NEW--Includes over 100 new photos with captions--most from recently released movies--including Titanic, Halloween, Braveheart, Rumble in the Bronx, Air Force One, Leaving Las Vegas, Apollo 13, Shall We Dance?, Forrest Gump, The Crucible, The Mask, Mission Impossible, Babe, The Rock, Trainspotting, Twister, Kolya, Face/Off, Fargo, and many others.

NEW--Concludes chapters with a series of basic questions that a filmgoer should ask about a film's language systems.

NEW--Covers contemporary film personalities with short analyses of the careers of current figures such as Whoopie Goldberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, and Tom Hanks.

Opens each chapter with a brief survey of the chapter contents, giving students a convenient, quick-glance outline of the main points.

Contains a wide assortment of ethnically diverse examples, including African-American and Asian-American movies, films with a feminist or gay orientation, movies from developing countries, and European and Hollywood classics.

Designs chapter content to progress from the most narrow and specific aspects of cinema (photography and movement) to the most abstract and comprehensive (ideology and theory).

Develops a sound understanding of how television and movies communicate and the complex network of language systems they use.

Features a concluding chapter that recaps the main ideas of the previous chapters, applying them to a single movie, Citizen Kane.

Retains the clear, reader-friendly writing style that has made this text a favorite among students.