The Movie Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

Big Ideas Simply Explained

by Danny Leigh

Learn about the visual and performing arts in The Movie Book.

Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Movies in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Movie Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in.

This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Movies, with:

- More than 100 of the best movies ever made worldwide
- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts
- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout
- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding

The Movie Book is the perfect introduction to the rich history of cinema like never before - from the golden age of black-and-white films to international art-house and 21st-century sci-fi, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover more than 100 of the best movies ever made, uncovering the key themes and big ideas behind the world's most celebrated cinematic gems.

Your Movie Questions, Simply Explained

This book brings cinema to life with iconic quotes and film stills, posters, biographies of directors, actors, and actresses, along with narrative timelines and images exploring key themes. If you thought it was difficult to learn about the best cinematic masterpieces, The Movie Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. Learn everything about your favourite movies, as well as celebrated classics and the films to watch before you die, through iconic quotes and stills, posters, biographies, memorabilia and narrative timelines, through superb mind maps and step-by-step summaries.

The Big Ideas Series

With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Movie Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Reference, Art, History, Media Tie In, Pop Culture

901 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2016

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan, generally, of DK Publishing’s efforts. They can meld text and amazing graphics with the greatest of ease. I have read many of their efforts from travel guides to more technical subjects. I have just recently started into their The Big Ideas Simply Explained series.

This book, perhaps, presents some some new challenges for the people at DK. The book consist of a section that offers a historical perspective by presenting in chronological order many fine movies. Each movie is accompanied by consistent information on date of production, key people involved, themes, related movies, and some additional exposition and still photos from the films.

The final section consists of thumbnail sketches without additional graphics, of other great movies followed by a list of contributors. There is no index

While the text will mention some movies in relation to others, there isn’t much devoted to the evolution of themes over time or exactly how one director or actor has influenced another. This would have been an ideal opportunity for some of the signature DK charts or similar graphics.

There are plenty of books available that are designed to help you choose what movie to view. There are so many critics who want you to “understand” movies the way they do. This book is neither. So I am having trouble suggesting who might be the intended audience. I believe it is likely that you will find some of it interesting. I think that it is unlikely that you will find it compelling to read from cover to cover. Though not one of DK’s best, I will keep it around to remind me of movies I should see or see again. It was published less than ten years from the date of this review.

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun read for the film lover! This book is another in the Big Ideas Simply Explained series and it provides information and anecdotes about film, starting with A Trip To The Moon (1902) by Georges Mélies through We're All Just Winging It (2014) by Richard Linklater. It covers all genres and all countries that produced quality films during this time. There are some surprises as far as what the editors consider great films but after reading each synopsis and critique, it becomes clear why these films were included. There were some films that maybe should have been added but then the book would have been 1,000 pages long!! Besides, lists of "great films" are subjective, so who am I to argue......I thought it was well done.

There was one glaring error that rather surprised me. In the John Wayne film The Searchers, the editors identified the young girl who was taken as a child by the Indians and who is being sought by Wayne, as Vera Miles. That actress was in the cast but the kidnapped child was Natalie Wood. It was an odd error since the film is so well known and it stood out like a sore thumb. Other than that, it is a 4 star read.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best feature of a book like this is that you can read a portion, set it down, return a month later and you will not have missed a thing. This offering is nicely laid out by the contributors and it is assumed that they must have had to come to some kind of agreement before deciding on whether or not they should add a film to the book.

The movies are assorted by era with each chapter containing the best movies from that period and giving each a review. Some reviews are longer than others but few exceed three pages. Each review is accompanied by photos and sidebars with trivia pertaining to the movie, the director, or the era it was filmed in. Such selections are subjective, of course, but I think that few would squabble with the choices made by the contributors. Just to pad the odds, they have included an extensive list of honorable mentions or also-rans as an attempt at appeasing those who are outraged that their favourite films have been excluded.

Happily, the movies are not restricted to those produced by Hollywood and I was chuffed to see many of my favourite foreign films getting good reviews. I was also able to find a few titles that piqued my interest, so this book will be costing me money. I was a little ticked off (but not surprised) that only a couple of westerns made the cut, but since they are my favourite westerns I suppose I should accept the bone they've thrown to me and shut up about it.

I recommend this title to any cinephiles no matter what genre they identify as.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 115 movies in this book. Of these movies 100 are either American or European. Half of the Asian movies are Japanese and the authors of the books seem to have forgotten that South American cinema outside of Brazil exists. But at least they managed to find one(!) African movie, even though that one is an french co-production, but hey they tried. But seriously it's not a great book unless you're new to cinema/classic movies. Most of the movies are well known even though there are some odd choices like a long forgotten Murnau movie instead of Nosferatu or choosing Rashomon (which I personally love) over masterpieces like Ran or Seven Samurai. At the ending are some choices that only seem to have made it into the book because the authors realised they needed a documentary (Man on Wire) or a film directed by a woman (The Hurt Locker). The last one is actually the one that bothered me the most because they put several movies by the same directors into the book but didn't bother to mention a single female director until the last chapter.

Apart from the movie choices I liked the timetables at the beginning of each chapter but unfortunately the German translation didn't use the original titles so I had to look up several movies because I had never heard the name before only to find out that I watched them already. Mostly it seemed like a shorter version of those 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die books and, again, I hated how Euro-/America-centric it was.

[Freda Mans-Labianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great reference!
From the first movie to today's films, this book has it all! There were some movies I had not seen or even heard of before. I plan on going through the book and trying to watch as many as I can.
The movies I have seen were referenced well in this book. Most of the greats were in here, and were very thorough with the information they gave regarding the film. From the story behind it, to who did what, and even notes on what happened in and around that time accompany some great photos of actual film footage, and photos of the people involved.
I liked this book a lot, though other than a few foreign films there wasn't much I learned that was new. Still, it's a great conversation piece.

[Oguz Akturk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hayatımda en sevdiğim filmler hakkında YouTube'da hazırladığım film önerileri içeriğimi izlemek için bu linke tıklayabilirsiniz: https://youtu.be/MPU3_1N9gmo

İster Tarkovski, Kubrick, Zeki Demirkubuz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan diyen bir Entel Feridun olun, isterseniz de canınız sıkıldığında arkadaşınızla sürekli durdurup üstüne tartışabileceğiniz sahnelerle dolu filmler keşfetmek isteyen birisi olun. Bu kitapta sinemanın doğuşundan şimdisine kadar neredeyse her şey var!

Şimdi gelelim bir ortamda sinema konusu açıldığında şekil gözükmenizi sağlayacak bazı püf noktalarına... Öncelikle 1895 yılındaki Fransız Lumiere biraderlerin 46 saniyelik kısa filmi olan "Lumiere Fabrikasından Çıkan İşçiler" filminin tarih boyunca çekilen ilk sinema filmi olduğunu bilirseniz belki de bir gün Kim Milyoner Olmak İster'e katılıp bu şekilde bir soru çıktığında Kenan İmirzalıoğlu'nun ezici bakışlarına maruz kalmaktansa hiç joker harcamayıp doğru cevabı verebilirsiniz, benden söylemesi.

Aslında incelemenin gelişme kısmına geçmeden itiraf etmem gereken bir nokta var ki, o da şu... Genellikle kitapları anlama ve içlerindeki alt metinleri çözümleme konusunda nispeten iyi sayılsam da konu filmlere geldiğinde filmlerin içindeki alt metinleri anlama kısmında tam bir algılama özürlüsü oluyorum. Size bu konudaki bir anımı anlatmak isterim.

Stanley Kubrick'in Jack Nicholson başrollüğündeki The Shining filmini izliyorum ve Nicholson'ın canlandırdığı Jack Torrance adlı beyefendi, filmdeki otelin zemin katındaki duvarda bulunan bir desene karşı top fırlatıp duruyor. Gayet normal bir sahne değil mi? Yani bir insan bir duvara karşı top fırlatabilir, gerçekte olsa bunda herhangi bir alt metin düşünmeyiz. Ama iş sinemaya gelince öyle olmuyor kardeşim. Çünkü Kubrick denen adamın öyle bir mükemmeliyetçi sinema anlayışı var ki, Nicholson'ın orada duvara attığı top ve duvardaki kızılderilileri hatırlatabilecek bir desen, Amerikalıların kızılderililere tarihte yaptığı zulmü anlatıyormuş. "Abi ben anamın karnından doğma bilgilerle bu sahneyi nasıl anlamlandırabilirdim ki?" diye soracak olursanız, zaten sinema tarihine büyük etki etmiş olan Kubrick, Tarkovski, Bergman, Lynch gibi yönetmenler de tamamen bizi etkileri altına almak ve sinemanın kronolojisine büyük dokunuşlar bırakmak için filmlerini çekmiş yönetmenlerdir.

Peki, bu kitapta ne bulacaksınız? Bu kitabı okumadan önce sinema konusunda neredeyse körkütük cahil birisi olmama rağmen 186 gün boyunca başından sonuna kadar pürdikkat okuduğum ve maalesef ki fiyat olarak da aşırı tuzlu bu kitap sizi onlarca yönetmen ve hatta yüzlerce filmle tanıştıracaktır. Elbette bunlar genellikle pek çok sinefil tarafından bilinen ve çoğunluğu popüler olan filmler gibi de gelecektir bazılarına. Fakat içeriğindeki görseller, sinema tarihinin değişen sinema teknikleri, çekim açılarının yönetmenlerle birlikte evrimleşmesi ve çeşitlenmesi, yönetmen inisiyatifleri, farklı türlerdeki film önerileri gibi pek çok konu, eminim ki en tutkulu sinefilin bile ilgisini çekecek yöndedir.

İncelemeyi tamamlamadan size hayatımda en sevdiğim ilk 2 filmi önermek istiyorum. Bunlardan ilki Jacques Tati'den Play Time filmi ve Frank Capra'dan Şahane Hayat filmi. İlk filmde birey olarak bizlerin mekanlarla olan ilişkilerini bir olay örgüsü kaygısı olmaksızın görebiliyor olacaksınız. İkinci önerdiğim filmde ise yaşadığımız onlarca dert ve sıkıntıdan sonra "Hiç doğmasaydım daha iyi olurdu." gibi bir düşünceyle tamamen karamsar olan bir adamın hayatının nasıl değiştiğini izleyeceksiniz.

"Yaptıklarımız veya yapmak istediklerimizle yargılanmıyoruz. Eseri bir bütün olarak anlamak istemeyen, hatta ona bakmak bile istemeyen insanlar tarafından yargılanıyoruz. Onun yerine yaptıkları şey tekil parçaları ve ayrıntıları yalıtıp onlara sıkıca tutunmak ve onlarda özel, ana bir nokta olduğunu kanıtlamaya çalışmak. Bu delilik." diyen Tarkovski ile birlikte insanlara parçacıl olarak değil bir bütün olarak bakmayı öğreneceksiniz. Onunla birlikte iz sürmeyi, elbette daha sonrasında da kendi benliğinizin izini sürmeyi, bilincinizin karanlık sokaklarında bir fener aramanın ihtimallerini öğreneceksiniz. Eserleri bir bütün olarak değerlendirmek isteyip belki de kendinizin bütününe dair bir şeylerin artık değişmesi gerektiğinin farkına varacaksınız...

Hem zaten Polonyalı film yönetmeni Krzysztof Kieślowski'nin de dediği gibi "Sinema hiçbir şeyi değiştiremez; ama insanların birçok şeyi anlamalarını sağlar. Dünyayı değiştirecek olan şey filmler değil, o filmleri izleyen insanlardır." diyemez miyiz? Bizler pek çok filmi çok rahat bir şekilde izleyebilme olanağına sahibiz. Bu şekilde hayattaki davranışlarımızı, bakış açılarımızı ve yönelimlerimizi belirleyip yönetmenlerin tercihlerinden kendimize bir şeyler kapabiliyoruz. Oysaki mesela Shakespeare hayatında hiçbir zaman Dostoyevski'yi okuma şansına ulaşamadı. Dostoyevski 1881'de öldüğü için hayatında 1 tane bile film izleyemedi. Biz ise bizden önce yazılan bütün kitapları okuma ve çekilen bütün filmleri izleme şansına sahibiz. Kültür hafızamız açısından bu kadar imkana ulaşabilecek haldeyken onlardan daha çok çabalamamız gerekmiyor mu sizce de?

[Martine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on the history of movies. Referencing 100 films starting in 1888, the authors discuss each one with short anecdotes on how it has impacted the evolution of film making over time, the actors, directors and writers involved, and some behind the scenes unfolding. I learnt a lot and found this an enjoyable read.

[Sherif · Rating 5 out of 5]

روعة....حقيقي ..موسوعة كاملة عن عالم السينما
It is a journey through out the history of cinema...this book is very essential to cinema fans

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book tells us clearly that this is about movies with Big Ideas. (It is not an attempt to list the best films ever, thankfully, as that has been done way too many times and is of course overly subjective.) Much of what is here isn't new to me. However, some Big Ideas were new to me: "Dr. Strangelove is a political satire, but it's also a sex comedy about the erotic relationship been men and war-the "strange love" of the title." What?! Well, now I want to watch that one again. There are many films discussed which are foreign movies, perhaps never released in the USA and probably impossible to find, but there is a few I need to try to locate: Lagaan (2001), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), and Warhol's "Chelsea Girls" from 1966. In addition to "Strangelove" I'd
like to take another look at other films listed here such as "Pulp Fiction", "Blade Runner". "Das Boot" and one of my all-time favorite foreign language films: Bunuel's brilliant "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise". If you're a movie lover and you think you've seen it all and know it all, there are probably a few ideas presented here that will surprise you.

[Deepak Rao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the best part first.This is an excellent reference book for movie lovers. For last few months,I've been going through a serious crisis phase because of non availability of any recommendations for good movies.For me, this book has come in for a timely rescue.Now, I have my hands full with a large number of movies to watch. Each page of this book is adorned with classy photographs from the world of cinema and that's what makes the book look so elegant. Although, this book contains a bit of what I expected e.g history of the world cinema, commentary on cinematic techniques and relation of movies with the socio-cultural milieu of the time when movie was made yet it falls short because of brief and superficial nature of description/analysis of movies. Nevertheless, it is worth buying as a coffee table book.

[C Bryson]

This is a great book for film buffs like myself. It breaksdown many influencial films creatively, and the graphs show the industry changing ideas simply and nicely, with some very helpful parts. The films chosen can sometimes be a bit too little known arty for me - if Inception or a similar type of film had been in it, it would have been a lot better - but it's still a great read and worth your time. If you love films, buy it, and if you don't, get it as a gift for someone who does!

[Neela · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopedic approach for the world’s best movies! A great reference book for the movie lovers. The Movie Book chronicles more than 100 of the best films ever made - from comedies and dramas, to animations, documentaries, and brings cinema to life. It discovers everything we want to know about our favorite films. Full of passionate and informative descriptions about the films and their directors.

[Jesús Rosales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detonante de cinefilias, una estupenda guía para ubicarse mínimamente en el desarrollo del séptimo arte. Como toda selección no está exenta de grandes ausencias, pero el esfuerzo por resaltar la importancia de ciertas películas, directores, intérpretes y movimientos cinematográficos es encomiable. Una opción ideal como primer contacto con la historia del cine.

[Kiera Beddes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the top 100 (ish) movies over the last century (ish). The sheer amount of information was mind-boggling. It was so nice to put into context all of the titles and names I had heard before but had never seen. I feel way more comfortable to talk about these influential films and artists. LOVED IT.

[Niño · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was given to me by my friend as a gift on my 18th birthday celebration, and that was a year ago. It took one year for me to read this book even though I can finish it within a month of last year. There are several factors that contribute to my slow reading process. I think the most obvious reason is the number of pages, but it's also the content. As a cinephile, if there's a certain movie that I'll watch for the first time, I tend to know as little as possible information about the movie. Thus, reading this book might hurt my experience if ever I'll watch the movies mentioned in this book for the first time just because I have read a lot of details about it. I am not saying that my friend shouldn't have given me this book. It's an easy book to give to a cinephile. Fortunately though, this book didn't feel like it was trying to spoil or ruin the experience of the people who are interested in watching the movies mentioned for the first time.

Each movie is jam-packed with information to the point that you will tend to not remember everything that was discussed. I am not saying that it is a bad thing, but what I'm saying is that you are not meant to memorize or remember everything that was talked about in this book, but rather should serve as a gateway to amazing movies that you probably have not watched or heard about, and also a celebration of movies that were and are still influential to the industry. We all have our own subjective lists as to what are the best films of all-time, and you should expect that a film that you think is influential or one of the "best" may or may not share a spotlight or maybe there are movies that you don't think should be mentioned as one of the greats by this book, and that's okay cause that's one of the best parts about talking about movies. There isn't an objective or universal-defining list of best movies. We have the power to create and imagine our own list of movies that we love.

I'll be honest, I did get a bit bored at times when reading this book especially in the pre-1970s. It's not the book's fault, but more of my personal taste. Maybe "bored" is not the right term to use but rather I was not as interested as the movies that were discussed in the 1970s until 2014. Currently, I have not watched that many movies that were released pre-1970s. Though, it's something that I am interested in diving into that particular era of film soon.

Even though this book is a long-read, which is understandable if you want to discuss 100+ great movies, it was still an incredible experience travelling back in the past from the birth of cinema and how it evolved over the years from the kind of movies that were being made in each era to the trends of each genre.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Movie Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by Danny Leigh, Louis Baxter and John Farndon, a DK book
10 out of 10


Gratitude is one of the ingredients of happiness and we could be grateful for such a mesmerizing book on account of its intrinsic value, but more importantly, because it opens the Magic World of the Cinema, inviting readers to learn so much about various classic motion pictures – many of them are recent – often appealing aspects from the making of masterpieces, such as Ragging Bull, for which legendary Robert De Niro had gained perhaps 30 kilograms – they give the figure in stone – the miracle of the success of Casablanca, which had not been expected to do so well – it is for many in top five Best Movies Ever Made – and the equally astonishing success of the extremely young at the time Orson Welles, when he revolutionized film making with his Citizen Kane, also for large numbers of cinephiles, at number One among the best films ever made…

Citizen Kane- http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/c... has had its own agitated history, as well as the star and director of the Magnum opus, who would himself have a very difficult relationship with studios – there was a time when he could handle it, as he declares in an interview, given his celebrity and stature after the impact of War of the Worlds, studios would offer almost anything he wanted and thus he got control of Citizen Kane, though not of other productions alas.
Given that it was based on the life of the immensely powerful media mogul William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane has had a tremendous campaign against it, the powerful tycoon wanted it banned and destroyed, his media empire did everything possible to see the movie destroyed and indeed, the commercial and critical success of the film was initially limited, though afterwards it would be recognized as one of the most extraordinary, inventive achievements in the History of Cinema…later on, Orson Welles would not have the creative liberty and studio executives would massacre films like The Magnificent Ambersons and later on, A Touch of Evil - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/t...

Charlton Heston recalls in American Cinema documentaries the story of the making of A touch of Evil, how the name of Orson Welles had been suggested and given his offer to direct for the same money he received as an actor, the previous name for the director was dropped and Marlene Dietrich accepted to work on the film…the iconic actress speaks in her turn about the fact that Welles had preferred brunettes and since she was one for A Touch of Evil, the situation might have changed in her favor…she seemed to be quite infatuated with the massive, impressive, phenomenally talented Orson Welles.
The Movie Book is magnificent on quite a few accounts, one of which would be the fact that it has very solid approach and when you read it, you learn about classics from America, Europe, Asia – old Boy comes to mind now and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance – and directors, writers and actors that that belong to the Cinematic Olympus are presented with their most important achievements, chronologically listed, the revolutionary style is exposed, main features of the films are highlighted with some of the crucial quotes and the minute when something special is happening in the feature…well, one of the special, since we are talking about landmarks all that takes place there is ‘special’

Gods like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and many others are mentioned, together with many other legends, the first woman director to win the Academy Award for Best Director is in the Movie Book, with a view at her chef d’oeuvre, The Hurt Locker, winner of the Best Motion Picture of the Year in 2008, though criticized by some for the fact that it does not take a stand on the matter of the Iraq war, it just presents with exceptional insight what happens to those who have to see and risk explosions on a regular basis…the film is also the winner of Best Picture with the smallest box office numbers…
French masters are included in The Movie Book and their influence on World Cinema is explored, such as The 400 Blows of the Master Francois Truffaut - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/l... - a phenomenal school that has created the very recent, spectacular Les Miserables, one of the best films of the last years and surely for the ones to come, which in the Age of the Colossal Virus would produce very few motion pictures, never mind Magnum opera - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/l...

Some of the best-loved movies are included, from Goodfellas - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/06/g... - to The Shawshank Redemption http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/t...
this fantastic book would help cinephiles enjoy reading about their many favorite features – perhaps all or nearly all – and sits in a great library in the most honorable place, and All the President's Men together with another classic, Adventures in the Screen Trade - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/a... -by William Goldman, winner of the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/b... -and All the President’s Men.

If you are interested in The Movies, you could also read The Kid Stays in the Picture, by Robert Evans, a very controversial figure, who has been an actor, the head of The Paramount Pictures studio, producer and the one involved in the making of The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, Chinatown and many other fundamental works about which he has wonderful stories - http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/t...
Looking back at The Movie Book, Werner Herzog and his mad leading actor come to mind, with their tortures when making masterpieces as Aguirre, the Wrath of God - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/a...

[Su Lohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considerando otros libros de la serie de Grandes Ideas, Explicaciones Sencillas, este libro se queda corto, la mayoría de las películas que incluye vienen resumidas entre 1 y dos páginas, lo que hace que la información que te entrega sea muy resumida, sin incluir tanto dato anecdótico o desconocido para la mayoría, sino que más bien es la misma información que se puede encontar buscando superficialmente en Google

[Tania García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro entretenido e ideal para los amantes del cine. No se limita a las películas hollywoodense, también habla de las producciones de otros países y que se volverían un referente para las películas siguientes.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

258 - 2018

No comic book movies... #sigh

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I'm a big fan of DK books, and have known about the 'Big Ideas' series for years, this is my first time reading one of these books. The Movie Book is just what is on the cover: big ideas (in this case the history of cinema mostly via films themselves) simply explained (through brief histories, short synopses, and of course plenty of imagery).
The whole thing starts with an explanatory introduction that logs in as the longest piece in the book at four pages. From there we're off to the races with two-page histories of the period about to be covered, then short synopses of each film presented as vital to the period and to our understanding of film as a whole. That's the formula for each section: history (with timeline), followed by films.
The history as given attempts to incorporate what's come so far, what was happening in the world as it pertains to this form, and the influence each period would have on the following ones. It's a simple way to relay a lot of information in an easily digestible way. The timelines are also helpful in giving a rough framework to the influential points along it, sometimes including films that don't otherwise get coverage in these pages.
The synopses are nicely laid out, though sometimes contain spoilers (so read with caution) and those pages always have a sidebar including major players for each film and 'Before' and 'After' bullet points. Occasionally, these sections will also include graphic representations of important issues within the film, poster art for the movie and always at least one still and one quote to head the film's page.
This was an absolutely engrossing read, even for someone like myself who considers themselves a pretty well-informed cineaste, and immediately has added some new views to my must-see list. My sole issue with the book was that it leaned heavily toward straight dramas and therefore excluded some influential horror and science-fiction films (though some of these are covered in the 'Directory' section, where they briefly address some of the also-rans). Otherwise, if you're interested in film to any degree, this should absolutely be in your own library. I suspect it is only the first one of the series to appear in mine.
This hardcover edition has a foil-silver cover (with no dustjacket), includes the aforementioned Directory as well as a thorough Index and a page full of photo Acknowledgements.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've made no secret of the fact that I love this series of education books from DK Publishing. After enjoying The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, The Art Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, and The Science Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, I was really looking forward to the movie book. My love for movies rivals my love for books but this book disappointed me.
I found some of the films chosen to be highlighted a bit pedantic and some of the descriptions, especially those of some very popular films rather dismissive. And even though the introduction contained a sort of disclaimer about compiling any list of films not being able to please everyone, I feel that a history of film should include the most popular films of a given era. But this is all subjective; what really disappointed me were the inaccuracies. I found at least three mistakes in the featured film descriptions and one mistake about an actor in the bonus list at the end. And those were just in movies that I knew very well. These inaccuracies made me question the accuracy of the information in the other Big Ideas, Simply Explained books I've read but this one just felt rushed, especially given the absurd number of typos. While I'll be keeping this book in my collection, it will certainly not be my go-to authority on film history.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much more tan the big science book. I guess it's because the subject matter wasn't so complex and you could breeze through it without having to know each individual movie so for once I thought that this type of format worked perfectly. In fact, I found myself really wanting to watch the movies that I hadn't watched yet. I was particularly proud towards the beginning of the book when I knew or had watched the really old movies from the first half of the 20th century. But an even better feeling was towards the end of the book talking about the movies from the 90s onwards, I found myself feeling deeply emotionally connected to the movies being mentioned and praised and understanding the reason why they are so influential in history. I realised that movies are a key influence on who I am as a person so it was almost as if the author was confirming my very personality (in a very self centred way). I really liked what was the criteria for a movie to be featured in this book, which was on how much the movie influenced movies in the future and particular stand out qualities from them that hadn't been done before. It gave me a compltetly different perspective on movies such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and where they stand in history. I was surprised on how many Brazilian movies were in there, which goes to show on the WIDE range of countries that the book considered. There were even a couple of movies that I was surprised would be in there and would like to revisit them to get a better appreciation for, like the Hurt Locker.

[Amin Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
This book would be a five stars for you if you’re looking for a book to give you movie-recommendations.
Although I sure will use it to at least watch 5 movies (since it’s written by a movie-journalist above all) the only reason I intended to read it is because I am bewildered by the movie industry and the way they produce films and all that effects and stuff.
The book gives great insight about the start of the movie industry and the culture. But then after about 1930+ it’s only a guide for films. I wanted a book that will go through the beginning of film industry and how it affected people, the transition of black-and-white to color, the transition of silent to non-silent and then how it advanced it history and affected it with all the war theme like WWI&WWII, about the amazing making of movies, back-stage fun facts, a little bit about highly-acclaimed actors, the revolution of quality and etc...
Did I expect to see all this in one book? No, but I certainly expected much more in this, it did give some of what I mentioned above, and even things I didn’t expect, but it wasn’t much. Only about 15% of the book was dedicated too that kind of stuff, the 85% rest was just great movies throughout history.
To put it short: this a movie-guide book, not an informative movie book.

[Paige G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nonfiction book is terrific if you want to indulge yourself with endless facts and background knowledge of movies. It touches on the best 100 movies ( in Doring Kindersley's opinion). The book dances through time, talking about films from the 1900s, to black and white films, and to some iconic films of a couple years ago. My personal favorite section of the book was about, "The Wizard of Oz". After seeing the Broadway musical of Wicked I became rather amazed by the origin of the book and reading this allowed me to gain more knowledge of the history. The book not only touched on history but also included the political, cultural, and a short story attached to every film. There are also numerous illustrations and picture evidence that show readers more complex ideas. Furthermore, there were a lot of movies I had never heard of, like "A Trip To the Moon" (1902). Since reading this book, it has inspired me to definitely turn on Netflix and binge watch some movies. Considering that I am no movie expert or fanatic I did find this book extremely informative and to have very good content!

[Tyler Zamora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pretty thorough and comprehensive collection of movies from their birth to their current state. Of course I felt they left out several important films, such as The Silence of the Lambs, any of Michelangelo Antonioni’s movies, and so many musicals. I was glad to see West Side Story in the section of films that almost made the cut. It almost made up for it. And where was The Matrix? I’m not even a huge fan, but technical advances alone should’ve given it a spot. Or Titanic, that wasn’t mentioned at all. So who’s to say what should be included and what shouldn’t. This book is by no means the final say or anything like that.

I do think the book does a great job at tracking the progression of film through the selection the authors did choose to write about. I thought it was helpful how they separated the movies by era instead of genre or some other way. This helped create an arch for the story of film’s history as well as helped highlight the individual films. I highly recommend for any cinephile or someone who is looking for new film recommendations. I know I always like to explore and this book exposed me to new films and directors, I had never heard of before.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I’m a cinephile so there were lots of really excellent movies in this book, and it was cool to read about them and to read about movies I’d not heard of yet. That said—DK, you seriously couldn’t have included a woman’s perspective on movies that should have been included? This book was just full of guys’ favorites movies and it often felt like those conversations you had in college with that one dude who was majoring in filmmaking and was telling you about how brilliant Fight Club is or some obscure French film that only like 10 people have heard of. There was barely any romances or musicals in this book, barely any animation, and only occasional horror. But lots and lots and lots of action movies about men, war movies about men, gangster dramas about men—you get point. Also one page for Star Wars which literally changed how movies were made and was/is a cultural phenomenon but 4 pages for some indie flick going into intricate detail about the movie’s themes, characters, context etc…just overall kinda disappointing read that needs more diverse POV’s.

[Kafamdaki Makine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ansiklopedi gibi bir kitap sinema tarihine ansiklopedik resimlerle bilgi veriyor firmanın tüm gelişimini neredeyse öğrendim. Sanki izledim fotoğrafların olması harikaydı. Tarihi sıralama beni benden aldı. Ansiklopedi dönemine yetişemedim ama onun büyüleyici bilgilendirici gücüne bir kez şahit olmuştum bu kitabı okurken öyle bir his yaşadım. Fotoğraflarıyla bir harika. Editör düzenlemesine bayıldım, sinemasever için vazgeçilmez bir başucu kitabı. Sinemanın başlangıcından yeniliklerine hemen hemen her kültüre kaynaklık eden bir kitap. Devasa bir kitap olduğundan okurken tutma konusunda sıkıntı oluyor. Aslında inceleme için kitabı elimde günlerce bırakamadım. Yönetmenler oyuncular akımlar hakkında kısa kısa yazıları bir harika. Düzenlemesi o kadar hoşuma gitti ki okumayı kolaylaştırıyor. Eksik kalan filmler olmuyor değil ama hangi listede olmaz ki sinema doyumsuz bir şey. İyi ki sinema var!

[Kris Roedig · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reads like a reference book simply because it IS a reference book. It is by no means a full and complete list of every single film that changed cinema, but it is pretty darn close.

I highly recommend the audio version. The narrator gives it his all. Peter Guinness adds a little something to the narration which brings out the passion of author Danny Leigh.

From beginning to end, it makes some of the greatest movies we all know better while also bringing to mind some films you may not have heard of. On the other hand there are movies out there which I was never interested in, and Leigh writes them up, summarizing them succinctly, which made me raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

Four stars for two reasons - First - not enough women/minority directors are talked about. Kathryn Bigelow gets a bit of a write-up, but that is way near the end. Spike Lee is mentioned, as is Ang Lee, and a few others. But still there are lots of great minority directors out there who could have been mentioned too. And a couple of mistakes I noticed. The biggest one being that "Pulp Fiction" was beaten out of Best Picture by Stephen Spielberg's "Forrest Gump" - Spielberg did not direct "Forrest Gump", it was Robert Zemeckis. This is something that could have easily been researched.

[Scott S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars

I didn't know which way this one would go. The book itself is documentary dry, but it is well narrated and the history of the movie industry was actually pretty fascinating. I especially got caught up thinking about what it must've been like for those first theater goers. Moving pictures must've been damn near witchcraft. Mention is made of viewers fleeing the theater because of a shot of a train barreling towards the camera. The book added a couple movies to my to-watch list.

I have a few more of these Big Idea books that I have now bumped up my queue.

Of course any Hollywood centric book is going to cry "capitalism bad, commies good!" 🙄. So prepare to endure a bit of that.

Well narrated.

[Artur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and inspirational read for a cinema fan. This book sheds light not only on the movies themselves, but also on the context of their making, successors and predecessors and biographies of the people involved into production. Carefully chosen frames from the movies allow the reader to actually see the way film fells before even watching it and clear and apprehensible info-graphics allow for an easy and intuitive understanding of its story and connections between characters. Selection of the movies lacks some of my favorite ones, but the list like that can never be perfect because of the vast richness of its subject. Great book and must read for any movie fan!