The TV Guide Film and Video Companion

By TV Guide's CineBooks and TV Guide Magazine rp

Book Overview

At a whopping 1,600 pages, with some 35,000 of the greatest movies ever made, this encyclopedia by the editors of TV Guide's award winning, world-renowned Cinebooks Database is simply indispensable.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586638122
• ISBN13: 9781586638122
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Friedman
• Length: 1600 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Essential For The Classic Film Buff

The most complete source for films from the thirties, forties and fifties. Especially strong reviews of European and Asian films make this absolutely essential for those interested in film history, now that many more of these films are available on DVD and on Turner Classic Movies. Ebert and Kael remain my favorites for films of the sixties onward, but you won't find a better collection of information about classic films anywhere else. Highly recommended.

A must have for movie buffs

I absolutely love this book. Is it perfect? No. Are the reviews sometimes too generous? Yes. What makes this book wonderful is the details within the reviews that moviephiles will love. Little tidbits like the ones telling how the director of Pride of the Yankees, Sam Wood, made the righthanded Gary Cooper appear to play like the lefthanded Lou Gehrig: Coop hit right handed and then ran up the first base line and the image was reversed on film to make his play look very authentic. Some thought the book was too long, I thought that it was not long enough as I want to delve into how great movies are made and not just read someone's biased opinion. MY only regret regarding this book is that there have not been more of them printed.

Very good but very long

I found the capsule reviews in this book to be quite helpful and often in agreement with my estimations. One major complaint: the book is simply too long. One-quarter of the book is taken up by a list of all the actors cited in the films reviewed, with mention only of those films reviewed. This idea strikes me as somewhat foolish, and the print size any layout make for much wasted space. Also, a quibble: In the cast credits, both the actor and the character name are listed. In the capsule review, this is often repeated. All in all, this is one of the best books of its type I have seen, and it would be helpful in informing a reader about the quality and content of good films.