This was a required text for an Intro to Cinema class I took at college. To put it bluntly Gerald Mast is a bore. I've never met the guy so I'm not going to comment on what I haven't seen but I have attempted to read his writings and fell asleep before I could finish the first paragraph. I'm an avid reader and have no indications leading me to believe I have ADD or ADHD but this was simply put the worst text I have ever seen about film. The author's subject matter is not only unappealing but at times also irrelevant. For example, Mast dedicates numerous pages to many shallow commercial filmmakers and leaves one paragraph for Stanley Kubrick. I'm sorry but Stanley Kubrick's impression on the medium is worth more than a paragraph. All in all a very boring read.

My accidental encounter with an earlier edition of this book was the catalyst for my taking up film studies. The book is a clear, well written and systematically organized history of movies. It has a comprehensive and up to date bibliography and filmography. Chapters are chronological in sequence, but are organized around a particular theme. The authors introduce major influences in the cinema (whether directors, 'schools', actors or events), identify principal directors and films, and analyse major issues and advances. It is an excellent introduction to the history of movies and great jumping off point for further, more specialised study. It is refreshingly free from post-modernist jargon and abstractions. If you want a comprehensive introduction which is also a good read, I recommend this book most highly.

My accidental encounter with an earlier edition of this book was the catalyst for my taking up film studies. The book is a clear, well written and systematically organized history of movies. It has a comprehensive and up to date bibliography and filmography. Chapters are chronological in sequence, but are organized around a particular theme. The authors introduce major influences in the cinema (whether directors, 'schools', actors or events), identify principal directors and films, and analyse major issues and advances. It is an excellent introduction to the history of movies and great jumping off point for further, more specialised study. It is refreshingly free from post-modernist jargon and abstractions. If you want a comprehensive introduction which is also a good read, I recommend this book most highly.

This book should only be read by master level film students highly interested in every single director, film and plot summary of every movie ever made. There are no summaries of the main points and this book should NEVER be used as a college core classroom book. I have never been so bored and overwhelmed by such trivial and useless information in my life!

As a writer, Mast is without equal as a teacher, historian, and critic. The most readable, valuable film history text, in my opinion. Thank goodness it's still in print.