The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar

by Jim Piazza, Gail Kinn, Jim Kinn, Gail & Piazza

Presents a history of the Academy Awards with a year-by-year look at theominations and winners in each category. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157912240X
• ISBN13: 9781579122409
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 5.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 10.8" x 12.8"

Customer Reviews

Great book, but Let's Have a New Edition!!

My gosh, this book seems to have sparked a lot of responses, both pro and con!!! Me, I'm a book lover -- and a movie lover!! So I loved it, this book about movies! I won't weigh in on all the things people said below, but I will say that when my kids get all worked up and yell at each other, I just smile and say, "Hey fellas, take a chill pill!" (And to that Marguerite Duras lady, I'd just say, "Honey, get back on the meds!!") But back to the book: I loved it. Love love loved it. Great pictures, great words. All I want to say is, let's have a new edition! There have been so many good movies since this book came out, and it's a shame not to see them here -- a few of my recent faves include "The Passion of the Christ," "The Gospel," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and most recently "Crash." "Crash" is super serious and intense but is one of the best movies ever made. If you are white, you should see it with a black person, and then talk. These are films that make me think and feel, films that make me feel closer to God and to my fellow man, films that me sit up and say, "Gosh darn it, films are great!" Sorry to be so excited, but that's just how I feel!!!! (I also like movies that aren't so spiritual too, especially horror and fantasy -- have you seen M. Night Shamalamam's "The Village"? Super spooky. I also like anything with Chevy Chase --fun-knee!!)

It 'swonderful, It 'smarvelous...

From an Aristelion perspective, the Oscars are about spectacle--glamour, glitz and guilty pleasure. Kinn and Piazza have brilliantly embodied this spirit in The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar. The book is beautifully layed-out with wonderful photographs and a narrative style that simmers with savy insight and salacious asides, perfectly suited to its subject. Some of the other reviewers seem to miss this point. We are not deconstructing a scholarly thesis on August Strindberg or, for that matter, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. This book is about Hollywood and the Academy Awards. Go ahead; buy the book and have your guilty pleasure!

worth every penny!!

Some of the other reviewers need to get a life. Perhaps there are a few factual errors ( I don't know because I wasn't hunting for them) but this book is a joy. The writing is jazzy and clever and its look is terrific. Most of the other Oscar books are stuffy and over reverential but this one and Inside Oscar hit just the right tone. They give you all the dish with a lot of stories you've never heard. (The Frank Capra mixup is a gem). Since this one is a really great coffee table book with wonderful pictures and a very rich look, I'd recommend it over Inside Oscar. It's definitely worth the money!

i don't want to put it down. but i have to...

...because it's too heavy to hold for long. i mean this is one big book. and as the clever cover (with it's faux embossed envelope) proclaims, this is a COMPLETE history of oscar: from the gowns they wore to the teeth they bared. the losers, the winners, the whiners. it's sensibly laid out (easy to find the answer to any argument) with so many photos i've never seen before. but the real feature of this book is the dead-on writing. painstaking research combined with delicious dish that skips along with a kind of loving tongue-in-cheek style. it's funny, zippy, with just the right sense of reverence (or not) for our pop culture icons. and with it's sparkly cover, i think it looks very cool too.

Best Oscar Book Yet

Being an Oscar fanatic since childhood, I'm somewhat of a maven on Oscar history books and this is the best one yet..Although not filled with as much info as the Wiley/Bona Inside Oscar , it's a much better looking book , beautifully designed and very user friendly. All the nominess are listed with the pictures and stories of that year, eliminating the need to flip back and forth. The writing is snappy and witty and never dry or overly reverent. It captures the insanity , glamor and silliness of the Oscars as a true American kitsch spectacle while paying appropriate tribute to its place in our cultural history . It is very well researched and some of the stories are truly amazing. The pictures are a lot of fun and each decade is prefaced with a great look at the styles of the time. The book is a great gift idea as well as a valuable contribution to any movie lover's library.