The Big Screen

Book excerpt: “An engaging primer on film history” examining the rise of movies, their influence, and the technology that conveys them (New York Times Book Review). The Big Screen tells the enthralling story of the movies and their signal role in modern life: their rise and spread, their remarkable influence over us, and the technology that made the screen—smaller now, but ever more ubiquitous—as important as the images it carries. At first, film was a waking dream, the gift of appearance delivered for a nickel to huddled masses sitting in the dark. But soon, and abruptly, movies began transforming our societies and our perceptions of the world. The celebrated film authority David Thomson takes us around the globe, through time, and across many media—moving from Eadweard Muybridge to Steve Jobs, from Sunrise to I Love Lucy, from John Wayne to George Clooney, from television commercials to streaming video—to tell the complex, gripping, paradoxical story of the movies. Does the big screen take us out into the world, or merely mesmerize us? That is Thomson’s question in this grand adventure of a book. This passionate and provocative feat of storytelling is vital to anyone trying to make sense of the age of screens—the age that, more than ever, we are living in. “Erudite and entertaining.” —Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly “Thomson has a deft, conversational style across an amazing range of topics . . . fresh and insightful.” —Clint O’Connor, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) “For those who take their films seriously, The Big Screen will have you both rethinking some mainstream ideas and reorganizing your Netflix queue.” —Neal Justin, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)