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Book Reviews | Regular Feature "It's Only a Movie:" Films and Critics in American Culture. Borrowing the title from Pauline Kael's 1995 essay, Dr. Haberski traces the origin of motion pictures from primitive nickelodeon days to art form heyday and finally to an ignominious decline, where in the 1990's Hollywood's pendulum swung back to its capitalist roots and became just another commodity hoping to reap large profits. According to Dr. Haberski, America's motion pictures were on a wild roller coaster ride changing their format as the historical events around them were altering the society that watched these photoplays. Originally, movies were perceived as a threat to the nation's moral fiber because their content challenged the status quo with their sexual innuendoes, flagrant recalcitrance, and free spirited themes. But after three generations of audiences sat in darkened theaters, a kind of cultural inversion occurred . Now it was the youth—the byproduct ofa media culture and reared in a different intellectual environment—who were dissatisfied with existing screenplays. By the 1960's, there emerged a wildly inventive and pretentious group known as the film generation. Overall, Professor Haberski examines the many facets dealing with the ongoing Oxford Union debate as critics and viewers ponder the same question: are movies an art form or merely escapist entertainment? What was it, he ponders, that pitted Paramount Pictures against Theodore Dreiser in that controversial court case involving the screen adaptation oíAnAmerican Tragedy! Was the proposed photodrama, as the studio claimed, necessary to insure decent moral standards or merely another type ofcensorship? How about the autuer theory and its American proponent, Andrew Sarris? Was this approach, as Pauline Kael suggested, an elevation of trash to artistic status or should motion pictures, as Roger Ebert implied, deserve Pulitzer Prize consideration? Other questions are equally frank and Dr. Haberski moves in and out of numerous topics related to cinema history and its future either as art or entertainment plus the influence generated by critics. While there are many titles dealing with film culture, It's Only a Movie takes the subject much further and ponders that strangest of societal phenomenon, America's love affair with motion pictures, the ramifications ofthis media in kneading contemporary thought, and the relevance of aesthetics in an information age. What, then, can viewers expect from Hollywood? Will the film industry produce art or foster more baloney? And what about financial considerations? It's Only a Movie tackles these subjects head-on. Robert Fyne Kean University RJFyne@aol.com Anthony Slide. Mitrate Won't Wait, A History ofFilm Preservation in the United States. McFarland, 1992. 240 pages; $20.00 Explosive Footage In the age of videotapes and DVDs we take it for granted that the motion pictures we enjoyed will always be around for future viewing. Not true, according to film historian Anthony Slide in his "highly opinionated" narrative about film preservation and restoration. Slide spares no one from the jabs of his rapier: directors, producers, actors, collectors, the studios, private organizations, and the United States Government. They are all to blame for the loss and/or deterioration of one of the western world's most important legacies—film! In eleven chapters Anthony Slide forces the reader to ski the downhill course ofthe motion picture industry and this nation's response to film preservation and restoration. Sometimes the reader cannot clearly see the run because of all the details! Nitrocellulose, nitrate film, first produced by Eastman Kodak in 1899, and used until 1949, is highly flammable, and as it deteriorates produces a potentially deadly acid. Unless stored in low temperature and humidity, fires can result. Ironically, safety film, which replaced nitrate film in 1950, is not much better because it, too, can eventually decompose and emit a vinegar odor. What disturbs Slide is the lack of an agenda by the motion picture industry, government, and collectors to undertake the dual responsibility ofpreservation and restoration while tracking down the thousands of photodramas produced whose whereabouts may still be unknown. Slide's approach is methodical. Each chapter has a target: the Museum of Modern Art, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, film collectors, the studios, and the government. The...

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