From Publishers Weekly
When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs who disagreed with London-born critic Thomson's strongly opinionated summations. This latest upgrade which includes 300 new entries promises to do the same. Thomson retitled it, he says, "because so much is fresh and different." Now that the reference includes talents who've shot to fame during the past decade or so, including Renee Zellweger ("great range") and Ben Affleck ("boring, complacent and criminally lucky to have got away with everything so far"), it is truly massive, running the gamut from Abbott and Costello, who achieve the "lyrical, hysterical and mythic," to Ghost World's Terry Zwigoff, "a rare, individual voice". A critical minimalist, Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words, such as Johnny Weissmuller: "No subsequent Tarzan ever matched him the loincloth was retired." He deftly distills entire movies down to single sentences, with Internet-like linkages. Since his Haley Joel Osment profile sneaks in a critique of Spielberg's A.I. ("Osment was uncannily good as the robot/puppet coming to life, but ultimately betrayed by the inability of his director to keep control of the very ambitious material"), the hypnotized reader feels compelled to seek his lengthier comments on Spielberg: "Schindler's List is the most moving film I have ever seen." After the publication of a 1994 edition, the Internet Movie Database became one of the book's major competitors, linking nearly a half million performers with over 260,000 titles, but one still turns to Thomson for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With an immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb into the very soul of film. Agent, Laura Morris. (Oct. 11) Forecast: Older readers will want to replace their earlier edition with this one, while an author tour, radio giveaways and advertising in the New York Times Book Review and Film Comment will attract a new generation. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
First published in 1975 and updated in 1981 and 1994, this dictionary returns with 300 new entries, mostly on emerging actors and directors from the last decade (e.g., Luc Besson and Reese Witherspoon), bringing the total to 1300. Film scholar Thomson (Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick) offers extensive but not comprehensive coverage, with entries ranging from a couple of paragraphs to several pages. He seems to write about whoever interests him, leaving some unexplained gaps. For example, he profiles Jeff Bridges but not father Lloyd or brother Beau and includes a fine tribute to the late critic Pauline Kael but ignores Roger Ebert. The book contains a lengthy appreciation of TV talk show master Johnny Carson that probably doesn't belong here. Like other serious film writers his age, Thomson admits that he no longer finds movie-going the "transforming experience" it once was, adding "I think I have learned that I love books more than films." This probably shapes some of his outspoken opinions. For example, writing about Tommy Lee Jones's recent career, he says, "He became coarse or was it depressed? and you felt he had lost faith in the business as his checks grew bigger." Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies covers far more figures, in less detail than Thomson, though Thomson seems to value opinions as much as facts. Some readers may resent Thomson's dismissal of Paul Newman or John Ford's "appallingly hollow" Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley ("a monstrous slurry of tears and coal dust"). Halliwell's remains the first choice for a ready reference in film biography collections. If budget permits, large public libraries and college film collections should consider Thomson's book as a browsing title owing to its trenchant, sometimes witty, prose and its up-to-date coverage. Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“The single most stunningly informative, learned and provocative book I’ve encountered about the movies…The breadth of Thomson’s research and his skill in writing about that knowledge will take your breath away, whether you are a scholarly aficionado or a weekend filmgoer.”
–William W. Starr, The State (Columbia, SC)

“Thomson’s love for the medium is proprietary, possessive, suffused with an academic’s breadth of knowledge and a fan’s mad crushes. He is by turns analytical and ardent, dryly appalled and moistly enthralled–and his book deserves a home on whatever flat surface is available between you and your DVD player.”
–Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly

“Even more seductive than the last edition . . . One of the most influential books on cinema ever written.”
–Henry Cabot Beck, New York Daily News

“And now, [The Biographical Dictionary of Film] stands before us again, as grand and eccentric as Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, or one of the madder, more imaginary encyclopedias you’ll find in the pages of Borges . . . Mr. Thomson is, I think, the last of the great film writers, up there with Graham Greene and Pauline Kael–not least because he has the courage to wonder aloud whether film is greatness’ proper medium . . . [He] is here to sing the multiplex blues–sitting there, at the back to the cinema, amid the torn velour and spilled Pepsi–but this book is the most beautiful of torch songs, and more than bright enough to light up the gloom.”
–Tom Shone, New York Observer

“Thomson has demonstrated wit and originality beyond a reasonable doubt . . . in the latest edition of his deservedly treasured reference work, the book's third and biggest revision since it first appeared in 1975, Thomson proves anew that he is irreplaceable. . . . [The New Biographical Dictionary of Film] is starting to feel like a public resource . . . Thomson's monologue has blossomed into an unlikely, searching dialogue about what to value in the movies . . . Thomson adds another honest wrinkle to one of the most probing accounts ever written of a human being's engagement with the movies.”
–Sarah Kerr, New York Times Book Review

“A reference book of extraordinary literary merit, this eccentric, audacious, sparkling work returns–revised, updated, and bulging with 300 new entries . . . Probably the greatest living film critic and historian, Thomson, an Englishman who lives in San Francisco, writes the most fun and enthralling prose about the movies since Pauline Kael . . . The book is a marvel.”
–Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly (lead review)

“When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs . . . This latest upgrade–which includes 300 new entries–promises to do the same . . . Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words . . . One still turns to [him] for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb [Internet Movie Database] into the very soul of film.”
–Publishers Weekly

“Thomson’s massive, invaluable attempt to comprehend and compress more than 100 years of movie history into a single volume . . . The massiveness of his erudition and the brisk confidence of his manner–he’s an awfully good writer–render Thomson something of a dangerous character . . . Earlier editions have been my constant compansions for decades, consulted almost weekly . . . I happily welcome this latest . . . May our quarrels never end.”
–Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Times

“An intellectual Filmgoer’s Companion . . . an invaluable standard text for students, fans, and serious enthusiasts.”
–Peter Bogdanovich

“One of the finest film critics in the English language.”
–Philip Lopate, New York Times Book Review

“This dictionary could be declared the best book on the movies ever written in English . . . It is a delight to browse through, to leaf through, to read aloud to a constant companion in the dark . . . The secret of this book is the secret of the movies: it gives you pleasure . . . Thomson is the Dr. Johnson of film.”
–Guillermo Cabrera Infante, The New Republic

“A treasure . . . Unique, fascinating and more than a little addictive . . . A great critic’s great work.”
–Laura Miller, San Francisco Examiner

“Delicious, one of the best and most useful books written about the movies.”
–Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle




From the Hardcover edition.

Review
?The single most stunningly informative, learned and provocative book I?ve encountered about the movies?The breadth of Thomson?s research and his skill in writing about that knowledge will take your breath away, whether you are a scholarly aficionado or a weekend filmgoer.?
?William W. Starr, The State (Columbia, SC)

?Thomson?s love for the medium is proprietary, possessive, suffused with an academic?s breadth of knowledge and a fan?s mad crushes. He is by turns analytical and ardent, dryly appalled and moistly enthralled?and his book deserves a home on whatever flat surface is available between you and your DVD player.?
?Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly

?Even more seductive than the last edition . . . One of the most influential books on cinema ever written.?
?Henry Cabot Beck, New York Daily News

?And now, [The Biographical Dictionary of Film] stands before us again, as grand and eccentric as Samuel Johnson?s dictionary, or one of the madder, more imaginary encyclopedias you?ll find in the pages of Borges . . . Mr. Thomson is, I think, the last of the great film writers, up there with Graham Greene and Pauline Kael?not least because he has the courage to wonder aloud whether film is greatness? proper medium . . . [He] is here to sing the multiplex blues?sitting there, at the back to the cinema, amid the torn velour and spilled Pepsi?but this book is the most beautiful of torch songs, and more than bright enough to light up the gloom.?
?Tom Shone, New York Observer

?Thomson has demonstrated wit and originality beyond a reasonable doubt . . . in the latest edition of his deservedly treasured reference work, the book's third and biggest revision since it first appeared in 1975, Thomson proves anew that he is irreplaceable. . . . [The New Biographical Dictionary of Film] is starting to feel like a public resource . . . Thomson's monologue has blossomed into an unlikely, searching dialogue about what to value in the movies . . . Thomson adds another honest wrinkle to one of the most probing accounts ever written of a human being's engagement with the movies.?
?Sarah Kerr, New York Times Book Review

?A reference book of extraordinary literary merit, this eccentric, audacious, sparkling work returns?revised, updated, and bulging with 300 new entries . . . Probably the greatest living film critic and historian, Thomson, an Englishman who lives in San Francisco, writes the most fun and enthralling prose about the movies since Pauline Kael . . . The book is a marvel.?
?Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly (lead review)

?When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs . . . This latest upgrade?which includes 300 new entries?promises to do the same . . . Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words . . . One still turns to [him] for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb [Internet Movie Database] into the very soul of film.?
?Publishers Weekly

?Thomson?s massive, invaluable attempt to comprehend and compress more than 100 years of movie history into a single volume . . . The massiveness of his erudition and the brisk confidence of his manner?he?s an awfully good writer?render Thomson something of a dangerous character . . . Earlier editions have been my constant compansions for decades, consulted almost weekly . . . I happily welcome this latest . . . May our quarrels never end.?
?Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Times

?An intellectual Filmgoer?s Companion . . . an invaluable standard text for students, fans, and serious enthusiasts.?
?Peter Bogdanovich

?One of the finest film critics in the English language.?
?Philip Lopate, New York Times Book Review

?This dictionary could be declared the best book on the movies ever written in English . . . It is a delight to browse through, to leaf through, to read aloud to a constant companion in the dark . . . The secret of this book is the secret of the movies: it gives you pleasure . . . Thomson is the Dr. Johnson of film.?
?Guillermo Cabrera Infante, The New Republic

?A treasure . . . Unique, fascinating and more than a little addictive . . . A great critic?s great work.?
?Laura Miller, San Francisco Examiner

?Delicious, one of the best and most useful books written about the movies.?
?Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle




From the Hardcover edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film returns, with its old entries updated and 300 new ones - from Luc Besson to Reese Witherspoon - making more than 1300 in all, some of them just a pungent paragraph, some of them several thousand words long. In addition to the new "musts," Thomson has added key figures from film history - lively anatomies of Graham Greene, Eddie Cantor, Pauline Kael, Abbott and Costello, Noel Coward, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Gish, Rin Tin Tin, and more." Here is a rare book, one that encompasses the chaos of art, entertainment, money, vulgarity, and nonsense that we call the movies. Personal, opinionated, funny, daring, provocative, and passionate, it is the one book that every filmmaker and film buff must own.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs who disagreed with London-born critic Thomson's strongly opinionated summations. This latest upgrade which includes 300 new entries promises to do the same. Thomson retitled it, he says, "because so much is fresh and different." Now that the reference includes talents who've shot to fame during the past decade or so, including Renee Zellweger ("great range") and Ben Affleck ("boring, complacent and criminally lucky to have got away with everything so far"), it is truly massive, running the gamut from Abbott and Costello, who achieve the "lyrical, hysterical and mythic," to Ghost World's Terry Zwigoff, "a rare, individual voice". A critical minimalist, Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words, such as Johnny Weissmuller: "No subsequent Tarzan ever matched him the loincloth was retired." He deftly distills entire movies down to single sentences, with Internet-like linkages. Since his Haley Joel Osment profile sneaks in a critique of Spielberg's A.I. ("Osment was uncannily good as the robot/puppet coming to life, but ultimately betrayed by the inability of his director to keep control of the very ambitious material"), the hypnotized reader feels compelled to seek his lengthier comments on Spielberg: "Schindler's List is the most moving film I have ever seen." After the publication of a 1994 edition, the Internet Movie Database became one of the book's major competitors, linking nearly a half million performers with over 260,000 titles, but one still turns to Thomson for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With an immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb into the very soul of film. Agent, Laura Morris. (Oct. 11) Forecast: Older readers will want to replace their earlier edition with this one, while an author tour, radio giveaways and advertising in the New York Times Book Review and Film Comment will attract a new generation. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal