Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling

Film historian Vieira (Forbidden Hollywood) delivers a superficial history of Warner Bros. film studio, combining brief accounts of its development with unenlightening descriptions of its movies. The studio behind such classics as Casablanca, The Exorcist, and the Harry Potter series was founded by brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, Polish Jewish immigrants who came to the U.S. in 1889. In 1903, Sam, still a teenager, came across an Edison Kinetoscope and became entranced by moving pictures. Soon after, he and his brothers began making and distributing movies, and in 1923 they launched the eponymous studio. Vieira covers the familiar difficulties faced by the film industry over the past century, discussing how Warner Bros. handled the rise of “talkies,” the introduction of color, and disruptions caused by TV, streaming, and Covid-19. Vieira’s decision to squeeze in as many movies as possible means that the Oscar-nominated L.A. Confidential gets the same brief coverage as another 1997 Warner release, the much-derided Batman & Robin, making for a shallow survey that doesn’t include many surprises for those familiar with the outlines of film history. Movie buffs interested in a more substantial account of Warner Bros. would be better off with David Thomson’s or Steven Bingen’s takes on the studio. Photos. (May)