Although motion pictures had existed since the turn of the century, it was D. W. Griffith's controversial but wildly successful The Birth of the Nation, released in 1915, that transformed what had been a flickering novelty into an art form. In the following years, such masters of the silent film as F. W. Murnau, King Vidor, and Erich von Stroheim built on Griffith's legacy to create sumptuous visual feasts that remain unmatched in the history of film. And then, in 1926, came sound. For many, it marked the end of the cinema's most creative era. Certainly sound marked the end of movie-making as its creators had envisioned it. The careers of some of the silent era's biggest stars and most respected craftspeople were ruined by the new technology. Still others readily adapted to the new conditions and prospered. It was a turbulent, colorful, and altogether remarkable period -- four years during which Hollywood reinvented itself.
In The Speed of Sound, Scott Eyman chronicles for the first time the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies. Debunking the myth that Hollywood was transformed overnight in the wake of the popularity of The Jazz Singer in 1927, Eyman shows how the industry at first resisted and then only reluctantly accepted the arrival of sound. For a long time after The Jazz Singer, in fact, there were still some directors, actors, and even filmgoers who refused to embrace the new technology. But the sense of wonder which sound inspired in audiences, causing them to abandon the visual dynamism of silent film in favor of the crudely recorded and stiffly filmed movies of sound's first wave, meant that change was irrevocable. At once scholarly and vastly entertaining, The Speed of Sound explores the technology and politics behind the introduction of sound, how this innovation affected Hollywood creatively and economically, and how the talkie revolution led inexorably to the modern movie industry.
Nowadays the "talkie" seems, like some other technological breakthroughs, to have obliterated its less-advanced predecessor, the silent movie, in one fell swoop. The reality, of course, is more complex. As Scott Eyman writes in his prologue to The Speed of Sound, "To examine this period of unparalleled industrial change, it is necessary to reverse the perspective, to give a fair, detailed idea of what silents were like to the people who made and watched them, and how talkies permanently changed the creative and personal equations." Eyman's eye-opening book fulfills this mission. He focuses on just five years--1926 through 1930--but tells the story on many levels. We learn about the technology, the details of actors' and technicians' lives, the elaborate business machinations associated with the rise of sound, and the resulting transformation of not just the movies but Hollywood itself. The Speed of Sound fills a gap in any film buff's library.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Eyeman's Book is Consistently Interesting, Truthful:
I read books mostly for pleasure, so a large degree of how I rate books is based on how interesting I find them. However, when it comes to non-fiction I cannot tolerate the insertion of fictional elements designed solely to heighten the drama or create the sense of omniscient knowledge on behalf of the writer. A non-fiction writer should stick to what he can find out and what he can reasonably infer, thereby staying true to the history. Unfortunately, that kind of writing can be dull. A good writer is able... more info
The Sound of One Art Form Being Replaced by Another in Four Short Years.:
"The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution" examines the rapid transition from silent to sound films that transformed the American film industry between 1926 and 1930. In just 4 years, Hollywood witnessed "the extermination of an art form at the height of its power -something unprecedented in history", as the booming business of silent pictures was replaced by talkies, and the nature of films, filmmaking, and the film business were reinvented. Early talkies weren't nearly as good as their... more info
The multi-faceted truth:
This book goes above and beyond the call of duty in writing about, primarily, the very turbulent years of 1926-30 in the American film industry, during the transitional period between silence and sound. It covers everything--the technology behind these new innovations and the technology of silent film-making, the business and financial aspects, the artistic angles, and the human aspects. Most people who aren't familiar with this era in cinema tend to believe a lot of myths and clichés about it, all... more info
If You Have Any Interest In Film History:
A history of the transition from silent cinema to sound, this book was much better than I expected, mostly because Eyman spends a lot of time on the technical details, which of course I enjoy. My work in film/video production from the time I was a teen to the digital technology I use no for my class Websites, make me very aware of the most complex and troublesome of issues--synchronization. Eyman's book does of course go into the personalities of the transition, from the movie Mongols like Fox and the... more info
