Position Essay: The War Movie
Reference Books (for selecting a movie and finding reviews)
The following reference books are available in the Uni High Library:
- Roger Ebert's Video Companion, 1998 Edition, includes reviews of over 1,500 films R 791.4575 Eb39r 1998
- Halliwell's Film & Video Guide, includes brief reviews of over 20,000 films and lists Academy Award winners and four star films R 791.4303 H15h1 1998
- Chronicle of the Cinema, a comprehensive chronological history of the cinema packed with movie images, facts, and figures R Q.791.4309 C468
- The Oxford Companion to Film R 791.4303 B329o
Databases (for finding criticism, interviews, reviews)
The MLA (Modern Language Association) Bibliography indexes literary criticism from 1963 to the present. Some film criticism can also be found here, especially if the film was an adaptation of a novel. Search for film title and director's last name. Also, some results may be articles in books--search for the title of the book in the online catalog. Note that it is not a full-text resource. Once you find a promising citation, click on the link that will take you to a search in the online catalog or to full text that might be available through another database. You can also try a search for the journal title in the Online Research Resources page.
JSTOR searches full-text for backfile articles and reviews in over 130 multi-disciplinary journals. See Project Muse (below) for more recent articles.
Project Muse Searches full-text in over 150 journals supplied by 10 university presses. Click on the search button to start your search. Muse works well for more recent periodical issues, while JSTOR (see above) reproduces older volumes.
Historical New York Times
Access any full-text New York Times article, including film reviews, published from 1851-2003. On the Advanced Search page, type your film title in quotes and select Document title from the pull-down menu. Then, restrict the date range from the year your film was released to 2007.
Index to Film Periodicals provides citations for film literature from 300 periodicals (1972 - present). Click on Advanced Search and do a Boolean search: Type your movie title in the Terms box and select Title field, click “OR,” type your movie title in the next Terms box and select Abstract. Click on the red arrow in the bottom left to view your results. Once you find a promising citation, click on the links that will take you to a search in the online catalog or to full text that might be available through another database. You can also try a search for the journal title on the Online Research Resources page.
Film & Television Literature Index provides abstracts for articles on films from 300 publications (1950-present). Do a Boolean search for your film title in the Title field “OR” the Subject Terms field. If there is not a direct link to the full text, click on the links that will take you to a search in the online catalog or to full text that might be available through another database.
Lexis Nexis is a good source for finding movie reviews. It provides full-text access to hundreds of recent (and even not-so-recent) newspaper and magazine articles. Click on “Guided News Search” and select “U.S. News” and a news source. Then, enter your movie title in quotes and restrict your search by date range.
Also, consider the general periodical databases that are linked to from the Library's home page. Your best bets are WilsonSelectPlus, Ebsco's Academic Search Premier , and Infotrac's Expanded Academic ASAP.
Websites (for selecting a movie and finding reviews, interviews, etc.)
The Internet Movie Database provides plot outlines, trailers, cast and director information, etc. for thousands of films. For lists of war films, select “keywords” from the drop-down search menu. Then, type “war” to retrieve a list of keywords containing the term “war.” The keyword “anti-war” may be particularly useful for this project. Select a keyword and sort the results alphabetically, chronologically, or by rating. The IMDB War genre search page lists top-rated war movies and allows you to search within the 6,002 war films in the database.
The New York Times: Movies offers film reviews from 1983 to the present. Registration is required, but it's free.
Librarian's Internet Index links to a number of reputable sites that provide film reviews, news and interviews. Type “movie reviews” into the search box.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature, including: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Take a look at the Advanced Search Tips for ways to get better search results.