Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In a book as entertaining as it is enlightening, Kristin Thompson offers the first in-depth analysis of Hollywood's storytelling techniques and how they are used to make complex, easily comprehensible, entertaining films. She also takes on the myth that modern Hollywood films are based on a narrative system radically different from the one in use during the Golden Age of the studio system.

Drawing on a wide range of films from the 1920s to the 1990s--from Keaton's Our Hospitality to Casablanca to Terminator 2 --Thompson explains such staples of narrative as the goal-oriented protagonist, the double plot-line, and dialogue hooks. She domonstrates that the "three-act structure," a concept widely used by practitioners and media commentators, fails to explain how Hollywood stories are put together.

Thompson then demonstrates in detail how classical narrative techniques work in ten box-office and critical successes made since the New Hollywood began in the 1970s: Tootsie , Back to the Future , The Silence of the Lambs , Groundhog Day , Desperately Seeking Susan , Amadeus , The Hunt for Red October , Parenthood , Alien , and Hannah and Her Sisters . In passing, she suggests reasons for the apparent slump in quality in Hollywood films of the 1990s. The results will be of interest to movie fans, scholars, and film practitioners alike.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 Modern Classicism
• 2 Tootsie
• 3 Back to the Future
• 4 The Silence of the Lambs
• 5 Groundhog Day
• 6 Desperately Seeking Susan
• 7 Amadeus
• 8 The Hunt for Red October
• 9 Parenthood
• 10 Alien
• 11 Hannah and Her Sisters
• 12 Hopes and Fears for Hollywood
• Appendix A Large-scale Portions of Classical Films
• Appendix B Bombs, or What Makes Bad Films Bad?
• Notes
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

ThompsonÄcoauthor of The Classical Hollywood CinemaÄdoesn't agree with current film historians who claim that a "post-classical" style (fragmentary scenes often built around spectacular stunts, stars, and special effects) now dominates American moviemaking. The classical narrative style, a unified narrative of an easily understood chain of cause and effect with a goal-oriented protagonist that was popularized in Hollywood's Golden Age, remains the norm. To prove her point, she analyzes the narrative structure of ten popular films of the 1980sÄincluding Amadeus, Alien, Tootsie, and Parenthood. This analysis of individual films forms the bulk of the book. Thompson also takes the opportunity to critique another popular notionÄthe three-act pattern predominant in Hollywood screenwriting manuals. She prefers a film structure divided into four parts of roughly equal screen time: the setup, the complicating action, the development, and the climax. Well argued and well presented, this book is recommended for academic and special subject collections.ÄMarianne Cawley, Charleston Cty. Lib., SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Thompson (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison) coauthored The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (CH, Nov'85), one of the best accounts of the "classical" visual and verbal narrative forms, norms, and techniques that the Hollywood studio system developed. In that book, she and coauthors David Bordwell and Janet Staiger argued that one of the factors that enabled Hollywood to wrest the world film market away from Europe after WW I was the clear and compelling storytelling Hollywood perfected. But by 1960 the studio system was in economic decline, and in the 1970s a group of young directors (Lucas, Bogdanovich, Spielberg, etc.) altered the balance of power in Hollywood. Some scholars argue that this change involved newly dominant norms of film narrative (mixing European art film and innovative US themes and techniques). Disagreeing, Thompson offers a brief historical argument and an extended, close analysis of screenwriting practices and films. In a discussion ranging from Amadeus to the The Silence of the Lambs, she argues that despite some changes, the "classical" techniques of narrative, some developed as early as 1916, endure and dominate. Well-argued if not conclusive, this volume is strongly recommended for all academic collections supporting film studies at the upper-division undergraduate level and above. K. T"ol"olyan; Wesleyan University