Justin Wyatt's *High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood* (1994) is a fascinating attempt to discern the historical specificity of 1970s and 80s Hollywood by studying the industry s general marketing, and specifically synergetic, strategies in an age of accelerated media conglomeration. Though the films themselves tend to be given brief discussion, it has some useful analyses of promotional materials and discussions of industrial trends. Like Schatz (under whose editorial imprint the book is published), Wyatt is quite attentive to the blockbuster phenomenon. J. Hoberman's Ten Years that Shook the World" (*American Film*, June 1985) might also be of interest. Like Schatz and Wyatt, the author recognizes the mid-1970s as a major turning point in how American movies are made but takes a more auteurist approach in explaining historical developments. Though straying from the subject of summer blockbusters, I thought I could mention some additional readings that relate to other topics you brought up. If you like Jameson, you might already be familiar with his chapter on conspiracy films in *The Geopolitical Aesthetic*, illustrating his persistent interest in the problems of representating social totality. In regard to your interest in "the nostalgia film," check out David Bordwell and Janet Staiger's Since 1960: The Persistence of a Mode of Film Practice" (in their and Kristin Thompson's *The Classical Hollywood Cinema* [1985]) for their account of some of its industrial determinations. Low-budget genre pictures are given scholarly consideration, again with a strong industrial emphasis, in Thomas Doherty's *Teenagers and Teenpics* (1988), which focuses on the 1950s and early '60s but also discusses issues and trends relevant to the present. Also worth a glance: Timothy Corrigan's *A Cinema without Walls* (1991), an attempt to theorize blockbusters and other contemporary American films in terms of postmodernism; Robin Wood's *Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan* (1986), an essay collection that has the cumulative effect of a New Hollywood history; and Stephen Heath's discussion of *Jaws* (1976) in Bill Nichols' *Movies and Methods, Volume II* (1985). Despite its modest presentation as an introductory textbook, Richard Maltby's *Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction* (1995) makes up for the occasional historical amnesia present in some of the above (as well as other) accounts by examining the economic determinations and commercial aesthetics of filmmaking from both the classical and the contemporary periods. Hoping at least some of this is useful, Allan Campbell ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]