MOVIE WARS

Contrary to what a number of disillusioned critics have written and what appears to be the pervading conventional wisdom, Jonathan Rosenbaum believes that cinema is very much alive and well. The problem is, he feels, that all too often we just do not get the opportunity to see the best of it. In Movie Wars, America's leading film critic explores the production, distribution and promotion of mainstream contemporary cinema and how, at every turn, the industry treats the viewer with contempt. Using examples such as Miramax's buying of films solely to keep them out of the hands of competitors with no intention of distributing them, the American Film Institute's narrow championing of Hollywood studio product in their 'Best 100 Films' list, and the mainstream media's unquestioning acceptance of the Hollywood PR machine, Movie Wars is a damning critique of corporate cinematic culture and a no-holds-barred call to arms for those looking for life outside the multiplex.

January 2002
192 pages

978-1-903364-60-4 (pbk)

£12.99

£11.04 with 15% online discount add to basket

Jonathan Rosenbaum is film critic for the Chicago Reader, author of Movies as Politics (1997) Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons (2004) and Discovering Orson Welles (2007), as well as a frequent contributor to Film Comment, Cineaste, Cahiers du Cinéma España and Film Quarterly.

'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

‘A book I can’t recommend highly enough to anyone who wants to learn about the generally corrupt overlaps and sweetheart deals between film festivals, distributors, mainstream film critics and allegedly independent filmmakers.’
John Patterson, Guardian

‘Rosenbaum’s impassioned, compellingly argued polemic reminds us that film exists not just in the movie world but in the real world too.’
Jonathan Romney