Gunfight at the OK Corral 6 Series, Sequels, and Remakes 141 Goldfinger and King Kong (1933 and 2005) 7 Actors and Stars 171 Morocco and Dirty Harry 8 Audiences and Reception 197 A Woman of Paris and The Crying Game 9 Film and the Other Arts 222 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1933) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) 10 Film and its Relation to Radio and Television 257 Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Peter Gunn; Victor/Victoria; 24; and Homeland 11 Realism and Theories of Film 296 The Battleship Potemkin and Umberto D 12 Gender and Sexuality 317 The Silence of the Lambs and American Gigolo 13 Race 341 Out of the Past, LA Confidential, and Boyz N the Hood 14 Class 371 Pretty Woman and The People Under the Stairs 15 Citizen Kane: An Analysis 396 Citizen Kane 16 Current Trends: Globalization and China, 3D, IMAX, Internet TV 419 Glossary 441 Index 446