Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film

by Syd Field

Why are some movies truly great? What makes an actor legendary? Which elements of successful screenplays move people's hearts more than others?Syd Field spent a lifetime seeking answers to these questions. His bestselling books on the art and craft of visual storytelling have become the film industry's gold standard, direct from the man The Hollywood Reporter called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world."In Going to the Movies , Field tells his deeply personal story, sharing insights and experience gleaned from an extraordinary career. Using a spectrum of classic movies -- from Citizen Kane to The Matrix , from Casablanca to Pulp Fiction -- Field provides a guided tour of the core components common to all notable films. These building blocks are fundamental; they transcend time and culture, rooted in the human psyche and our shared need to define ourselves through storytelling. Syd Field's profound perspective on filmic stories was the first of its kind.Discover the celebrated filmmakers, films, and stars that shaped Field's unique understanding of the medium, Rich in anecdote and wisdom, Going to the Movies will both entertain and inform, enhancing every moviegoer's appreciation of the magic behind the silver screen.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Art, Biography, Writing

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Sydney Alvin Field was an American screenwriting guru who wrote several books on the subject of screenwriting. He also conducted workshops and seminars on the subject of producing salable screenplays. Hollywood film producers have increasingly used his ideas on structure as a guideline to a proposed screenplay's potential.

Reviews

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read Syd Field’s book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting and asked yourself, who is Syd Field and why is telling me to write my script this way? Read this book next. In Screenplay, I got the impression Field got an entry level job reading movie scripts. Here you learn he was a student of Jean Renoir and mentee of Sam Peckinpah. If the other book teaches you the structure of the screenplay, this book explains how Syd came to understand the structure by watching movies, reading scripts, and teaching screenwriting,

What hooked me is that I am also a big fan Renoir’s Grand Illusion and Field has a lot to say about it. Renoir was later a teacher of sorts at Berkley. Field also loves Renoir’s Rules of the Game, a movie that gets more ink, but I have yet to really understands and appreciate. The book made me want to revisit that and other films of his that I haven’t seen.

Field was also classmate of Pecknipah’s niece at Berkley. This led to meeting the director and sharing hours of stories with Peckinpah’s between his making of Major Dundee and his comeback classic, Wild Bunch.

If there is one other thing that I appreciated about Field and the book, it’s that he felt that Chinatown was flat the first time he saw it. It took subsequent viewings to really dig it. I felt that way too. He also goes into the story of the water theft that inspired Robert Towne to write the movie. I didn’t know reality was as cutthroat as the movie.

I’ll admit that I naturally write story as dialogues and therefore stage plays came easier to me. Syd Field’s structure was intimidating back in college. Having recently read David Mamet’s book on directing film there is a lot of overlap on how constraints make you more creative, how you need to tell the story visually, and how action is character.

*One further note I don’t want to forget. Syd Field didn’t really understand the hype of Pulp Fiction when he saw it. He called it a B-movie and felt the structure was cadywampus. This led him to study the film further and breakdown the flow. He realized it’s structured as 3 films and once the structure was in place, the order of the events no longer mattered. Content wise, I think he still felt it was a b-movie, but he appreciated why the audience took to it.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have started with one of his other books, I thought. The first chapter, on La Grande Illusion, was just lovely, but the book devolved from a personal experience of specific films and how he saw them into a biography, which was not what I expected. Okay, it was a decent biography, but when you're looking for a book on how a screenwriter views movies, and get a subtitle like this, it seemed misleading.

[Hosam Diab · Rating 3 out of 5]

لطيف كرفقة ممتعة في رحلة صيفية مملة. ربما كان مكمّلاً لكتاب السيناريو الشهير، لكن التعامل معه بنيّة التعلم سيفقدك الكثير من هدفه، فهو في النهاية تجربة صانع سينما عن عشقه للسينما: مذكرات لزمن فات، كما أن تقييماته للأفلام التثويرية الجديدة في عالم السينما مثل "بلب فيكشن" لن يضيف إليك ما تعلمه عنها. نصيحة أن تحتفظ بورقة وتدون عليها الأفلام التي تمركزت عليها الفصول بحيث يتسنى لك مشاهدتها فيما بعد، لأن أفلام عظيمة بالفعل

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great if you're interested in how to tear apart a film script. It was interesting however, it did make me tear apart scripts from the time I read the book on.

[Juan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining biography whose topic is not so much the author himself (whom I didn't know previously) as it's the atmosphere of the Hollywood of the second half of the 20th century. Makes for a good read even if you only have a passing interest in cinema.

[V.Shanmugam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I start reading his books to enjoy movies by learning about movie making. This book serves that purpose. He gave evolution of the movies from 1940 to 1990.

[Ewo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[sallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

after having benefitted much from syd field's screenwriting book, i was happy to read a more personal account of his love for film and his own journey as a screenwriter.

one of his mentors was the great renoir, son of impressionist painter renoir, a theatre professor at ucla. lovely.

[Vyom · Rating 3 out of 5]

illustrates what you intuitively know and uses good examples from great films.

[Angie]

Great reading for any movie fan. I wish Syd Field wrote this book when I was in film school. We have watched several of the movies he writes about.

[SHUiZMZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly engaging and insightful book for anyone interested in film, on a casual basis or highly intellectual or career driven interests. I feel that it a must-read because it will even appeal greatly to anyone who enjoys reading novels, stories, scripts, playwrights, or is just an overall film addict or bookworm. Well-written at a pleasurably appealing pace to read. Opened my eyes to a few films I had forgotten about, never have heard of before, or reminded me I need to re-visit them because I enjoyed them as much as Syd Field did.