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American Silent Film
Praised as the "best modern survey of the silent period" (New Republic), this indispensable history tells you everything you need to know about American silent film, from the nickelodeons in the early 1900s to the birth of the first "talkies" in the late 1920s. The author provides vivid descriptions of classic pictures such as The Birth of a Nation, Int...more
Paperback, 472 pages
Published
August 22nd 1998
by Da Capo Press
(first published June 15th 1978)
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The ideal introduction to American Silent Cinema: entertaining, critical, insightful, and very read-able. Everson also makes a brave and wise choice to talk about the current state of silent film scholarship and how it has changed and evolved over the years, particularly in how the (re)discovery of films thought to be lost has changed our understanding of a particular era, filmmaker, star, genre, studio, etc. This is the true sign of a historian who is truly dedicated to his field of study: he n...more
William K. Everson's book The American Silent Film is a good primer into the history of silent film. A book one will gladly return to every so often. It isn't perfect. In this book, Everson is a bit given to being rather Griffith-centric. The attitude that Griffith was the only filmmaker during the silent era making films of any quality. And somehow he seems a bit grudging to give any other filmmakers credit for creating anything to equal or even SURPASS Griffith. He does give such credit, but i...more
Anyone with the least interest in early cinema or its stars should read this immediately.
Interesting complement to Frances Marion's Biography (Without Lying Down).
It isn't easy writing a survey of a film. Everson did an admirable job of trying to present the scope and innovation of silent film. However, he often trips over himself in his conviction that D.W. Griffith was the best of breed, and also in his prejudice against almost all film that has come since.
It was difficult to teach using this book, since I had to clarify to the students why Everson was so adamant in his opinions and now reads (some thirty years on) as dated and narrow-minded...more
It was difficult to teach using this book, since I had to clarify to the students why Everson was so adamant in his opinions and now reads (some thirty years on) as dated and narrow-minded...more
Great detail on silent film productions. Really sad that so many are lost. It took me a long time to read this and in the end I just finished 2/3's of it and skimmed the last part. It was good but so much detail was hard to slog through. I'm still counting it as having read it though!
Good, concise, sequential overview of the silent era from its earliest days to the advent of the talkies. Chapters on "The Beginnings," "The Art of the Sub-Title," "Genres," "European Influences," and more. Good reading.
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