Book Description
This new edition of the Rough Guide to Cult Movies offers a new improved blend of essential trivia and informed opinion as it takesyou on a tour of the most compellingly weird - and weirdly compelling - films in the world. From ''A Bout de Souffle'' to ''Zoltan Hound of Dracula'', this guide selects films to savour in every genre from circus movies to westerns of all flavours - spaghetti and sauerkraut. New genres have been added - gambling and vampires - and this edition includes a miscellany of movie trivia identifying, for example, the four women who have played Hamlet on screen, a peek at celluloid''s greatest back stories (such as the rumours of munchkin mayhem in The Wizard Of Oz) and a personal selection of cult movies from the likes of Johnny Depp, Julie Christie, Kevin Spacey and Bert Kwouk. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not about cult movies
"Rough guides" and "cult movies" should not necessarily be thematically unrelated, but in this instance the Rough Guide publishers have stumbled. The definition of "cult" should include "underground", "obscure" and "tribal", as "cult" movies exist as niche films appealing to a specialist audience: The Rough Guide to Cult Movies is concerned with popular, mostly American films which have continued to find an audience beyond their expected commercial life, be they big budget blockbusters or low budget independents. The book has lots of arbitrary categories such as "philosophy" and "vampires", but no discussion of what constitutes "cult". In almost every one of the myriad category chapters I could name at least one missing true cult film, and the "discussion" of each movie's contents leaves a lot to be desired. This book will not satisfy people with some knowledge of cult films, as your favourites will either be missing or cursorily addressed, and for newcomers it misrepresents what "cult" actually means.

Good book but in the wrong way
As a romantic comedy, Star Wars is a failure.As a science fiction film, the Annie Hall is a complete disappointment.Whatever other merits these movies might have, there are definitely areas that they are lacking.Which brings me to The Rough Guide to Cult Movies:as a reference book, it is highly suspect.What's notable is that Annie Hall fails as sci-fi because it doesn't try to be that genre; The Rough Guide fails at the very category it aspires to.Which is too bad, because it is often an interesting read.

The failure starts at the beginning of the book with a definition of cult movies that is so broad as to be meaningless.We then a series of chapters representing various "genres", some of which are valid (science fiction, westerns, horror), some of which are ridiculous (Animals, Food, Nuns) and some of which are not even true genres (dubbed, independent, straight-to-video).After this, we get various miscellaneous topics that are thrown in without rhyme or reason, such as a list of top movie grosses followed by presidential movie trivia.

The movie descriptions are often amusing, although there are numerous errors (such as misstating Geoffrey Rush's role in Pirates of the Caribbean), even more omissions (every reader will find his own; one example is that Unforgiven is missing from Westerns) and plenty of movies that are really miscategorized but seem only placed in a specific genre to fill it out.

What saves this book is, even though it fails as a reference book, it is nonetheless entertaining.I am therefore giving this two stars instead of one.It's a rather useless book, especially if you want to learn more about movies, but if you do pick it up, it is probably the most entertaining two-star book that you're ever likely to read.

Great fun, lots of info, but sloppy
I bought this book and read most of it in one night; I couldn't put it down because the subject is so fascinating.A huge number of films are given short reviews: some I knew, some I didn't.The tome's small size and attractive design helped me keep reading into the wee hours.But I became gradually more annoyed when I discovered how carelessly the book was written and edited (if there was an editor at all).Misspells and typos abound:Herzog's film on Kinski, "My Best Fiend" is shown as "My Best Friend," thus completely missing the point.Great character actor Theodore Bikel is cited as "Theodore Bickel" - and these are only two out of dozens of similar, inexcusable mistakes.If Rough Guide can't afford a decent proofreader, maybe they should stick to travel guides.If they had only been more careful, the book would deserve an enthusiastic five stars, rather than the grudging four stars I give it.

Dashed Hopes
I thought this book was going to be great fun; however, it seems to use a broad definition of "cult movie."What didn't they include?Worst of all, my credibility was lost when in the notes on Suddenly Last Summer they mentioned that Montgomery Clift played Sebastian.Anyone who puts this movie in his or personal cult collection knows that this is patently incorrect.It begs the question, "How many other movies in this lists have the authors NOT even seen?"
Terry Allen

Should have been called 'Popular Movies'
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CULT MOVIES does, in its presentation, follow in the footsteps of what has been a successful formula for Rough Guide books. This guide is a thematic guide to movies in general. The book consists of over 80 categories of movies such as: animals, b-movies, cops, doctors, fantasy, horror, musicals, prison, serial killers, zombies, etc. Each category has a selection of movies which, for the most part, fit the subject. There are also various sidelights thrown into different categories which expand upon the actors, writers, directors, etc. Unforunately, although there is a spattering of cult movies included, most of the films covered are standard fare movies which fit the category. Additional mistakes, such as the wrong year for a movie, are to be found on occasion. The selection of movies for some categories appears almost random with gaping exclusions (the category for zombies lists CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD but excludes DAWN OF THE DEAD and Fulci's ZOMBIE; the category for 3-D lists JAWS 3-D but excludes COMIN' AT YA IN 3-D). Additionally, any information provided for a movie includes: title, director, abbreviated cast, and a short description, which in most cases is shorter than what you can find in a video review guide. If you are looking for a general introduction to popular films in a thematic presentation, that can be found in this book. If you are looking for a book about actual cult films and any kind of discussion about them or their particulars, it is not to be found here. ... Read more

Amazon.com
There's a reason the hardcover history of Sports Illustrated is called The Franchise . In the arena of sportsjournalism, it is the franchise, the way, say Greg Maddux isfor the Braves, Brett Favre for the Packers, or Michael Jordan for the Bulls. SportsIllustrated's annual Sports Almanac, now in its seventh season, is a comprehensive collection of sport-by-sport results, awards, statistics, and records, but it wouldn't be Sports Illustrated if it just stuck to the numbers. The magazine's writers tackle their respective beats with solid overview essays, including one that shows you the money--and where it went in 1997. Other features, such as "They Said It" and "Scorecard," represent oddities that arewoven throughout to raise the level of what is essentially a first-rate reference into an entertainingly readable one.Book Description
Americas #1 sports almanac since it was first introduced 11 years ago, the Sports Illustrated 2002 Sports Almanac covers every inch of the year in sports, from baseball to biathlon to football and figure skating, with comprehensive sections on 19 sports, as well as statistics, records, and essays by top Sports Illustrated writers.The Sports Illustrated 2002 Almanac is the ultimate guide to the year in sports. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Full of stats and good info
Each year, I buy a sports almanac, either this one or the ESPN Sports Almanac. They are both good and I don't see either being significantly better than the other. The World Almanac and other general almanacs have a sports section but obviously, this one goes into much more depth. Also minor sports (badminton anyone?) are covered in sports almanacs which may receive short shrift in a general almanac. I am interested in golf and there are detailed statistics of the previous PGA season as well as stats on the majors from their inceptions. I recommend this almanac to all sports fans. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description
Asses the ritualization and representation of racial difference associated with intercollegiate athletics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Informative but DRY!
A great treatise on the relationship between America's love of sports and America's conflicted attitudes about race.But I can't imagine how the knowledgable authors could have written a book that is harder to read.They never use a simple word when a complex one will do; never go for short when long will do.

Don't read this book when you're sleepy, you'll never finish it.But if you are in a scholarly mode, you will learn a lot.I did. ... Read more

Book Description
This study of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue demonstrates how the magazine encourages individual and institutional practices that create and maintain inequality. Laurel Davis illustrates how the interactions of media production, media texts, media consumption, and social context influence meaning. Individuals' interpretations of and reactions to the magazine are influenced by their views about gender and sexuality, views that have been shaped by their social experiences. Based on extensive interviews with Sports Illustrated producers and consumers, as well as analysis of every swimsuit issue from the first in 1964 to those of the 1990s, the book argues that Sports Illustrated uses the swimsuit issue to secure a large male audience by creating a climate of hegemonic masculinity. This practice produces considerable profit but on the way to the bank tramples women, gays, lesbians, people of color, and residents of the postcolonialized world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Misguided over-analysis
I subscribed to SI for years and stopped last year because the swimsuit issue was offensive to me. However, this book takes the swimsuit issue "phenomenon" way beyond its limited influence and tries to use it as a scapegoat for everything that is politically incorrect in popular western culture. Of course the magazine exploits women and sends the wrong message about what women's bodies should look like. But there are countless other popular media "franchises" that do the same thing, perhaps even more so (Playboy, Girls Gone Wild, American Pie, and how about the multi-billion $$$ porn industry? What about Cosmo and Vogue for that matter?). Is SI being singled out because the author can read the magazine without being subjected to blatant sexual content? She purports to give an in-depth analysis of the SI bathing suit issue, but basically states the obvious in a pseudo-scientific manner: the pictures show young female models in very skimpy swimsuits, the models say they are told to look "sexy" during the shoots, the photographers say they are trying to bring out the model's sex appeal, and on and on. So here is a stunning conclusion: the SI swimsuit issue is all about sex!!

But it doesn't stop there--not only does the mag degrade women, but it also perpetuates racism, since a disproportionate % of the women are white. Wait a second, I think there's some faulty logic here: it's not ok to show scantily-clad women in your magazine, but it's also bad that you don't have blacks or latinos either. If SI had the correct distribution of America's ethnic makeup represented in the issue, would the author retract her statements about racism? I really doubt it.

To top it all off, the author also takes issue with the magazine's shooting locations, which are often resorts in 3rd-world countries. To her this is a clear indication of the colonialist attitudes of SI's management. Even if you have misgivings about who profits from SI's promotion of the beach resorts, I think the author's conclusions here are way out of line.

What disturbs me the most about this book is that it is done under the umbrella of "academic research". I have no problems with thorough, systematic examinations of popular culture to see what it says about our society as a whole and how we might want to change things. But this book starts with a conclusion and tries so mightily to find anything it can to beat a dead horse. As such this is bad research--not only is the evidence presented only to hammer home the author's premise, but no alternative hypotheses are considered (like maybe SI is a mirror of our culture, but it's relatively mild on the spectrum of exploitative media) or opportunities given for opposing views. ... Read more

Book Description
This book makes a timely contribution to a broader methodological project as the first systematic examination and explication of qualitative research methods within sports studies. Qualitative Methods in Sports Studies assesses a variety of approaches, ranging from social historical, media text, and personal narrative to ethnographic and interview-based qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on the diversity of sport studies literature, contributors outline the major issues and strategies associated with each method. This practical research guide is an essential reference tool for students and scholars of sport and leisure studies. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Sports permeates the fabric of our society on all levels and it also is a universal phenomenon expressed in all cultures of the world. It has become the international medium of cultural exchange in the contemporary world. Witness the galvanizing popularity of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, the World Track and Field Championships in Athens, Greece, and the 1998 Winter Olympics from Nagano, Japan. Americans, indeed people throughout the world, are often consumed by sport. It is no wonder that some refer to sport as the "New American Religion." Social scientists can no longer afford to ignore sport as a subject of serious research and discussion. It is shaping cultures, driving economies, and molding politics. Its impact is global, facilitating communication among nations while underscording national, regional, and ethnic identities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A delight for sports fans to page through or read straight cover to cover.
Edited by Richard Peterson (Professor Emeritus of English, Southern Illinois University), The St. Louis Baseball Reader is a carefully selected anthology of writings by a wide variety of authors about St. Louis' two most famous baseball teams: the Cardinals and the Browns. Covering St. Louis baseball from its late-nineteenth-century origins to the amazing tales of its hall-of-fame players to how Jackie Robinson stood up to racism and Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause to modern-day games. Articles include "World Champs: Cardinals Wrap It Up" by Rick Hummel, "Browns in American League Since 1902" by Frederick J. Lieb, "The Cardinals' First Publicity Man" by Gene Karst, and many more. A delight for sports fans to page through or read straight cover to cover. ... Read more

Book Description
France's performance in the 2002 World Cup brought back painful memories of a time when France was a weak contender in world and European football - a time when national or club teams rarely won, and the French were renowned for having little interest in the game. Today, football plays a unique role in French society. French players and coaches are highly sought after abroad and the national team has chalked up significant recent victories, including a World Cup and European Championship. This book is the first in English to examine the extraordinary cultural, economic, and political history behind French football's development throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day. It focuses on the past twenty years and concludes with a discussion of the fallout from the World Cup 2002.Imported from Britain by the middle classes in the late nineteenth century, football entered French national consciousness between the wars. As with everywhere else in Europe, the game helped to unite communities and forge new social identities. Although the State has generously supported youth coaching, the evolution of the professional sport has been slow due to tight community control, high taxes and lack of income from paying spectators. In a bid to compete successfully in Europe, the owners of France's big city clubs are seeking to commercialize the game, despite the resistance of central and local authorities.Hare traces the gradual evolution of traditional French football values and explores the impact of new and controversial business practices. Have French football's influential club chairmen sold out to business values and television? Why has the national team been so successful when club teams have not? How are top clubs being re-branded to catch a national and international audience of consumers? What role does the modern supporter play, and what are the links between businessmen, politics and the commercialization of the sport? What is peculiarly French about French football, and what does football tell us about France? Hare also pays specific attention to issues relating to race and racism. He looks at racist attitudes among fans, and considers how the multi-cultural and multi-racial population of France is reflected in the national football team. This book not only provides a fascinating cultural history of French football, but also an engrossing account of how national identity and community values are being transformed and reshaped in the global marketplace. ... Read more

Book Description
Insider and outsider narratives on the essence of modern "extreme" sports. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Fantastic and Inspiring Book
A Fantastic and Inspiring Book. Elston Howard was a great man who had guts and charisma. This is a must read for ALL baseball fans and even non baseball fans! Enjoy!

AN EXCELLENT READ
MRS HOWARD AND MR WIMBISH DO A SUPERB JOB IN TELLING THE LIFE AND CAREER OF FORMER YANKEE GREAT ELSTON HOWARD. ELSTON DESERVED A MUCH LONGER LIFE. THIS IS WRITTEN WITH MUCH HONESTY AND SENSITIVTY. . FROM THE JIM CROWE LAWS TO ARROGANCE AND PREJUDICE, ELSTON HOWARD FACED MANY BARRIERS ALONG THE WAY TO STARDOM. HE WAS QUITE A PLAYER AND DESERVED MUCH MORE RECOGNITION. THIS BOOK BEAUTIFULLY DESCRIBES THE TRADGEDY, TURMOIL, AND TRIUMPHS THAT CAME TO HIM AND HIS FAMILY. A MUST READ FOR ALL YANKEE FANS AND HISTORIANS OF BASBALL. A GREAT READ.

A book for all sports fans and then some
I enjoyed this book tremendously.It's not just a well written story, but it seems to give true insight to life inside the Yankees during one the franchise's most notable eras.Mickey, Yogi, Elston and company made history together. Arlene stood tall in her role as the first black Yankee wife and Elston prevailed with honor and sportsmanship during these difficult transitional years.Mrs. Howard and Mr. Wimbish's collaboration deserves kudos and more readers.Even long suffering Red Sox fans (just like me!)won't be disappointed.

Baseball History at its Best!
The story of Elston Howard's climb through the baseball ranks during the height of the Jim Crowe laws is not to be missed by anyone who likes baseball or history. His widow Arlene sees his great rise and tragic end to a debilitating disease with the eyes of an old-fashioned story-teller: passionate and dispassionate, an actor on the stage and an observer from the audience. A must read for baseball fans, black history buffs, and those who want to know what it was like to live inside a separate America during one of its greatest and worst eras.

A True Piece of American History
For those of us who grew up in the 50's with the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants all in New York, it is a great story evocative of those days told from with a fine eye and keen perspective.A must read for young and old alike - a story that should never be forgotten.Elston Howard's widow is direct and unsparing in this straight forward narrative of their life together with Baseball. ... Read more

Book Description
Intercollegiate athletic programs continue to grow to financially, physically, and ethically challenged levels, despite institutions' stated priorities to the contrary. Organizational theories offer lenses for understanding why colleges and universities appear to make athletics decisions that do not seem to be in their interests. Exploring the forces—structural, legal, social and cultural, and market—external to the institution leads to an understanding of the environment’s role in constraining campus leaders’ choices.

The challenge is how to reap educational, social, and economic benefits from sports programs without harming the institution's academic and moral integrity. This volume explores how relatively independent forces constrain the ability of institutional, athletics, and faculty leaders to limit perceived excesses in the growth of intercollegiate athletics programs on their campuses and nationally. Academic and athletic cultures; historical precedent; external organizations and constituencies; external laws and regulations; and markets for athletics-related materials, entertainment, student-atheletes, and professionals: all bring outside forces to bear on the college culture, leadership, and decision making. This monograph explores how the unintended interactions of these forces constrain campus leadership of intercollegiate athletics and consider the resulting policy and leadership implications. It examines the unique historical role of football—and its associated commercialization and culture of masculinity—as shaping the foundational structure and regulation of college sports.  The monograph concludes with campus leadership strategies and recommendations.

This is Volume 30, Issue 6 of the of the ASHE Higher Education Report series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Scrimmage of Values

Suzanne E. Estler, with Laurie J. Nelson, delivers something appealingly different, a scholarly monograph without monotone. "Who Calls The Shots? Sports and University Leadership, Culture, and Decision Making" spotlights how higher education officials rationalize ornate and costly intercollegiate athletic programs, and the resulting challenges to consistency with the core missions of their institutions.

Estler's extensive research finds answers in a net of social, cultural, legal and economic history, 19th century to almost yesterday, revealing the mix of motives evolved amongcelebrants of intercampus sports. Stakeholders these days include student athletes, faculty, alumni, administrators, spectators, also the National Collegiate Athletic Association and a host of other agencies, conferences and pseudo-regulatory outfits, plus a nasty assortment ofprofit-sucking entrepreneurs (this reviewer's characterization, not Estler's), all of them flexing muscles in this sweat-sock corner of the entertainment industry. Alma mater aims for a basketful of prizes (everyone gets something): enhanced enrollments, money, strengthened endowments, pumped-up campus loyalty, money, national attention, money, political clout, and money, to name a few.

Estler examines the hard-hitting influences of football, in its various domains, on standards applied to all collegiate sports, and enlightens about player, coach and athletics administrator issues of gender and racial equality in higher education settings. She details plenty of wise recommendations to refocus perceptions of college sports opportunities, currently viewed, as she says, "...through a window in the gym rather than one in the campus library."

An Associate Professor of Higher Educational Leadership (U. Maine), Estler scores big, making convincing points with elegance. The book is an easy read. This reviewer would love to set her loose on many other vexing issues of intercollegiate athletics.

RBS



... Read more

Book Description


The relationship between media and sport has become of particular interest to media scholars over the last decade. As the significance of sport itself has grown in a variety of other disciplines, the study of the ways in which media and sport interact across boundaries can be found in literature on the sociology of sport, history of sport, gender studies, cultural studies, journalism, leisure studies and beyond. For scholars interested in the media in particular, sport can shed light on a range of issues central to media studies. This book focuses on the sport-media phenomenon and analyses such issues as new media technology, gender, ethnicity, collective identity and globalization, as well as aspects of the political economy of the media. ... Read more

Book Description
The sculpted speed of Marion Jones. The grit and agility of Mia Hamm. The slam-dunk style of Lisa Leslie. The skill and finesse of these sports figures are widely admired, no longer causing the puzzlement and discomfort directed toward earlier generations of athletic women. Built to Win explores this relatively recent phenomenon-the confident, empowered female athletes found everywhere in American popular culture.

Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin examine the role of female athletes through interviews with elementary- and high school-age girls and boys; careful readings of ad campaigns by Nike, Reebok, and others; discussions of movies like Fight Club and Girlfight; and explorations of their own sports experiences. They ask: what, if any, dissonance is there between popular images and the actual experiences of these athletes? Do these images really "redefine femininity" and contribute to a greater inclusion of all women in sport? Are sexualized images of these women damaging their quest to be taken seriously? Do they inspire young boys to respect and admire female athletes, and will this ultimately make a difference in the ways gender and power are constructed and perceived?

Proposing a paradigm shift from second- to third-wave feminism, Heywood and Dworkin argue that, in the years since the passage of Title IX, gender stereotypes have been destabilized in profound ways, and they assert that female athletes and their imagery are doing important cultural work to that end. Important, refreshing, and engrossing, Built to Win examines sport in all its complexity.

Leslie Heywood is professor of English at Binghamton University. She is the author of Pretty Good for a Girl: An Athlete's Story (Minnesota, 2000), Bodymakers (1998), and coeditor of Third Wave Agenda (Minnesota, 1997). A former track and cross-country runner who is currently a competitive powerlifter, Heywood is a vice president of the Women's Sports Foundation.

Shari L. Dworkin is a sociologist and works as a research fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A thought-provoking analysis
Heywood and Dworkin draw on a variety of sources in this thoughtful examination of female athletes, including content and textual analysis and critical and gender theory. Their writing is scholarly and thouroughly researched, yet will also be interesting to non-academic readers. The commentary on various advertisements and other cultural artifacts such as the movie "Fight Club" are very good, as are their explorations of the conumdrums and contradictions encountered by women athletes over how they represent themselves and are represented by others. They also touch more generally on how gender roles and images have changed, not just for women but for men as well.

This is a must-read for women athletes, those who support them, and anyone interested in the topics of sports and gender.

--Vince Prygoski, author of "Worst to First, or, a 'Shock'ing tale of Women's Basketball in Motown" (available from Amazon.com) ... Read more

Book Description
A comprehensive history of skiing from its earliest origins to the outbreak of World War II, this book traces the transformation of what for centuries remained an exclusively utilitarian practice into the exhilarating modern sport we know today. E. John B. Allen places particular emphasis on the impact of culture on the development of skiing, from the influence of Norwegian nationalism to the role of the military in countries as far removed as Austria, India, and Japan. Although the focus is on Europe, Allen's analysis ranges all over the snow-covered world, from Algeria to China to Zakopane. He also discusses theparticipation of women and children in what for much of its history remained a male-dominated sport.Of all the individuals who contributed to the modernization of skiing before World War II, Allen identifies three who were especially influential: Fridtjof Nansen of Norway, whose explorations on skis paradoxically inspired the idea of skiing as sport; Arnold Lunn of England, whose invention of downhill skiing and the slalom were foundations of the sport's globalization; and Hannes Schneider, whose teachings introduced both speed and safety into the sport. Underscoring the extent to which ancient ways persisted despite modernization, the book ends with the Russo-Finnish War, a conflict in which the Finns, using equipment that would have been familiar a thousand years before, were able to maneuver in snow that had brought the mechanized Soviet army to a halt.

More than fifty images not only illustrate this rich history but provide further opportunity for analysis of itscultural significance. ... Read more