A History of Narrative Film [Paperback]

This 4th Edition of David A. Cook's History of Narrative Film was redesigned to make it more compelling as a general read, heavily reducing the unattractive 'text book' nature of the earlier editions. Before the main body of the book begins there are two prefaces (one the original preface and the other a new preface to this edition) as well as a list of acknowledgements, notes on methodology, dates, titles and stills used in the book. Placing these segments at the beginning of the book instead of the end is one example of how the book is easier to use; at 1121 pages this book is immense, but turning to the back you can easily find the index and glossary without first guiding your way around notes and acknowledgements. So to start with, we can say that the book is well designed and easy to use.

In terms of content this book comprises 21 major sections, each of which has its own sub-categories. I am going to list some of the 21 major categories here and then explain why I have done so:

1) Origins 2) International Expansion 1907-1918 3) D.W. Griffith and the Development of Narrative Form 4) German Cinema of the Weimar Period 1919-1929 5) Soviet Silent Cinema and the Theory of Montage 1917-1931 6) Hollywood in the Twenties 7) The Coming of Sound and Colour 1926-1935... 9) Europe in the Thirties 10) Orson Welles and the Modern Sound Film... 13) The French New Wave and Its Native Context... 19) Third World Cinema... 21) Hollywood Enters the Digital Domain.

Just from these listed section headings one can already see that Cook's book covers film history from its earliest origins and progresses chronologically (as any good history should) through the twenties, thirties and up to the present era of digital cinema. I will also point out that World War 2 cinema is covered in other major sections including European Resistance Cinema of East and West Europe, and a specific section on post-war Italian Cinema. Another positive about this book is that, as can be seen from those sections listed, it covers all regions of the world from America to Europe, third-world countries and Asia.

As well as covering periods chronologically and considering regions all of the world, Cook also (very correctly) dedicates space to important personnel and films of the periods he covers; for example, there is a sub-section dedicated to "Das Kabinet des Dr. Caligari" (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) as it was the definitive example of German Expressionist Cinema. Similarly, a later portion of the book is dedicated to Orson Welles and specifically "Citizen Kane", which is famous for its narrative construction. Cook knows what was important and makes sure we don't miss it.

So, can this book get any better? YES it can, because although it is a very long text book there are many, many film and publicity stills used to support the text. This book is very thick and because of this a thin copy-paper has been used to minimise weight, but the major section dealing with colour gives the reader a wide array of high-quality colour photos that are printed on a thicker, higher-quality gloss paper.

Everything about this book shows that it is not just a text book for students; it is a well designed, well structured film history that is highly readable and contains more than enough images to keep everybody happy. The fact that higher quality paper is used for colour photos shows the desire to maximise saisfaction here, and the book succeeds at this. Students, teachers and film enthusiasts alike will want this book in their library.