[Thomson's] powers of thumbnail portraiture and plush, velveteen critical judgment…are on vivid display as he brings the brothers to life…This book's portrait of Jack Warner is as vividly inked as one of the studio's cartoons: Yosemite Sam meets the Tasmanian Devil. "Many of his victories feel like defeats, too, because of his suspect character," Thomson writes, approvingly, identifying the same quixotic mix that animated his portraits of David O. Selznick and Orson Welles. These modern-day Hollywood Icaruses, conflagrating in their own greatness, are very dear to him, and for good reason, for their stories are distinctly American. By the light of their rise and fall can be traced the outlines of the country itself, like night terrain glimpsed via flares.
The New York Times Book Review - Tom Shone
★ 06/26/2017 Film critic and historian Thomson (Television: A Biography) returns with a masterful look at one of early Hollywood’s preeminent families and the studio they built on their name. This story of Sam, Albert, Harry, and Jack Warner is the latest in Yale’s Jewish Lives series, and in it Thomson is just as at home writing biography as he is chronicling the institutional history of the Warner Bros. studio. He does an admirable job of using the studio’s films to examine the family’s internal dynamics, early in the text setting up a particularly trenchant comparison of the Warner siblings’ rivalries—which culminated in Jack seizing control of the company from his brothers, and possibly triggering Harry’s fatal heart attack—to that of Aaron and Cal in Elia Kazan’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Other characters beyond the Warners themselves float in and out of the text, the meatiest cameos going to two of the studio’s most famous contract players, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, both of whom fought the studio’s control tooth and nail. Thomson has an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, demonstrated here by the familiarity with which he relates his subject. Anything new from Thomson is worth taking notice of, and this book is no exception. (Aug.)
I can imagine only one thing more pleasurable than reading this book: writing it. . . . You risk misunderstanding America if you don’t read [David Thomson] on the movies.”—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World "Jack [Warner] is lucky to have a man who has brought a lifetime of sitting in theaters, shellacked by the beams of the projectionist’s light, and who has thought so deeply and eccentrically and opinionatedly and ultimately so brilliantly about him. We, his readers, are lucky too."—Leslie Epstein, Wall Street Journal "Thomson is a British critic whose powers of thumbnail portraiture and plush, velveteen critical judgment . . . are on vivid display as he brings the brothers to life. . . . Thomson’s signature note: a mixture of excitement and rue wrapped up in a sweeping paradox that leapfrogs into the gnomic-philosophical realm. Chop it up into lines of dialogue and it’s exactly the kind of sardonic wisecrack you might have found in the mouth of Bette Davis in any of the pictures she shot for Warner Brothers. . . . For those new to Thomson’s magic-carpet rides: Sit back, hold on and enjoy the view."—Tom Shone, New York Times Book Review “Thomson’s writing is a killer mix of elegance, erudition and punchiness, a violin case holding a machine gun.”—Victoria Segal, Sunday Times "A masterful look at one of early Hollywood’s preeminent families and the studio they built on their name. . . . Thomson is just as at home writing biography as he is chronicling the institutional history of the Warner Bros. studio. . . . Anything new from Thomson is worth taking notice of, and this book is no exception."—Publishers Weekly , Starred Review"An entertaining, well-documented history of the legendary studio for film scholars and fans alike."—Kirkus Reviews "More than anything, Warner Bros allows the reader to bask in the glory of the hard-nosed movie studio that, in the words of Andrew Sarris, 'walked mostly on the shady side of the street.' It aims to remind us what made Warners great — and, in its touching melancholia, why that greatness will never come back."—Carlos Valladares, San Francisco Chronicle "Thomson knows everything about the brothers Warner, and he weaves it all together in a stunningly compact 191 pages of spellbinding reading. . . . The book is a heady mix of intrigue and solid information, and Thomson adopts a style that is almost a kind of shorthand, moving nimbly from one film or actor or director to another with breathtaking ease. His pronouncements are authoritative, and the many external sources he marshals give the book complete scholarly authority. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice "Fans and scholars of the movies will find this book fact-filled and fascinating."—St. Louis Jewish Light “David Thomson writes about the cultural and historical significance of cinema with irreverent wit, deep knowledge and devotional lyricism. Warner Bros (the studio, the films, and the immigrant brothers themselves) becomes a fascinating lens through which to examine American identity.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document “I believe David Thomson to be one of the very best and most incisive writers on film. He has a poetic and dreamlike understanding of what films mean, but is precise in his observations. He presents a very, very high level of understanding in language that is not only accessible, but often witty and stunningly original.”—Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine
“David Thomson writes about the cultural and historical significance of cinema with irreverent wit, deep knowledge and devotional lyricism. Warner Bros (the studio, the films, and the immigrant brothers themselves) becomes a fascinating lens through which to examine American identity.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document
“I believe David Thomson to be one of the very best and most incisive writers on film. He has a poetic and dreamlike understanding of what films mean, but is precise in his observations. He presents a very, very high level of understanding in language that is not only accessible, but often witty and stunningly original.”—Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine
2017-06-05 The colorful history of the renowned Warner Bros. film studio and the brothers who founded it in the early 1920s.In the latest entry in the publisher's Jewish Lives series, renowned film scholar Thomson (Television: A Biography, 2016, etc.) explores the lives of the Jewish immigrant siblings who reinvented themselves as the Warner Brothers. The author explores the contributions of each of the brothers, but the most notable character is Jack Warner (1892-1978), a successfully intuitive studio head and quintessential Hollywood scoundrel who would go on to achieve one of the most lucrative careers in the business. There have been plenty of books about the studio and the brothers, and their Jewish immigrant story has already been exhaustively recounted in Neil Gabler's monumental group biography Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (1988). Nonetheless, within this slim volume, Thomson offers a compelling, well-packed narrative. He vividly appraises WB's signature genres, such as the early gangster films and backstage musicals, within a grounded social history of the country and gives meaningful weight to how and why the studio flourished during the Depression and the war years. "Warners was more honest about hard times than any other studio," writes the author. "It was the factory system that defied the slump….As the box office faltered, Warners gave us dames, gunfire, jazzy music, wisecracks, and outrageous, unhindered ids in smart suits, guys who'll go for broke because they know they're doomed." While Thomson provides a lively overview of the brothers' lives, his commentary on the many enduring WB stars, including James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, and Bette Davis, and the back stories behind several classic films such as The Jazz Singer, Public Enemy, and Casablanca, are also noteworthy. An entertaining, well-documented history of the legendary studio for film scholars and fans alike.