Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood HistoryWayne State University Press, 2010 - 363 էջ Considers the history of the American blockbuster--the large-scale, high-cost film--as it evolved from the 1890s to today. The pantheon of big-budget, commercially successful films encompasses a range of genres, including biblical films, war films, romances, comic-book adaptations, animated features, and historical epics. In Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History authors Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale discuss the characteristics, history, and modes of distribution and exhibition that unite big-budget pictures, from their beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present. Moving chronologically, the authors examine the roots of today's blockbuster in the "feature," "special," "superspecial," "roadshow," "epic," and "spectacle" of earlier eras, with special attention to the characteristics of each type of picture. In the first section, Hall and Neale consider the beginnings of features, specials, and superspecials in American cinema, as the terms came to define not the length of a film but its marketable stars or larger budget. The second section investigates roadshowing as a means of distributing specials and the changes to the roadshow that resulted from the introduction of synchronized sound in the 1920s. In the third section, the authors examine the phenomenon of epics and spectacles that arose from films like Gone with the Wind, Samson and Deliliah, and Spartacus and continues to evolve today in films like Spider-Man and Pearl Harbor. In this section, Hall and Neale consider advances in visual and sound technology and the effects and costs they introduced to the industry. Scholars of film and television studies as well as readers interested in the history of American moviemaking will enjoy Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters. |
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INTRODUCTION | 1 |
EARLY FILMS AND EARLY FEATURES 18941911 | 9 |
MULTIREEL FEATURES EPICS AND ROADSHOWS 19111916 | 21 |
SUPERSPECIALS SPECIALS AND PROGRAMS 19161927 | 41 |
COLOR LARGE SCREEN WIDE SCREEN AND SOUND 18941931 | 62 |
TUNERS SPECTACLES AND PRESTIGE PICTURES 19291939 | 88 |
FEWER BUT BIGGER 19391949 | 112 |
COLOSSALS AND BLOCKBUSTERS 19491959 | 135 |
ROADSHOWS SHOWCASES AND RUNAWAYS 19561970 | 159 |
MULTIPLE JEOPARDY 19651975 | 187 |
SUPER BLOCKBUSTERS 19761985 | 213 |
ANCILLARY MARKETS GLOBALIZATION AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY 19862009 | 235 |