Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film

Rate this book
Shaped by Richard Barsam's more than twenty years of classroom experience, Looking at Movies uses students' natural enthusiasm for the subject as a foundation for going beyond enjoyment toward intelligent, analytical understanding of movies. Professor Barsam's clear writing, thorough presentation of fundamental film principles, and unique pedagogical additions to the traditional introductory text—including an entire chapter devoted to analytical writing—ensure that students approach screenings and writing assignments equipped with the analytical tools necessary to be active, insightful interpreters of movies. Looking at Movies is accompanied by two outstanding multimedia resources, the Student website and CD-ROM, both of which are integrated directly with the text.

456 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

61 people are currently reading
664 people want to read

About the author

Dave Monahan

7 books3 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
128 (25%)
4 stars
179 (36%)
3 stars
143 (28%)
2 stars
35 (7%)
1 star
12 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for Travis.
114 reviews20 followers
July 2, 2013
I've been using Barsam's book for several years now in my film class, having chosen it to replace Giannetti's "Understanding Movies," and before that, Bordwell/Thompson's "Film Art: An Introduction." My current students like it and so do I (and my students who have used Giannetti's text and Pramaggiore's "Film: A Critical Introduction" in other classes say they prefer the Barsam to both of those).

Barsam covers all the requisite formal elements (narrative, cinematography, mise-en-scene, acting, editing, etc.), usually devoting a chapter to each topic--as do almost all film books of this type. But Barsam's book is better organized than most. Giannetti, by contrast, has a entire chapter on movement, whereas Barsam handles camera movement in his cinematography chapter and movement within the image in his chapter on mise-en-scene--which I think makes much more sense. And Barsam strikes a nice balance between academic rigor and accessibility (I stopped using the Bordwell/Thompson, which is often considered the standard, because undergraduate students found the tone too scholarly and the discussions too obtuse). The new 3rd edition of "Looking at Movies" adds a valuable and much-needed chapter on film history and expands the discussion of film technology, production and marketing. And of course, Barsam's book (like most others) is copiously illustrated, with helpful captions (and the layout and design is better in Barsam's than in most other texts of this sort). The writing is engaging, readable and informative. In short, a great text.

The new edition does have a few weaknesses, however--at least, in my opinion. Firstly, the book now takes an awfully long time to get going: Barsam has added and re-arranged material into three long wind-up chapters introducing film appreciation, film forms and film types. The better solution--I think--would have been simply to revise the old material and include the new material (as well as some of the original material) in other other chapters where it topically belongs (moving the discussion of genres, for example, into the chapter on narrative). As is, the reader (or teacher and student) either has to wade through all that preliminary discussion prior to getting to the really meaty material, or she has to jump around in the book and split up the reading so as to address everything that is topically related in one read. Secondly, Barsam now pays almost no attention at all to film theory and theorists, even in the film history chapter (Giannetti, by contrast, has an entire chapter on theory, while other authors cover theory piecemeal throughout their respective texts). The 2nd edition had an entire chapter on film theory and criticism. It was admittedly a bit clunky, but the better solution would have been to rewrite it, not remove it entirely--which leaves a gaping hole in what is otherwise admirable coverage of all the important topics. Lastly, Barsam has a quirky understanding of mise-en-scene, broadening the concept so much that it becomes almost synonymous with the movie per se, rather than restricting mise-en-scene to a focus on the image and its composition and constituent components--although, to his credit, Barsam admits as much to the reader and then proceeds to handle his actual analyses much as everyone else does.

It is possible to buy the text bundled with a small booklet on writing about movies (which is a pretty good treatment) and a truly excellent dvd with film shorts and some of the best tutorials (by David Monahan) available anywhere. The dvd alone is almost worth the purchase price of the book, and is an invaluable student resource.

All things considered, then, (despite the puzzling loss of the theory chapter), Barsam's "Looking at Movies" is the best all-around choice for an introduction to film text, and I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Diz.
1,860 reviews138 followers
January 25, 2019
This is designed to be a textbook for an undergraduate film course. As such, it covers a very wide range of topics such as film criticism, film production, and film history. If you're looking for a broad overview of the subject, this is a good place to get started. Regarding how up-to-date this book is, I have have the fifth edition and the latest films mentioned were released around 2014-2015, so be aware that if you are interested in films after that, they won't be covered in this book.
Profile Image for Hen.
26 reviews57 followers
November 16, 2015
It's a good text for Aesthetics of Film, the course I teach with my husband, but the book seems obsessed with Johnny Depp, which, with all due respect, we don't get.?
Profile Image for Lauren Salisbury.
291 reviews26 followers
August 3, 2011
After reading this book cover to cover I can say that overall this is not a bad text to read. Some sections are a little too extensive in their review of particular films and forms. This is a great guide to use when taking a basic college course on film and explains technical terms and theories for investigating film very well. Richard Barsam does provide a wide array of examples from nearly all genres of film which makes identifying the properties easier. At the end of the text be sure to note the list of Academy Award Winners for Best Picture, Sight and Sound's top ten movies list, and top one hundred films lists of The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, and American Film Institute for some further film viewing and analysis. The Appendix also provides some useful information on Hollywood production systems, studios, unions, the ratings system, and producers and directors.
Profile Image for Kimii Kalamity.
9 reviews3 followers
July 12, 2015
If one has to read an entire textbook cover to cover in lieu of any meaningful instruction from one's film studies teacher, this particular text book is a probably among your best bets.
Profile Image for Lauren McDonald.
419 reviews18 followers
November 19, 2021
Overall good, don't want it to affect my algorithm though because it was a textbook for a class, but at times the authors were very biased towards film being vastly superior to any other mode of art even to the point of putting all other art forms down, which I didn't particularly like
Profile Image for Ayah Abdul-Rauf.
Author 3 books13 followers
Read
December 31, 2012
I learned a lot, but this book, like most textbooks, has awful writing. Grammar mistakes on every page, lots of redundancy etc. Not a bad first look at film, and all the stills printed in the chapters have their original aspect ratio.
Profile Image for Ann Marie J..
4 reviews
January 30, 2021
I read it for film class. Incredible read and helped me on letterboxed to understand film deeper. I had a lovely teacher for it to give us examples. It's beneficial since mine is the loose-leaf copy. I will probably keep it forever. I truly love cinema, and the work mostly into cinematography, film stock, the stream of consciousness, and breaking the 4th wall. Learning about the difference of camera work etc., the addition to silent and talkies. Even though the work was thought and doing a directorial final essay benefit me with an A, I loved my teacher. A lovely book to keep for film critics and lovers. Culturally, this one was spot on.
Profile Image for Hailey.
17 reviews
April 21, 2022
Very informative and interesting. Wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t required for the course (Film Studies) but it has some intriguing information. Good read for anyone who wants to know more about the internal workings of film and it’s production as well as information regarding the analysis for a variety of films.
Profile Image for Katrina Sark.
Author 12 books45 followers
April 2, 2018
Chapter 1 – Looking at Movies

p.7 – Recognizing a spectator’s tendency (especially when sitting in a dark theatre, staring at a large screen) to identify subconsciously with the camera’s viewpoint, early filmmaking pioneers created a film grammar (or cinematic language) that draws upon the way we automatically interpret visual information in our real lives, thus allowing audiences to absorb movie meaning intuitively… and instantly.
• Fade-out/fade-in
• Long-angle shot
• Cutting on action

p.10 – Cultural Invisibility – because so much of this occurs on an unconscious, emotional level, the casual viewer may be blind to the implied political, cultural, and ideological messages that help make the movie so appealing.

p.11 – Implicit and Explicit Meaning – implicit meaning is an association, connection, or inference that a viewer makes on the basis of the explicit meanings available on the surface of the movie.

Chapter 2 – Principles of Film Form

p.36 – Form and Content – we can define content as the subject of an artwork (what the work is about), and form as the means by which that subject is expressed and experienced.
In the world of movies, form is cinematic language: the tools and techniques that filmmakers use to convey meaning and mood to the viewer, including lighting, mise-en-scene, cinematography, performance, editing, and sound.

p.60 – Cinematic Language – Instead of arranging words into sentences, cinematic language combines and composes a variety of elements – for example, lighting, movement, sound, acting, and a number of camera effects – into single shots.

Chapter 3 – Types of Movies

p.67 – narrative structure – which includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement – helps filmmakers manipulate the viewer’s cinematic experience by selectively conforming to or diverging from audience expectations of storytelling.

Chapter 4 – Elements of Narrative

p.122 – What is Narrative?
• A story
• Fiction films (as opposed to documentary or experimental films)
• Cinematic structure that arranges events in a cause-and-effect sequence
• It infuses culture and our lives whenever we’re describing a sporting event, relating a dream, recalling a memory, or telling a joke, we humans tend to order events to convey meaning and engage the recipient

p.131 – Narrative Structure – basic formula that has evolved is calculated to engage and satisfy the receiver of the story.
The setup in the first act has to tell us what kind of a story we’re about to experience by establishing the normal world. A movie’s first few minutes lay out the rules of the universe that we will inhabit (or at least witness) for the next couple of hours.

p.132 – The inciting incident (also known as the catalyst) presents the character with the goal that will drive the rest of the narrative.

p.133 – Narrative depends on obstacles to block, or at least impede, or protagonist’s quest for the goal. The person, people, creature, or force responsible for obstructing our protagonist is known as the antagonist.

p.134 – Then the stakes rise. In other words, the deeper we get into the story, the greater the risk to our protagonist.
The stakes are rising because the obstacles are becoming increasingly difficult for our protagonist to navigate. Over the course of the second act, narrative typically builds toward a peak, a breaking point of sorts, as the conflict intensifies and goal remains out of reach. This rising action, and the tension it provokes, enhances our engagement with the ongoing narrative.

p.135 – Eventually, our protagonist must face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and our story must reach a turning point and work its way toward resolution and the third and final act. This narrative peak is called the crisis. The goal is in its greatest jeopardy, and an affirmative answer to the central question seems all but impossible.
The climax comes when the protagonist faces this major obstacle. In the process, usually the protagonist must take a great risk, make a significant sacrifice, or overcome a personal flaw. As the term implies, the climax tends to be the most impressive event in the movie.

p.136 – Once the goal is either gained or lost, it’s time for the resolution – the third act of falling action, in which the narrative wraps up loose ends and moves toward a conclusion.

p.137 – Narrative theory (sometimes called narratology) has a long history, starting with Aristotle and continuing with great vigor today. Aristotle said that a good story should have three sequential parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end – a concept that has influenced the history of playwriting and screenwriting.

p.140 – This discussion of narrative theory adapts material from and indebted to, Seymore Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (1978) and Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film (1990)
Profile Image for Bernie4444.
2,464 reviews12 followers
December 23, 2022
Broken down into different forms of analysis it allows us to step back and see what we may have missed. On the other hand, we can also see what this presentation missed. For example, in evaluating “Juno” the authors use obscure contemporary movies and one classic to compare. They miss the wider range of comparison movies such as “People Will Talk” (1951) with Cary Grant.
Moving on to potter the view of watching movies expands but the view of what the movie was passed on is missed. The presentation does contrast Lord Voldemort with Hitler but overlooks the vast mythological characters that have meaning in their own right. The narrator draws on other films but overlooks Joseph Campbell's coming-of-age scenario. The physical element in making the film is excellent and gives us the language to express the movie-making techniques.

Goes into the difference between narration, narrative, and, narrator. Used “The Big Charade” (2003), “Amelie”, and “The Limey” as examples.

Diegetic and non-diegetic Elements. “Death to the Tinman”, “Count Down’” and others.
Suspense and Surprise. “The Great Train Robbery”
Setting and Expressionism. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, “Frankenstein”, “Edward Scissorhands” and others.
Lighting and familiar image. “The Night of the Hunter” (1955)
Composing the Frame. Talking about the Rule of Thirds in framing, eye room in the frame, negative space, and deep space composition. “Lawrence of Arabia” and many more films.
The Lumiere Brothers’ “Actualites” (Documentary) 45 seconds

In the end, it is like someone telling you that your shoe is untied.

Profile Image for Rebecca.
1,427 reviews5 followers
June 17, 2025
I learned quite a bit about movies through this textbook, although the presentation was flawed. Since this was an online textbook, it had videos and interactive elements. I liked the interactive elements such as choosing the color grading for a frame, but many of the videos were annoying or too long.

This film textbook is at least 4-5 years out of date. I would rate it higher if I read it in 2021. I felt nostalgic reading about mostly about films from the 2010s, especially 2019, a great film year. However, I would have enjoyed this textbook more if it was written in 2024 and covered the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

I don’t think this textbook used the right examples for movies to demonstrate some categories. It uses the Star Wars sequels to show principles of film form, despite the fact that the sequel films were controversial or had negative receptions. This textbook is also obsessed with Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is one of the greatest films of all time, but so is Twelve Angry Men, which wasn’t mentioned in the textbook.

This textbook also has a carefully optimistic judgement about certain aspects of the film industry. Like sequels and movie theaters. It did not age well. It also has a very “Democrats in the first Trump era” attitude towards social issues. They actually thought movies were getting better at representation! Haha! Movies are screwed.
Profile Image for Alex Daniel.
460 reviews14 followers
August 11, 2018
read this cover-to-cover, excluding the glossary and index. i enjoyed it, but i will confess that a good part of that comes from pre-existing interest in the content. for a textbook? not bad.

strengths: some of the examples used are interesting, particularly when the authors reference popular cinema. additionally, the interactive and online supplements are often good, especially the Cinematography chapter, where the co-author and his students demonstrate lighting, lenses, etc. it was genuinely fun, amusing, and interesting. it's too bad the other supplements don't show the same degree of involvement.

weaknesses: this is probably true for many textbooks, but there are many paragraphs here that do not feel necessary. this is especially annoying when the authors point out esoteric foreign films to use as examples. given that this is an intro text, I appreciate that the authors want to introduce their audience to UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, but when they use the film to illustrate techniques of cinema, it's lost on me. (and i assume the majority of introductory / core-curriculum readers).
3 reviews
December 13, 2019
This is a great comprehensive look at film studies, I definitely learned a lot about a wide variety of topics. However, there was a lot of random editorializing in a few chapters that really threw me off, such as the author claiming that Lincoln and 12 Years A Slave are the “two greatest movies ever made about African Americans.” ??? I really wish they had stuck to strict facts in this book, and stopped asserting their weird opinions. However, overall I feel that this was very beneficial for me to read.
Profile Image for Ietrio.
6,944 reviews24 followers
February 25, 2024
I have not seen such an inspired book cover in a long time. Yes. The book is authored by two parasites who make it a personal quest to increase the film school tuition while dropping the intellectual level of the graduates as much as possible. And yes, crap like this can be considered a reason why films are multiplying yet the quality is dropping.

Do you want to make film? Get a phone, and open an YouTube account and let the future generations of leeches starve, as these two have already way too generous pension plans.
Profile Image for Lee.
52 reviews
July 26, 2022
Helped me realize why I cry when I watch Moonlight

Took way tooooo long to read, but have a basic understanding of cinematic components (genres, editing, mise en scene, elements of narrative, cinematography, acting, sound)
Profile Image for Dol Leander.
64 reviews5 followers
July 5, 2023
it's alright... not really a fan of having to buy expensive textbooks with basic information in them that we could have gotten for free. the interactive quizzes and such were nice and it is good to see a textbook that isn't so old i guess
Profile Image for Mike Degen.
182 reviews
January 25, 2024
Read as part of my film class, solid introduction to film but for someone that’s been studying film a ton there isn’t a lot of information. I wish I’d read this in high school. My favorite part was the history chapter
Profile Image for Arijit Saha.
77 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2018
A perfect book for understanding Cinema and it's various forms. The book is very well written and organized. A must read for every Film students.
Profile Image for Monica.
399 reviews
May 24, 2019
Read it for a class. Did what it needed to do.
Profile Image for Will Clemmons.
62 reviews3 followers
Read
January 14, 2021
Still a textbook, but on an interesting subject matter. Good prep before I start a film society on campus.
Profile Image for Anjar Priandoyo.
309 reviews16 followers
July 22, 2021
Good book, more like reference. Its a history book -from my point of view. It is very interesting to find a book that talking about things that I like.
Profile Image for Fly.
303 reviews11 followers
April 25, 2022
I don't know why this book didn't get more love - I found it really readable!
Profile Image for Hania Wyszomierska.
25 reviews2 followers
May 13, 2022
niby na studia, ale cheffs kiss. warte swojej ceny, mimo ze sciagnelam pdf za darmo, ale nadal warte
Profile Image for Kai.
30 reviews
Read
April 12, 2025
🫡 heres to logging my textbooks to count towards my reading goal... you cant say i didnt read this, it counts... shut up
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.