Jonathan Rosenbaum is a film critic for the Chicago Reader and is the author of Moving Places, Placing Movies, Movies as Politics, and Dead Man. He is a frequent contributor to Film Comment and Cinéaste. He lives in Chicago.
“Movie Wars is a cherry bomb in the lap of critical complacency and
orthodoxy—and a bold challenge to the movie industry. . . . This
brief text is packed with more ideas than any other film book
you’re likely to read this year.” —Premiere
“The work of a tough and principled critic whose insights into
movies in the age of tie-ins and Disney are as rude and witty as
they are sharp, Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Movie Wars is a bracing job of
cultural muckraking.” —Tom Carson, the Washington Post
“Jonathan Rosenbaum is the best film critic in the United
States—indeed, he’s one of the best writers on film of any kind in
the history of the medium.” —James Naremore, author of Acting in
the Cinema “Rosenbaum's journalistic style makes this animated
treatise accessible to film buffs who want to know more about how
movies get made, while his sound arguments make it a good bet for
academic readers as well.” —Publishers Weekly
“Movie Wars is invigorating in the way it argues not only that
movies of lasting value are being made all the time, but also that
movies can actaully enlarge an audience's comprehensionof the
world.” —Vue Weekly
“Essential reading for anyone who cares about movies.” —Martha P.
Nochimson, Film Quarterly
"Consider what might happen if Roger Ebert couldn't find a single movie to recommend on one of his weekly shows," Rosenbaum asks provocatively in this freewheeling critique of the American movie industry. Arguing that American moviegoers are consistently denied the right to make up their own minds about what movies to see, and even how to think about them, he reveals the powerful influence market researchers, production studios, advertisers, film critics and publishing concerns ("the media-industrial complex") have on how films are made, marketed, released and reviewed. Citing such diverse examples as George Lucas's draconian exhibition contracts for The Phantom Menace (which bound theaters to a lengthy run regardless of audience size), distributors' offers of free film junkets to bribe critics and the use of canned reviews and industry-sanctioned lists of "the 100 Best American Films" written by "professional blurb writers," Rosenbaum drives home his point that there is far more commerce than art in American film. Occasionally, his arguments are overheated (the fact that film festivals are often popularity contests is no surprise), but for the most part they are well-supported and potent, and successfully address broader questions of consumer culture and capitalism. Rosenbaum's journalistic style makes this animated treatise accessible to film buffs who want to know more about how movies get made, while his sound arguments make it a good bet for academic readers as well. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
" Movie Wars is a cherry bomb in the lap of critical complacency
and orthodoxy--and a bold challenge to the movie industry. . . .
This brief text is packed with more ideas than any other film book
you're likely to read this year." -- Premiere
"The work of a tough and principled critic whose insights into
movies in the age of tie-ins and Disney are as rude and witty as
they are sharp, Jonathan Rosenbaum's Movie Wars is a bracing job of
cultural muckraking." --Tom Carson, the Washington Post
"Jonathan Rosenbaum is the best film critic in the United
States--indeed, he's one of the best writers on film of any kind in
the history of the medium." --James Naremore, author of Acting in
the Cinema
"Rosenbaum's journalistic style makes this animated treatise
accessible to film buffs who want to know more about how movies get
made, while his sound arguments make it a good bet for academic
readers as well." --Publishers Weekly
" Movie Wars is invigorating in the way it argues not only that
movies of lasting value are being made all the time, but also that
movies can actaully enlarge an audience's comprehensionof the
world." --Vue Weekly
"Essential reading for anyone who cares about movies." --Martha P.
Nochimson, Film Quarterly
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