Overview

Arthur Penn - director of The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant and Little Big Man - was at the height of his career when Robin Wood’s analysis of the American director was originally published in 1969. Although Wood then considered Penn’s career only through Little Big Man, Arthur Penn remains the most insightful discussion of the director yet published. In this new edition, editor Barry Keith Grant presents the full text of the original monograph along with additional material, showcasing Wood’s groundbreaking and engaging analysis of the director. Of all the directors that Wood profiled, Penn is the only one with whom he developed a personal relationship. In fact, Penn welcomed Wood on the set of Little Big Man (1969), where he interviewed the director during production of the film and again years later when Penn visited Wood at home. Both interviews are included in this expanded edition of Arthur Penn, as are five other pieces written over a period of sixteen years, including the extended discussion of The Chase that was the second chapter of Wood’s later important book Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. The volume also includes a complete filmography and a foreword by Barry Keith Grant. The fourth classic monograph by Wood to be republished by Wayne State University Press, this volume will be welcomed by film scholars and readers interested in American cinematic and cultural history.

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9780814333587

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Reviews

Robin Wood was one of our finest film critics. Although he wrote books about such cinema luminaries as Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Michelangelo Antonioni, he enjoyed a uniquely special relationship and friendship with Arthur Penn. Moved at a deeply personal level by Penn's films, Wood penned brilliant analyses of their themes and style. Penn reciprocated by opening up to Wood in interviews as he did with no one else. These interviews show Penn's erudition in breathtaking detail. Having Wood's monograph back in print, with the additional essays and interviews, is a major cause for celebration.--Stephen Prince author of Firestorm: American Film in the Age of Terrorism The rigorous analysis and passionate prose of Robin Wood's writings, beautifully exemplified in his splendid study of Arthur Penn's movies, inspired a generation of budding film scholars to interpret cinema in dramatically different ways and forged a pathway into film studies for many of us who followed his lead.--Lester D. Friedman chair of the media and society program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and author of Bonnie and Clyde I can think of no finer sensibility to approach the works of Arthur Penn than that of Robin Wood. In this revised and expanded edition of his monograph of nearly forty years ago, Wood affirms Penn as one of America's few authentic radical filmmakers. Penn's vision of America is uncompromised; although he was disappointed with The Chase, Wood shows us that it is the first authentic 'social apocalypse' film, a genre that would explode in the decade to follow. Like all of his work, Robin Wood's Arthur Penn emphasizes the serious business of criticism, the absolute distinction between reviewing and criticism, and the importance of close reading and critical consciousness not only to an appreciation of art but to all that makes us human.--Christopher Sharrett professor of communication and film studies at Seton Hall University

Author Information

Robin Wood was a founding editor of CineAction! and author of numerous influential works, including new editions of Personal Views: Explorations in Film (Wayne State University Press, 2006), Howard Hawks (Wayne State University Press, 2006) and Ingmar Bergman (Wayne State University Press, 2013). He was a professor emeritus at York University, Toronto and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Barry Keith Grant is a professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. He is the author or editor of many books, including Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films (Wayne State University Press, 2011) and Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Wayne State University Press, 1998 and 2014).

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