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Title: The Dictionary of Film Quotations : 6,000 Provocative Movie Quotes from 1,000 Movies by George Ochoa, Melinda Corey, George Ochoa ISBN: 0-517-88067-9 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 06 June, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.3 (10 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Irritating and somewhat disappointing
Comment: Any collection of quotes is bound to reflect the idiosyncracies of the editors, and this collection is no exception. I have no problem with that. So, yes, you will find many quotes you would expect, and the book will miss many quotes that you might consider "provocative" or worthy of inclusion. Your favorite quotable movie is _The Princess Bride_? Well, the authors only provide a couple of quotes from there. Your favorite quotes from a given movie may be there or not. But you will certainly find many provocative and quotable lines from many movies.
The exact selection is not what I find disappointing and irritating in the book. Rather, I am irritated by number of stylistic choices that the editors have made.
Foremost among them is the decision to list quotes with the actor's name, rather than the character name. The character name is mentioned only parenthetically, and only the first time it shows up in any given move. So if you are looking at quote number 15, you may have to backtrack to remember who the character speaking the line is. This is certainly annoying. There is also a bias towards "last line", even when they aren't particularly memorable or provocative.
But perhaps most irritating is the editor's decision to edit long quotes and provide context via captioning rather than quotation. So the long list of memorable long-nose insults from _Roxanne_ is cut to only three lines. And just how provocative is the single word quote, "War", from _Schindler's List_? Well, not at all, unless you read the long caption explaining that this is the answer to the question asked by another character.
Of course, some quotes cannot be put in context except via explanations in the caption. But far too many one-liners appear in the book without the set-up, thus losing their entire point.
The combination of this and other editorial decisions made for an irritating read. I would suggest that you take a look at a copy and decide for yourself if you can stand them before spending the money on buying the book. I know I would have kept my money had I known what I was in for.
Rating: 4
Summary: Other Reviewers Too Harsh
Comment: I purchased this book a couple of weeks ago, despite reading many of the negative comments from other reviewers. Although some of what has been written about this book is true, I feel that many of the comments are too harsh. It's certainly not a perfect book, but which book on film quotations is better? It contains 6000 quotations, which is an awful lot compared with other books in this area. The index is very good; I haven't found any missing index entries or incorrect page listings in the index. Some reviewers claimed that there wasn't enough "set-up" information in the quotes (surrounding dialog that would place the quote in context). Although that comment is true, the authors do give a brief explanation of the context following the quote, in most cases, enough to understand what the quote is about. Certainly, there is no substitute for watching a film & hearing & seeing a great actor like Humphrey Bogart deliver his lines. Many of the quotations in this book fall flat because they're on paper (or monitor), & not delivered with the intonations we've heard in the films, but that's not the fault of this book's authors (& it's not the fault of the screenwriters either, afterall, it's an audio-visual medium, that's why we go to the theater). While I can't agree with all of the authors' selections (or omissions), I would still rate this as a fine effort & a very useful addition to any film historian's library.
Rating: 1
Summary: Disappointing. Padded with banal quotations.
Comment: Really disappointing book. The cover claims "6,000 Provocative Movie Quotes", but "How do I look?" or "A doily" hardly qualifies as "provocative". The authors say they aimed for 'balance', but who wants 'balance' in a reference book? I expected a collection of memorable quotations that could stand alone, not leave me thinking, 'maybe it sounds better in the movie'. Sure, there were some good quotations, but the aim seemed to be for quantity, not quality. I, too, found many of the quotes to be banal, unimportant, and unmemorable - not to mention, downright boring. This book is destined for my yard sale.
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Title: The Movie Quote Book by Harry Haun ISBN: 0690020007 Publisher: Outlet Pub. Date: August, 1986 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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