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Book Reviews | Regular Feature creating the form or content of dreams within his films. Knopf contends that Keaton's success in this regard derives fromhis ability to blend dream and reality: "[His] unique combination oftheatrical slapstick and visual realism goes to the heart of his achievement as a film artist" (80). Knopf devotes much less time to the contemporary influence of Keaton. In the author's view, that influence is most evident—fittingly—on the stage, and most specifically in the performance art known as New Vaudeville, a hodgepodge of theatrical acts that weave their anarchy and irreverence out of the same kinds of physical comedy and improvisation as Keaton. Bill Irwin, the best known of the New Vaudevillians, has often cited Keaton as a model. Another inheritor of the Keaton mantle is Hong Kong's Jackie Chan, whose comedyaction films have benefited from his strict training in Peking opera, an experience in many ways similar to Buster's apprenticeship with "The Three Keatons." Knopf's book commands admiration for its conceptual reach. His success in demonstrating that Keaton's film work has its roots in an earlier medium is due in part to vivid descriptions of scenes from his movies, which make it possible to follow the text without prior viewing. In this respect the work is as realistic as the setting from one of Keaton's films. Indeed the entire book is characterized by admirable clarity of thought and expression. The author, moreover, does not overstay his welcome; the book includes just over one-hundredand -fifty pages of text, many of them enhanced by stills from Keaton's films whose adroit placement helps to clinch the arguments at stake. The topical organization results in some repetition of examples from chapter to chapter, but some of this may be unavoidable. Knopf's bibliography reflects a thorough grounding in the relevant scholarship; this enables him to contextualize Keaton with respectto the early development ofthe cinema and the work of fellow film comedians—in particular, Chaplin and Harold Lloyd—and thereby enrich the reading experience . The author also engages in gracious debate with others who have written about Keaton and his peers. In the end, perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid this sophisticated, provocative , and consistently entertaining work is that it creates the desire to discover, orrediscover, the cinematic genius ofthe Great Stone Face. James Krukones John Carroll University jkrukones@jcu.edu Gregg Mitman. Constructing Wildlife: Reel Nature: America's Romance with Wildlife on Film. Harvard University Press, 1999. 263 pages, $29.95. Variety of Messages Censored sex lives of dolphins? A bee hive as an allegory for communism? Which depictions of wildlife are suitable for the American public? Attitudes toward animals and nature have long been molded by representations in literature, television, and film, but awareness of endangered species and unprecedented extinction rates brings a sense ofurgency to recent critical inquiries . Analyzing media depictions of animals can reveal a variety of messages, some of which reinforce the need for protection of species and others whichjustify their destruction, but all ofwhich influence the cultural construction of "wildlife" in this country. In Reel Nature: America 's Romance with Wildlife on Film, Gregg Mitman offers a history of what he calls the "nature film" and how ithas shapedAmerican attitudes toward conservation. While Mitman does not label his work as either ecocriticism or green cultural studies, his concerns for wildlife and wilderness make this book useful to scholars in both fields, even ifit attempts to be more "historical" than polemical. Beginning with early documentary andnatural history films, Reel Nature reveals some of the earliest efforts of depicting wildlife on screen. Mitman suggests historical trends, such as turn-ofthe -century travelogue-expedition films focused on testing one's manhood against wildbeasts. Commercial films in the 1920s and 1930s vacillated between "science" and "spectacle" and were often more concerned with turning a profit than adhering to "scientific accuracy" in the portrayal of animals. Mitman claims that World War II and the Cold War fostered a move away from violent and "untamed" animals in favor of wildlife that is cute, cuddly and able to reinforce images of "traditional " family values. As he considers standards of...

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