Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: a Hollywood History by Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale (review)

Since Georges Melies's rocket crashed onto a craterous lunar face in his fantasy film A Trip to the Moon (1903), a sense of the extraordinary has been synonymous with the movies. A tautological term for the fantastic has been designated to every genre of film: from a historical "feature" to a biblical "epic" or even a "spectacular" war film. Hall and Neale painstakingly explore the significance of these and other terms, why they were applied, and how they have evolved into the blockbuster concept of today.

By examining the early history of cinema, the authors demonstrate the fluidity of early definitions such as "specials," "superspecials," and "features." Size, scale, expense, length of program, star and studio involvement, and high production values became key ingredients for use of the terms "epic" and "spectacle." D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and European imports such as Quo Vadis? (1913) are cited as early examples of lavish films primarily marketed as epic or spectacular in an attempt to bring prestige and profit to the producers, distributors, and exhibitors. It was not until 1952 that the term "blockbuster" entered the public vernacular. The authors cite Variety (139) with using the term in its review of the Hollywood remake of Quo Vadis (1952). Nuggets of information such as how "blockbuster," initially used to describe a heavy bomb in World War II, became analogous to a weapon against the competition from television—and eventually became synonymous with the concept of the epic and spectacular film—make this book more than just a compendium of facts.

This book extensively scrutinizes the distribution practices that dominated early cinema. At a time when films consisted of just a few reels, charging exhibitors according to the length of the film (e.g., fifteen cents a foot) was the norm. As films became longer and more expensive, this practice became obsolete, giving rise to other methods of distribution—such as the states rights system; open, selective, and program booking; and road-showing—in attempts to ensure profitable box office returns, especially on prestigious productions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. By the 1930s, price-fixing, block booking, and blind selling ensured that the major studios exerted a vice-like grip on distribution that persisted for almost twenty years. Only intervention from the Supreme Court in 1948 facilitated the separation of distribution from exhibition and so quashed the monopoly of the Big Five. With the decline of the studio system, a rise in conglomerate ownership, and the rise of a youth market in the malls, the use of product marketing to drive the concept and selling of pictures was established. Star Wars (1977) is cited not only for the second coming of sound—in Dolby Stereo—but also for merchandising and sales tie-ins, which continue to dominate the marketing and distribution of films today.

The book also covers social upheavals such as Vietnam and the end of the Cold War, as well as more recent media developments, including the commercialization of state broadcast systems, audience fragmentation, the Internet, and video gaming. The authors explore how these developments ushered in new variations of the blockbuster to include comic book adaptations and sci-fi, action adventure with contemporary settings, historical action films, and the new generation of disaster films. Hence, the authors label blockbusters such as Batman (1989), Alien (1992), Speed (1994), Pearl Harbor (2001), and The Day after Tomorrow (2004) as the "Cinema of Spectacular Situations" (251).

Hall and Neale illuminate the evolution of the exhibition of films from early nickelodeons, picture palaces, and drive-ins to our millennium's multiplexes, IMAX theaters, and DVD home cinema. Social and cultural influences are also demonstrated to have had major effects on the filmmaking industry through its history. The swing from highbrow elitism to middle- and lower-class aesthetics during the Roaring Twenties ensured a larger homegrown market. Regular programs and prices, along with the development of the star...