# GROSS - cinema history and criticism

A materialist history of Hollywood, one year at a time, from 1913 to the present.

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## [GROSS/15 1927 Napoléon - You will not remember the order of events but you will be in awe throughout](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross15-1927-napoleon-you-will-not)

_2026-08-15 · Steve Bowbrick_

For the day of Napoléon's birth, 15 August, I'm republishing one of my favourite essays, about Abel Gance's vast project: an epic of national self-creation and a jewel of the cinematic form.

## [GROSS/71 1980, part one - Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross71-1980-part-one-star-wars-episode)

_2026-07-25 · Steve Bowbrick_

Darth Vader gives Area Manager.

## [GROSS - the whole history of Hollywood and its ideologies - a guide for new subscribers](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-a-guide-for-new-subscribers)

_2026-05-04 · Steve Bowbrick_

Dive into the archive - it's free and full of surprises from the whole history of Hollywood.

## [GROSS/70 - 1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer, part two - splitting up](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross70-1979-part-two-kramer-vs-kramer)

_2026-05-01 · Steve Bowbrick_

How did divorce, the heartbreaking dissolution of a marriage, become the stuff of pop fiction and blockbuster movies?

## [GROSS/70 - 1979, part one - Kramer vs. Kramer: how marriage ends in the modern world](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross70-1979-kramer-vs-kramer)

_2026-04-22 · Steve Bowbrick_

Peak divorce. In which we meet a caricature of liberated America and learn nothing.

## [GROSS/69 - 1978, part two - 3,000 words about the final 15 seconds of Grease](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross69-1978-part-two-3000-words)

_2026-04-01 · Steve Bowbrick_

The strange apparatus of cinema…

## [GROSS/69 - 1978 - Grease is a miserable thing but it has a magic realist ending that I can’t stop thinking about](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross69-1978-grease-is-a-miserable)

_2026-03-23 · Steve Bowbrick_

You were probably in a school production of this strange and rather cruel story.

## [GROSS EXTRAS - coming of age at the fin de siècle](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-extras-coming-of-age-at-the)

_2026-02-27 · Steve Bowbrick_

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg is a European aristocratic fable resolved in a very Hollywood way.

## [GROSS/68 - 1977, part three - science fiction epics on the geopolitical timeline](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross68-1977-part-three-science-fiction)

_2026-02-07 · Steve Bowbrick_

Indulge me while I insert Star Wars, Star Trek and Cixin Liu's Dark Forest into the 20th Century.

## [GROSS /68 1977, part two - Star Wars - another death star will be along presently](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-68-1977-part-two-star-wars)

_2026-02-05 · Steve Bowbrick_

You wait till you see the dark enlightenment.

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## [GROSS/68 - 1977, part one - Star Wars - war on cinema, more like](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross68-1977-part-one-star-wars-war)

_2026-01-31 · Steve Bowbrick_

Thinking about how to write about Star Wars. A free preview post.

## [GROSS/67 1976 - Rocky - simultaneously sweet and lofty and terribly dumb](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross67-1976-rocky-simultaneously)

_2026-01-26 · Steve Bowbrick_

Frank Capra somehow meets Bertolt Brecht.

## [GROSS EXTRAS - Moby Dick, Walter Benjamin and Eugene V. Debs](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-extras-moby-dick-walter-benjamin)

_2026-01-15 · Steve Bowbrick_

Now, in between the movie essays: interesting links, quotes and shorter pieces…

## [GROSS/66 1975 - Jaws - Spielberg’s suburban Moby Dick](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross66-1975-jaws-spielbergs-suburban)

_2026-01-09 · Steve Bowbrick_

Exemplary movie-making and extreme moral cowardice

## [GROSS REVISIONISM - an updated (and now complete) Die Hard alphabet](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-revisionism-an-updated-and)

_2025-12-29 · Steve Bowbrick_

A city within the City of Quartz.

## [GROSS/65 1974 - The Towering Inferno - judgement on the 135th floor](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross65-1974-the-towering-inferno)

_2025-12-05 · Steve Bowbrick_

A winnowing of the San Francisco elite

## [Allow me to sell you some cool cinema history merch for Christmas!](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/allow-me-to-sell-you-some-cool-cinema)

_2025-12-02 · Steve Bowbrick_

Sometimes I make t-shirts and hoodies and mugs based on the movies I write about here.

## [GROSS/64 1973 - The Exorcist and Catholic power](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross64-1973-the-exorcist-and-catholic)

_2025-11-21 · Steve Bowbrick_

The mystery of faith

## [Villeneuve’s Dune - aristocratic excess and extractive fascism](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-distraction-villeneuves-dune)

_2025-10-19 · Steve Bowbrick_

The distant future is nasty, brutish and so much sand in your picnic.

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_2025-10-19 · **Sponsored**_

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## [GROSS REMAKE 1944 - a Catholic hymn to capital from the city of labour](https://bowbrick.substack.com/p/gross-remake-1944-a-catholic-hymn)

_2025-10-11 · Steve Bowbrick_

Debt as happy ending