A unique perspective on half a century of American cinemafrom the audience's point of view. Tom Stempel goes beyond the comments of professional reviewers, concentrating on the opinions of ordinary people. He traces shifting trends in genre and taste, examining and questioning the power films have in American society. Stempel blends audience response with his own observations and analyzes box office results that identify the movies people actually went to see, not just those praised by the critics. Avoiding statistical summary, he presents the results of a survey on movies and moviegoing in the respondents' own wordswords that surprise, amuse, and irritate.
The moviegoers respond: "Big bad plane, big bad motorcycle, and big bad Kelly McGillis."OnTop Gun
"All I can recall were the slave girls and the Golden Calf sequence and how it got me excited. My parents must have been very pleased with my enthusiasm for the Bible."On why a seven-year-old boy stayed up to watchThe Ten Commandments
"I learned the fine art of seduction by watching Faye Dunaway smolder."A woman's reaction to seeingBonnie and Clyde
"At age fifteen Jesus said he would be back, he just didn't say what he would look like."OnE.T.
"Quasimodo is every seventh grader."On whyThe Hunchback of Notre Dame should play well with middle-schoolers
"A moronic, very 'Hollywoody' script, and a bunch of dancing teddy bears."OnReturn of the Jedi
"I couldn't help but think howMad magazine would lampoon this." OnThe Exorcist