Differences in the Dark: American Movies and English Theater.(Review)(Brief Article)

Differences in the Dark: American Movies and English Theater. Michael T. Gilmore. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

George Bernard Shaw said America and England are two cultures separated by a common language. In this original and provocative book, Michael Gilmore examines the differences between the two cultures by looking closely at each country's favorite art form.

Movies are our quintessential idiom, just as the theater is England's. Our movies glorify the individual and freedom of space--"Don't Fence Me In." We will never leave the open range that existed for a few decades after the Civil War; John Wayne will always be the Duke. The British, on …