Idols, Icons, and Illusions - Softcover

Jr., Bill Mesce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 162288096X ISBN 13: 9781622880966

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press, 2015

Synopsis

There is cinema . . . and there are the movies. This is a book for movie junkies: salutes to the once great but now forgotten stars, to the acknowledged behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, and to the movies themselves—the classics major and minor, the overlooked gems, the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. If you’re old enough to remember Saturday matinees or late night fright flicks on your local TV channels—or just wish you were—grab a bag of popcorn, a soft seat, and enjoy the show. This book synopsizes dozens of films, and includes a variety of personal and critical essays written by Bill Mesce, Jr.

About this title

Review:

POST SANDY THOUGHTS: 7 DISASTER FILMS DONE RIGHT
November 12, 2012
The gray rolling seas thundered through the forest of pilings under the piers, sometimes cresting enough to send a geyser of wind-whipped froth up onto the decking. Other places, the dark water poured through the gaps the wind and tide had eaten through the dunes and poured into the beach town streets. It pulled boats large and small from their moorings in the lagoon marinas and piled them like a child's toys up on the land. Some in apartment buildings would tell of the cars in their ground level garages floating against each other like bathtub playthings. But there was nothing childlike in the way the sea took away entire houses, and made seaside villages look like an extension of the ocean.

1: A Night to Remember (1958)
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Adapted from Walter Lord's book by Eric Ambler
James Cameron's Titanic (1997) might have had better special effects (change that; it had incredible effects), but its gooey teen romance front story pales next to this painstakingly exact adaptation of Walter Lord's classic account of the tragic 1912 sinking of the opulent ocean liner on her maiden voyage. It's a stirring and ultimately moving account of grace under pressure, of human hubris and waste, of heroism and infuriating indifference. Cameron caught some of it, but Night is wholly dedicated to it and it still stands as a textbook example of how to do it right.

About the Author:

Bill Mesce, Jr. is a screenwriter, playwright, and author of fiction and nonfiction. He spent 27 years in the corporate communications area of pay-TV giant Home Box Office and is currently and adjunct instructor at several colleges and universities in his native New Jersey, USA. From August 2010 to February 2014, he regularly wrote about film and television for the award winning online magazine Sound on Sight, which is where these pieces first appeared.

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 162288096X
• ISBN 13: 9781622880966
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312