Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood (edition 2009)

This history of the change in the movie and film industry focused around the Best Picture nominees for 1967. As a fan of film, I found the stories behind the stories fascinating. It reads like story that brings the facts to life. ( )

Harris takes a fascinating look at the making of five different movies. We see the wrinkles behind all the glossy stars of days gone by, such as Rex Harrison's racism, Warren Beatty's uneasy leap into producing, and Sidney Poitier's struggle against racism and fame in America. ( )

Contains plenty of interesting snippets, and well written, but just didn't do it for me unfortunately ( )

Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood took some getting into and the cast of characters was so vast that following the events depicted kept me on my toes. In the end this was a very interesting look at the change from the 'Old Hollywood' to the 'New Hollywood' in the mid-60's. Harris takes the five movies nominated for Best Picture for the Oscar's awarded in 1968 and follows them from their inception several years earlier to the Awards ceremony and its aftermath. The nominees were Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Doolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night. We learn a lot of studio history and politics while following the way these movies were made. There's lot of how, why, who, and when and even a follow up of some of the major players. This was also the period when the old Production Code was under siege, leading to its replacement by an early version of our current rating system.

For anyone who is very interested in film history this should be an interesting read. Recommended.

Five Movies and the Birth of New Hollywood is a very engaging look at one year of cinema and five now renowned films which were nominated for Oscars. This is written in an easy to read conversational style and generally avoids the poe faced jargon of so many other attempts to 'literise' film making. I enjoyed the way Harris looked at each movie charting the whole process from the writing of the script, to initial casting choices all the way up until the critics views of the films. Sometimes it was surprising to see how badly received some of these classics were. If I had any complaint about this it is that at times there is too much intercutting between different narratives about each film. This constant back and forth nature of retelling the pre and post production of the five movies makes it a difficult book to just dip into otherwise you lose the thread of each story. Overall though this is a great book for the person in your life who fancies themself as Mark Kermode. ( )