This is "off topic" - right?
I took a break from horror novels in order to read this title yesterday, and since I've written a review (since there was none) for Amazon, I thought I'd post it here.
Hope this is okay in "off topic".
"Firstly I'm a lover of early cinema, and I bought this book to see if it had any interesting facts I didn't already know. I was pleasantly surprised to find it did.
The book essentially overs the 20 year period between 1893 and 1913, the growth of commercial cinema, taking in the inventions of Edison/Dickson and the movie making magic if the early pioneers. However, it doesn't actually start there. In fact some of the most interesting material comes right at the beginning of the book (and can be sampled on the main amazon page for the title) when the author discusses early versions of the Magic Lantern. This account goes back as far as 1420! I was left wishing there was a fuller account of this piece of cinema's history.
From there the book discusses all the major developments. As a window into the early steps of maturation in American Cinema it's a concise account that seems to hit all the right notes.
Still, it wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't mention a few things that bothered me. Firstly - and this is entirely my fault - there were times when I was disappointed that the book didn't take a more all-encompassing view. Key figures like Melies is here, but only in fairly brief asides. I repeat - THIS IS MY FAULT - because the title of the book ought to set expectations: The Birth of AMERICAN Film.
Still, there is so much to know, I was often having to fill in the gaps from other sources. Hence, this isn't a book for someone with broader interests, although on the other hand it is worth a read and owning in order to get some other tidbits.
Secondly, the very nature of the writing is a bit difficult to juggle sometimes. There are, seemingly, a million names and a million dates, sometimes three or four a page, that I couldn't get to stay in my head. Maybe it's my own feeble mind. I was soon awash in names I'd never heard and dates that formed important parts of the puzzle, but I had trouble bringing them all together.
Thirdly, the book is short. The text occupies 175 pages, and I read it in one sitting quite comfortably (maybe if I'd taken more time some of the names and dates might have stuck better!) Again, expecting a more in-depth assessment of early cinema was probably a bit much considering the length - silly me!
However, let me end on a couple of highs.
Firstly, as all good books ought to do, this one made me very very interested in looking more deeply into topics discussed. The aforementioned "Magic Lanterns" is one, the locations, setup, and conditions within Nickelodeons is another, the working conditions of the projectionists... and on. These are dealt with all too fleetingly, and I'd love to read fuller, more detailed accounts of these specific elements.
And finally - this book wins on the illustration front. Very few pages go by without a picture and caption of some sort, and some are truly excellent - from original Patent applications, to shots of early Boxing matches being filmed, to color shots of Magic Lantern slides (I didn't mention, there are 16 colors prints, on glossy paper, in the center of this book). Everyone is excellent, and well captioned.
So all in all, this book is a winner. Stay focused on what the book sets out to do, and if that leaves you wanting more, well that's a good thing. It's not full of jargon, and it's never boring.
Recommended."
