From the first published movie review in the late 1800s to the 21st-century era of the 'great movie critics' wake', this chronicle reviews the nature, scope and controversies in American film criticism. Moving through the Silent Era, the pre- and postwar years, the golden age of the 1970s and the eventual decline in the 1980s and 1990s, this exhaustive overview includes biographical information on some of the most influential film critics - including Leonard Maltin, Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael - along with historical records and critical assessments of their work.