Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan . . . and Beyond

May 15, 2003
In this update of his 1986 book, Wood, who previously authored thoughtful studies on heavyweight film figures like Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock, maintains his focus on American moviemaking from the freewheeling 1970s to the more conservative 1980s. Though not intended as a comprehensive portrait of those years, the book still omits too many important films. However, it does offer close readings of groundbreaking titles by Robert Altman, Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, and Michael Cimino, plus coverage of cult and "B" movie directors like George Romero and Larry Cohen. Horror films and homosexuality on the screen are also treated. In the new preface, Wood spends a good deal of time talking about his life as a recently "out" gay man and cinematic depictions of women in an age of feminism, as if to mirror the seismic changes that were influencing American movies from 1970 to 1984. Also new to this edition are Wood's gutsy defenses of My Best Friend's Wedding ("one of the great American comedies") and Heaven's Gate ("among the supreme achievements of the Hollywood cinema"), discussions of Hollywood today and teen party pictures like American Pie, and an essay on Day of the Dead. The author's political asides and his discussion of his sexuality, which simply seems self-indulgent, make up the weakest material. This uneven revision is recommended for academic collections on recent Hollywood cinema. Public libraries should wait for a more popular treatment of the period.-Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA

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