American Audiences on Movies and Moviegoing

American Audiences on Movies and Moviegoing

by Tom Stempel
American Audiences on Movies and Moviegoing

American Audiences on Movies and Moviegoing

by Tom Stempel

Hardcover

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Overview

A unique perspective on half a century of American cinema—from the audience's point of view. Tom Stempel goes beyond the comments of professional reviewers, concentrating on the opinions of ordinary people. He traces shifting trends in genre and taste, examining and questioning the power films have in American society. Stempel blends audience response with his own observations and analyzes box office results that identify the movies people actually went to see, not just those praised by the critics. Avoiding statistical summary, he presents the results of a survey on movies and moviegoing in the respondents' own words—words that surprise, amuse, and irritate.

The moviegoers respond: "Big bad plane, big bad motorcycle, and big bad Kelly McGillis."—On Top Gun

"All I can recall were the slave girls and the Golden Calf sequence and how it got me excited. My parents must have been very pleased with my enthusiasm for the Bible."—On why a seven-year-old boy stayed up to watch The Ten Commandments

"I learned the fine art of seduction by watching Faye Dunaway smolder."—A woman's reaction to seeing Bonnie and Clyde

"At age fifteen Jesus said he would be back, he just didn't say what he would look like."—On E.T.

"Quasimodo is every seventh grader."—On why The Hunchback of Notre Dame should play well with middle-schoolers

"A moronic, very 'Hollywoody' script, and a bunch of dancing teddy bears."—On Return of the Jedi

"I couldn't help but think how Mad magazine would lampoon this." —On The Exorcist


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813121833
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Publication date: 01/25/2001
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsix
Introductionxi
1.Childhoods1
2.Hollywood's Fifties15
3.Sex and Seriousness29
4.Opening the Sixties43
5.Television and Movies58
6.Closing the Sixties68
7.Dark and Golden82
8.Black and Dark96
9.Star Wars111
10.Film Education128
11.Directors141
12.Spielberg153
13.Studios and VCRs168
14.Promoting Habits182
15.Changing Experiences198
16.Experiencing Emotions213
17.Eastwood233
A Concluding Thought or Two250
Appendix254
Notes256
Index273
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