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Rating: 
Summary: A touch of free speech with a sense of lacking
Review: Even though this book brings important items out to light, the work itself is lacking and at times incomplete. It also has a strong sense of sensasionalism to it, think of watching NBC on daily news. The mention of films like The Great Dictator as items under censorship and controversy is in itself sensasionalistic, as opposed to Citizen Kane which is not mentioned at all, gives a better idea of how subtle and hyped this work is, besides, the constant reference to the De Grazia book by title Banned Films: Movies, Censors and the First Amendment, makes it look like it is a copy of such book and no actual research was ever done to actualize, itemize or distinguish one text from the other. In short this book could be helpful on legal matters and cross reference from one legal case to another,since it does provide the actual case numbers and states where cases where trialed (picture yourself battling the Supreme court and having this book as a resource for enlightment on appeals, injunctions and motions), as far as film is concerned, I personally know of at least 125 more banned films within one decade alone and after the Hays Production Code or the Christian Legion of Decency to write a book on. Sova deserves credit for sticking it out with the female stars and the sex/erotic/porn oriented genre, but I for one think of film as a much broader medium in which the powers that be relish to exert their power to limit the means of expression whether this be of religious, sexual or political nature. Recommended for the high school reader with a strong suggestion to do further reading
Rating: 
Summary: Hugely inaccurate
Review: It doesn't take long to find errors in this book: just read the wholly inaccurate plot synopsis of The Last Picture Show, which is hardly obscure or difficult to find on video, and thus would have been easy to check. Or how about the reference to a film receiving an R rating from the MPAA *several years prior to the establishment of the MPAA's rating system*? Had this been a book of insights or analysis, a few such lapses might have been forgivable. But this is a dry reference work, with little interpretation by the author: and dry reference works require a higher standard of accuracy.
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