The Moviegoing Experience, 1968-2001

Rating:
Summary: Excellent follow up book to the author's Technicolor Movies
Review: I was able to read a special preview copy of this book which I borrowed from a friend. It's an excellent follow up to the author's other book, "Technicolor Movies" but is less technical and easier to understand. In the Technicolor book, Haines describes the fabulous process that brought the rich colors to the Golden Age of Hollywood. This book explains why Technicolor along with movie palaces, large screen cinemas, drive-ins and 70mm disappeared from 1968-2001.

I was quite surprised at the author's outlook. I had always read that 'New Hollywood' saved the movie business. According to Haines, they destroyed the moviegoing experience. There are charts showing weekly attendence declining as more and more R rated movies are produced and fewer G and PG films. I guess it makes sense because children can't get into R films and many adults don't like movies with graphic sex and violence. The lack of mainstream films forced the movie palaces to fold and large screen theaters to twin. I had no idea that Jerry Lewis was the first person to build multiplexes.

The chapters on the blacklist, counterculture, exploitation, sexploitation and blaxploitation are facinating and give a whole new perspective to these subjects. Haines is very critical of directors who use film for propoganda rather than entertainment. While he's opinionated, the book is well researched and he makes a good point about how too many message movies alienate a lot of viewers.

Haines also shows the corner cutting methods that theater owners used in reaction to declining attendence. He discusses platters which ruins the prints. I always wondered why new movies looked so scratchy after only a few days.

Haines also gives a history of home video and cable and how they affected exhibition. As home entertainment improved, cinemas got worse while ticket prices kept going up. Really interesting
trivia. It was news to me that 65 theaters were set up with video projectors in the fifties along with cable stations and pay per view boxes in the home. I thought all that stuff was new.

There is so much information in this book I'll have to re-read it. There's a chapter on videocassettes, laserdiscs and DVD. There's a history of revival theaters that played old movies and film collecting. I didn't know that so many people had projection rooms in their house to show Technicolor and Cinerama movies! The last chapter talks about digital projection and why it's inferior to film.

There's a section in the back of the book that lists all of the surviving movie palaces and drive-ins. It's worth owning a copy just for that! After reading this book, I want to go check them out.

One of the most interesting film books I ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent follow up book to the author's Technicolor Movies
Review: I was able to read a special preview copy of this book which I borrowed from a friend. It's an excellent follow up to the author's other book, "Technicolor Movies" but is less technical and easier to understand. In the Technicolor book, Haines describes the fabulous process that brought the rich colors to the Golden Age of Hollywood. This book explains why Technicolor along with movie palaces, large screen cinemas, drive-ins and 70mm disappeared from 1968-2001.

I was quite surprised at the author's outlook. I had always read that 'New Hollywood' saved the movie business. According to Haines, they destroyed the moviegoing experience. There are charts showing weekly attendence declining as more and more R rated movies are produced and fewer G and PG films. I guess it makes sense because children can't get into R films and many adults don't like movies with graphic sex and violence. The lack of mainstream films forced the movie palaces to fold and large screen theaters to twin. I had no idea that Jerry Lewis was the first person to build multiplexes.

The chapters on the blacklist, counterculture, exploitation, sexploitation and blaxploitation are facinating and give a whole new perspective to these subjects. Haines is very critical of directors who use film for propoganda rather than entertainment. While he's opinionated, the book is well researched and he makes a good point about how too many message movies alienate a lot of viewers.

Haines also shows the corner cutting methods that theater owners used in reaction to declining attendence. He discusses platters which ruins the prints. I always wondered why new movies looked so scratchy after only a few days.

Haines also gives a history of home video and cable and how they affected exhibition. As home entertainment improved, cinemas got worse while ticket prices kept going up. Really interesting
trivia. It was news to me that 65 theaters were set up with video projectors in the fifties along with cable stations and pay per view boxes in the home. I thought all that stuff was new.

There is so much information in this book I'll have to re-read it. There's a chapter on videocassettes, laserdiscs and DVD. There's a history of revival theaters that played old movies and film collecting. I didn't know that so many people had projection rooms in their house to show Technicolor and Cinerama movies! The last chapter talks about digital projection and why it's inferior to film.

There's a section in the back of the book that lists all of the surviving movie palaces and drive-ins. It's worth owning a copy just for that! After reading this book, I want to go check them out.

One of the most interesting film books I ever read.