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Seeing Is Believing: Or How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the '50s
A look at the Hollywood movies of the 1950s and the thousand subtle ways they reflect the political tensions of the decade. It covers films like Giant, Rebel Without A Cause and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to show how politically innocent movies in fact do bear an ideological burden. As we see organization men and rugged individualists, housewives and career women, cops...more
Paperback, 382 pages
Published
September 3rd 2001
by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
(first published 1983)
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Biskind covers an incredible number of Hollywood movies herein, and gives the reader many of the best/worst/most incongruous lines from otherwise forgettable vehicles. Nice to have this book as a cheat sheet to help me avoid indulging my 50's Americana obsession via more crappy DVD reissues (besides, I've seen enough westerns and war movies for one lifetime).
Biskind oversimplifies in categorizing "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (yes, I know I should italicize that title, but I'm too lazy to do...more
Biskind oversimplifies in categorizing "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (yes, I know I should italicize that title, but I'm too lazy to do...more
In spite of what you might be led to believe by the cover image and typography, this is not of a piece with Biskind's books on Hollywood on- and off-screen from the '70s to the '90s. Rather it deals with the politics and semiotics of American film in the 1950s, the time of McCarthyism and Reds under the bed. I've only seen one of the films deconstructed (and that 15 years ago) but this was an interesting read nonetheless. Just don't make the same mistake I did in assuming it would be another gos...more
Biskind's categorizations are helpful for giving a general understanding of Hollywood and film during the 1950s, but they're ultimately reductive. It seems to me that there are more nuances in these films, their tropes, and the ways in which they negotiate between censorship and acceptability. While he always does interesting analyses, the book is driving towards the same point at all turns; it comes off as repetitive and makes it feel like it is much longer than it actually needs to be.
Readers who enjoyed Biskind's gossipy and journalistic romp through the New Hollywood years and the Miramax era may be slightly disappointed by this earlier work. It is firmly in the tradition of 1980s cultural studies film analysis, which makes for slightly repetitive and, frankly, fairly tedius reading - Biskind's knowledge of these films is impeccable but the coldy reductive tropes of the approach leave you wondering why he felt the need to bother. Very good on On the Waterfront though.
As a fan of 1950s movies and political analysis, I found Biskind's book to be a treasure trove if analysis and insight. It helps to have seen the movies in question. I was probably around 70%. I would like to watch the other 30% and read it again.
Read for class, liked quite a bit. The chapters were he focuses on individual films, especially if you have seen the individual films in question. Anyway, although his point doesn't address ideology, I found his reading of the films interesting.
Jul 24, 2011
James barrett
added it
meh, not as insightful into the film making process as easy riders and raging bulls. more of a film analysis and not a very interesting one at that.
solid, insightful analysis. it helps if you've seen the films Biskind is referring to, but it's also a great excuse to watch the ones you haven't. very good.
Very theoretical in comparison to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, but still interesting for its look into mainstream 50s American cinema.
Oct 30, 2008
Tracey
marked it as to-read
NOT AT LIB 10/08 - Referenced in The Mouse Machine (Telotte)
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Peter Biskind is a cultural critic and film historian. He was the editor-in-chief of American Film magazine from 1981 to 1986, and the executive editor of Premiere from 1986 to 1996. His writing has appeared in scores of national publications, including Rolling Stone, Paris Match, the Nation, The New York Times, the Times of London, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as film journals such as Sight...more
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