The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood
by David Thomson
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A history of the Hollywood film industry explores the ways in which movies, both shape and are shaped by American culture, discusses the contributions of film pioneers, and profiles Hollywood's leading citizens. A magnificent history of Hollywood from the invention of film to the present day, by the everywhere acclaimed David Thomson, who has established himself as the greatest living film critic and historian, the Atlantic Monthly, irreplaceable, the New York Times, and simply the best show more writer about the movies, San Francisco Chronicle. Now we have his master work, the Whole Equation, which, in his own words, embraces the murder and the majesty, the business statistics and millions of us being moved, the art and the awfulness. It accommodates the artistic careers, the lives of the pirates, the ebb and flow of business, the sociological impact in short, the wonder in the dark, the calculation in the offices, and the staggering impact on America of moving pictures, which is also the thunderous artillery of America unleashed on the world. Thomson tells us how D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin created the first movies of mass appeal. He writes about Louis B. Mayer, who understood the whole equation and reaped the profits. He shows us how David O. Selznick exemplified the vanity and passion that gets memorable movies made; how the movies, offering a sense of common experience, helped Americans through the difficult years of the 1930s and '40s; how and why the quest for the blockbuster changed the industry. He examines the films of Capra, Wilder, Hitchcock, and Spielberg; of Gable, Cagney, Monroe, Crawford, Brando, Bogart, Nicholson, and Kidman; of Irving Thalberg, Lew Wasserman, Harvey Weinstein and scores more. He considers noir films, the blacklist, agents, method acting. He tells us the stories behind the Godfather, Chinatown, and Jaws. And he follows the money, a trip essential to understanding Hollywood at its most thrilling and most disappointing. David Thomson has given us a one volume history of Hollywood that is as well one of the most brilliant, most insightful, entertaining, and illuminating books ever written on American film. show lessTags
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A love letter to Hollywood written by a man with a broken heart. If the book fails as history, much of which is assumed, it succeeds as poetry. Along the way there are some brilliant insights. The one that most struck me was the impossibility of creating art with other people's investments: the difference between Stroheim and Welles!
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ThingScore 100
Hollywood, a cluster of metal sheds in the shabbier suburbs of Los Angeles, itself a suburb of nowhere, has created what is virtually the first religion devoted solely to entertaining its congregation.
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David Thomson is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its fifth edition. His recent books include a biography of Nicole Kidman and The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood, and Have You Seen ?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films. Born in London, he now lives in San Francisco.
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- Members
- 308
- Popularity
- 104,009
- Reviews
- 1
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- Languages
- English, Polish, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
