The Routledge Companion to Film History is yet another in the publishers long running Companions series, sandwiched neatly between companions for children's literature (Rudd, 2010) (RR 2010/375) and race and ethnicity (Caliendo and McIlwain, 2011) (review forthcoming).
The volume is divided into two equal sized parts. The first is a collection of eleven theoretical and historical essays that use a number of themes to approach the history of film. Themes are; History of the Moving Image, Film as Art and Popular Culture, Production Process, Evolution of Sound, Alternative Modes, Cultural Difference, and Film's Relationship to History. This is followed by a critical dictionary that serves as a mini encyclopedia for aspiring film history students. The success of a reference volume with this split personality approach to its content is obviously dependant on the relationship between the two sections. Fortunately, the editors have been wise enough to establish a link between the two entities. They are clearly designed to interact with each other. Emboldened entries in the essays take the reader to the dictionary – which will often contain references back to the essays at the start of the book. This symbiotic relationship works extraordinarily well. Usefully, every essay, and even some dictionary entries also include a list of suggested readings. Most of the suggested readings also give a précis of what one can expect from that volume – an unexpected, but welcome touch.
The essays themselves are excellent primers for the various elements that undergraduate film students need to familiarise themselves with. Of particular note are Prakash Younger's Film as Art and William Guynn's essay on The Stages of the Film Production Process. Both take a complex idea (the first abstract, the second more technical) and explain it in a straightforward, non‐patronising way. All of the essays are well chosen, and contribute to the volume. Somewhat letting the side down though is Norman Klein's essay on Animation. Although it is an intelligent and useful piece, it unfortunately gets the release date of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wrong.
The volume presents itself as either a primary text for introductory or more advanced undergraduate film history courses, or as a text “that complements and enriches traditional textbooks in film history”. It is in the former presentation as a primary text where I think this book fails. Positioning any volume as a central text for film history is highly aspirational if authors or publishers are expecting to unseat the texts of Bordwell and Thompson (e.g. Film History: An Introduction (Thompson and Bordwell, 2010)) as the dominant players, and this volume is no game changer in this area. In fact, Bordwell and Thompson are cited (and rightly so) so many times in the essays that I expected to see their own entry in the dictionary section. However, as an ancillary text, its accessibility, coverage and useful, entertaining entries serve it extraordinarily well. In addition, compared to other texts it is extremely affordable (£18.99 in paperback) and the publishers have been wise enough to also offer an e‐book version at the same price.
Routledge Companions are marketed heavily to students online, and the blurb on the book makes it clear that this is a resource that can be picked up and used by undergraduates as a reference guide throughout their studies. For a medium that has a history spanning just over one hundred years, do we really need another volume dedicated to teaching it to our undergraduate students? Well, when a book is released that is accessible, yet not patronising; is dual purposed, but not bi‐polar; that has excellent coverage, but is not expensive; then yes, we must make room on the shelves. Thoroughly recommended as supporting material for any undergraduate film related course. But if Routledge markets this in the right way can we expect most students to have budgeted for its purchase? Who are we kidding? Better order some more.
