Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film Paperback – October 9, 2001

If you like movies... and want to know what makes a movie great, this is the book for you. Amazing stories; couldn't put it down. Also a story about finding your passion in life, no matter what obstacles are thrown in your path. He never intended to be a screenwriting guru!

His great passion for cinema is inspiring!

I started reading this book yesterday and found that the clarity of the writing and the insight and experiences the author brings to understanding movies have kept from hardly putting this book down. Field's book is useful for both developing screenwriters and avid movie watchers.Because movies are really the popular literature of the 21st century (despite the number of bad flicks produced every year), it's important that we gain a better appreciation of how the movies tell stories and how they affect us. Field in his own journey to understand movies provides some very good insight.By chapter 12 of his journey he shows his talent as a teacher, script reader and writer, and a lover of movies. In this chapter he breaks down the classic film "Chinatown," showing how what he calls Plot Points are used to set up and move dramatic parts of a movie along. By understanding the form and structure of movies, we can gain a better understanding of a film's narrative and also appreciate when a screen writer and director have produced a well crafted movie.Using Field's insight, we as movie goers get beyond it was a great movie because its action, star appeal, or drama. We begin to critically reflect on how the actions, words, and images tell the story in a film. We can appreciate what the writer and director do to the set up the context for the story and take us through the middle (what Field calls the confrontation) and the end (the resolution) of a film.(The rest of the book goes how to examine contemporary films like Pulp Fiction, explaining how Tarantino creates such memorable characters.)Now when I happen to see video or DVD more than once, I can apply what I'm learning from Field to better appreciate the art of a film. I think I'll think also read his other popular book, Four Screenplays, for futher insight.

It's like a peek view behind the curtain: of what brought him to the movies, what evoked his passion (and how he sustained the passion for movies, writing and teaching) how he carried on through ups and downs and everything in between.To me, the narration and ease of flow of the book had the feel of spending a pleasant and most interesting afternoon with him as he tells me about his encounters, studies, insights, practices, writings, jobs.Had no idea he knew the chaps of The Doors.It's not a "how-to" book - but it introduces you to the man behind the successes of all his other screen-writing books (which i can recommend as well, by the way) and the many seminars he taught (@ USC, webinars, writer-workshops, etc)I thoroughly enjoyed it and shall read it again ..... now that it's known that we won't be able to read any new books written by him (he died in Nov 2013) I will relish his books even more.

Let's start by saying this book is not for everyone. Going to the Movies is the story of how and why Syd Field learned to analyse scripts. As such, it's introspective at times and personally revealing at others.I especially loved two things about this book. First, Field's honesty is quite endearing. He discusses his failures as well as his triumphs, and writers need to see failures, too. It's how we all learn.Second, I loved the tips I got from this book. Field discusses the importance of midpoint--how to hang your story around a centerpiece event. Later he explains closed and open stories. In the former, the protagonist knows what's happening (like Chinatown). An open story is when the audience understands what faces the protag., but the protag. doesn't (Hitchcock movies, usually). And Field reminds us that a good story isn't a good story unless it's executed properly.One thing annoyed me a bit. Field has an "Uncle Sol" who helped him get started by finding him jobs in Hollywood. Well, frankly, I sure wish I had an Uncle Sol. BUT--in fairness--Field did his own homework, worked hard, and learned important lessons which he shares with us. Uncle Sol or no Unlce Sol, Field understands what makes a script great. He deserves his success.You don't have to be a screenwriter to learn from this book. I'm a novelist, and what he says about story works regardless of medium. I think beginning writers will probably learn more than advanced writers, but that may or may not be true. I've been writing a long time and still picked up invaluable tips.So, this book may not be for everyone, but you'll love it if you sincerely want to learn basic techniques for better writing.

As a biography, it is compelling reading. Field lived in interesting times, surrounded by interesting people. Though a minor player in Hollywood, his story provides a perspective on the movie-making process in the second-half of the last century that I haven't seen before.The real value of this book, though, is as an unintentional primer on screenwriting. His process, developed over more than a decade, of identifying what makes a movie work and what doesn't is, in my view, more enlightening than all the "how to" books ever written, including his own.With this book, Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade", and to a lesser extent his follow-up "Which Lie Did I Tell", I think the budding screenwriter has everything he or she needs to start writing.

I read Syd Field's Going to the movies. It's a great experience because not only does he teach about what makes a good/great screenplay, he also talks about his time in Hollywood and how difficult it was for him to find a job. It is a very realistic, yet hopeful, book. I am working on the English version of the Different Flags script and it's helped me a lot. Eugenia RenskoffDifferent Flags