Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying, Fourth Edition is designed to introduce students to a variety of approaches for understanding movies. Our goal is to help students to always watch movies critically and analytically and to learn that doing this will increase their enjoyment rather than detract from it.

We have designed this book to be used in a variety of classroom settings. It provides an introduction to film study for students who have never previously taken a film course and may never take another one. It is comprehensive and includes the major fundamental areas of the field. At the same time, the book is sufficiently detailed and cutting‐edge to take its place within a well‐structured film curriculum that includes specialized courses in such areas as film theory and criticism, film history, the film industry, media and gender studies, and film and television as well as new media. We use a clear, jargon‐free style that is readily accessible to students and the general reader.

The book introduces film studies in an ever‐broadening pattern, which we describe in Chapter 1. It is roughly divided into two major parts: the first deals with those things that are specific to the dynamics of cinema and the second with the relationship of film to larger social, cultural, and industrial issues. We start with showing methods by which students can understand the workings of individual films. These methods are commonly called textual analysis and deal with things that are “in” any film, such as its narrative, visual and spatial patterns. We then expand the focus to include the insights that we can derive from contextual analysis. These methods group films together to discover significant relationships among them such as authorship, genre, performance, or their place among series, sequels, and remakes.

Chapter 8 on “Audiences and Reception” occurs mid‐way through the book and supplies the transition to even broader kinds of approaches: one of these confines itself to the world of the arts and media; the other moves beyond that world and engages issues concerning culture and society. The first approach requires understanding the relationship of film to the other arts, especially literature and the frequent practice of literary adaptation. We also have to understand the increasingly complex relationships among media, historically those of radio, television, and film. We devote chapters to both of those topics.

The second approach, dealing with social and cultural issues, is frequently termed ideological analysis because it engages such fundamental sociocultural issues as race, class, and gender. Each of us defines ourselves in relationship to those categories and we devote a chapter to each one. To do so, however, we must introduce the fundamental issue of film theory since it teaches us that we cannot adequately question race, class, and gender if we naïvely believe that films depict unmediated “reality.” What is the relation between film and reality? What is “realism”?

We conclude the book with two dramatically different chapters: Chapter 15 uses a single film, Citizen Kane, undoubtedly the most highly praised American film of all time, to illustrate and summarize all the critical methods we have introduced. We do this not because we want to heap further praise upon the film but because we want to show that, no matter what a film’s reputation, we can and should always think critically about it. The final chapter gives a broad assessment of significant forces affecting the contemporary world of film, particularly the convergence of the technology and entertainment industries, the resultant trans‐media environment, the new 3D technology, and globalization.

So, we return to the initial question, how should one use this book? The structure of the chapters enables students to read about every topic in general before reading about the specific film for that week or class and learning how that film illustrates important aspects of the general topic. We have found that, if an instructor tells students what to look for before screening a film, they will probably find it. However, students need not be tied to the interpretation that the chapter gives. Some students may learn more by watching the film with less guidance and then comparing their responses with what they hear in lecture or what they read and see illustrated in the later portion of the chapter. This may enable a more active learning experience. Are the authors convincing? Did they see something the authors didn’t see or mention? These questions not only make learning active but they also lead to lively discussions. Although this book has a logical structure, it is extremely flexible and instructors can change the order of the chapters and choose to skip various topics or extend others. We have successfully done so ourselves in various combinations.

The book is lavishly illustrated with over 500 film illustrations in both color and black and white, with illustrations from color films reproduced in color. We have highlighted key terms in bold and defined them in a glossary as well as supplied an index. We provide additional resources at the end of each chapter including “Annotated Readings” that acknowledge and briefly describe sources we have drawn upon for ideas, examples, and facts in the chapter. Occasionally, we have updated that bibliography with “Further Readings” to highlight significant new contributions. We also include a “Further Screenings” section with films available via streaming or on DVD, as well as relevant resources such as Web sites, blogs, social media, radio programs, and so on. Lastly, we provide “Topics for Discussion” for each chapter based upon our classroom experiences.

This new edition of the book also comes with a Companion Blog (https://thinkingaboutmoviesblog.wordpress.com/) that we will update regularly with attention to films and industry developments directly related to each chapter. We will also update readings and resources. As the world of film and media is changing rapidly, so is the world of film textbook publishing and the fourth edition of Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying makes us all – as students, instructors, and authors – part of that.

Since we have both written, together and separately, on a variety of areas in film studies, we have, of course, drawn upon that research throughout this book. Although we feel an obligation as scholars to cite published sources upon which we have drawn, we do not always consider it appropriate to do so in the chapter bibliographies, especially when the work is dated, out of print, or published in academic publications difficult for many undergraduates to access, or presented at professional conferences. Consequently, we have placed those citations here for the record (we try, however, to credit the key scholars in the field whose work we have drawn upon in the annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter):

Chapter 2 (Narrative Structure): William Luhr and Peter Lehman give a formal account of narrative, including a discussion of free and bound motifs and the distinction between story and plot, in Authorship and Narrative in the Cinema: Issues in Contemporary Aesthetics and Criticism (New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1977).

Chapter 4 (Authorship): Peter Lehman also analyzes film authorship and The Searchers in Luhr and Lehman, Authorship and Narrative in the Cinema: Issues in Contemporary Aesthetics and Criticism (New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1977) and in his Ph.D. dissertation, “John Ford and the Auteur Theory” (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1978).

Chapter 6 (Series, Sequels, and Remakes): William Luhr analyzes the 1933 and 2005 King Kong, as well as other films related to them, with reference to reception and censorship issues in “Reprocessing Kong: Censorship, Repression, and Compensatory Strategies,” a paper delivered at the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference.

Chapter 9 (Film and the Other Arts): William Luhr and Peter Lehman discuss the distinctions between literature and film and Luhr analyzes Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an example, in Authorship and Narrative in the Cinema (New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1977). William Luhr also analyzes the relationship of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel to both stage and film versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as narrative structure, visual motifs, and issues of sexuality in Dracula and Nosferatu, in Victorian Novels on Film (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1979).

Chapter 12 (Gender and Sexuality): Peter Lehman discusses female vision and power in Silence of the Lambs in “In the Dark Basement: Silence of the Lambs and Female Vision in the Hollywood Cinema,” lecture delivered at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, 1992.

Our special thanks go to Juliet Booker and Catriona King, respectively our new editor and new publisher at Wiley Blackwell, and to Rosemary Morlin, our copyeditor, for the fourth edition of this book, and to Jayne Fargnoli whose enduring support for earlier editions as well as this one has been inspirational to us. We would also like to thank our student assistant Jessica Conn at Arizona State University for her professional level, invaluable help in preparing the manuscript by doing extensive screen‐grabbing, researching the copyright updates on all the new figures, editing all the manuscript figure numbers, assisting in the submission of the figures and and copyright information, and setting up the blog accompanying this edition. We are particlularly indebted to Santiago Fouz‐Hernández, Durham University for his comments on the fourth edition and remain grateful to the many readers of earlier editions of this textbook: Robert Eberwein, Oakland University; Krin Gabbard, SUNY‐Stony Brook; Pamela Grace, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York; Martha Nochimson, Cineaste; Kevin S. Sandler, University of Arizona; Don Staples, University of North Texas; Rick Altman, University of Iowa; Charles Harpole, University of Central Florida; Brian Henderson, SUNY‐Buffalo; Gary London, Everett Community College; Paul Pilger, Florida State University; David Popowski, Mankato State University; Gerry Veeder, University of North Texas; and Mark Zalk, Nassau Community College.

Peter Lehman: I would like to thank George Justice, Dean of Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, for his continued support of my work as the Director of the Center for Film, Media and Popular Culture. Serving in that position motivates my productivity. It has enabled me to work with such outstanding fellows as Jeremy Carr, Faculty Associate in Film and Media Studies, and Ana Olenina, now an ASU assistant professor teaching in Russian and Film and Media Studies; interns such as Jessica Conn; and outstanding international visiting scholars, with many from China. I am especially grateful to Professors Liu Zhaohui and Guo Fang from North China Electric Power University in Beijing for their professional contributions and deep personal, family friendships. Aaron Baker, has been an invaluable colleague, administrator, and friend throughout. Once again, Melanie Magisos helped in more ways than can ever be acknowledged, but I always try. A week never goes by in which I don’t discuss movies and television with my brother, Steve; and no list of thanks can ever be complete without mentioning my daughter, Eleanor, who always keeps me up on which movies and television shows I should stream immediately. She shares my enthusiasm at the same time as she chuckles at it. We especially like to share a laugh about those, which many years ago as a young girl, she said I had “to watch for my work.”

William Luhr: I would like to thank the New York University Faculty Resource Network, along with Chris Straayer and Bill Simon of the Department of Cinema Studies, who have been valuable in providing research help and facilities, as have Charles Silver, Dave Kehr, and the staff of the Film Study Center of the Museum of Modern Art. Generous assistance has also come from the members of the Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation, particularly my co‐chair, Cynthia Lucia, as well as Krin Gabbard, David Sterritt and Christopher Sharrett. Our fruitful and intellectually stimulating seminar has received constant support from Robert Pollock, Director of the University Seminars, and his associates Alice Newton and Pamela Guardia in the Seminars Office. At Saint Peter’s University, gratitude goes to the President Eugene Cornacchia, Academic Vice President and Provost Frederick Bonato, Academic Dean Scott Stoddart, Bill Knapp and the staff of Media Services, Andrea Bubka and the members of the Committee for the Professional Development of the Faculty, John M. Walsh, Paul Almonte, Daisy DeCoster, Barbara Kuzminski, Deborah Kearney, David Surrey, Oscar Magnan, SJ, Jon Boshart, Leonor I. Lega, and Joseph McLaughlin for generous support, technical assistance, and research help. Lisa O’Neill and Rachel Wifall, former Directors of the Honors Program at Saint Peter’s University, also provided valuable help with research assistance. Joseph Mannion, Robert Glaser and Keith Ditkowsky have been of valuable help. As always, I am deeply indebted to my father, Walter; my aunts, Helen and Grace; Walter and Richie; Bob, Carole, Jim, Judy, and David.

The fourth edition of Thinking about Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying is accompanied by a Companion Blog designed and maintained by Peter Lehman and William Luhr:

https://thinkingaboutmoviesblog.wordpress.com

The Companion Blog will be regularly updated by the authors and includes:

• News and information on films and developments in the industry directly related to each chapter.Updates posted by the authors on further readings and useful resources for instructors and students.