ABSTRACT

Only Entertainment explores entertainment as entertainment, asking how and whether an emphasis on the primacy of pleasure sets it apart from other forms of art.
Dyer focuses on the genres most associated with entertainment, from musicals to action movies, disco to porn. He examines the nature of entertainment in movies such as The Sound of Music and Speed, and argues that entertainment is part of a 'common sense' which is always historically and culturally constructed.
This new edition of Only Entertainment features a revised introduction and five new chapters on topics from serial killer movies to Elizabeth Taylor. In the final chapter Dyer asks whether entertainment as we know it is on the wane.

chapter 1|4 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|5 pages

The Idea of Entertainment

chapter 3|4 pages

A Bit of Uplift

Classical Ballet

chapter 4|5 pages

Quality Pleasures

chapter 5|17 pages

Entertainment and Utopia

chapter 6|10 pages

The Colour of Entertainment

chapter 7|14 pages

The Sound of Music

chapter 8|4 pages

Sweet Charity

chapter 9|6 pages

Action!

chapter 10|9 pages

Lethal Repetition

chapter 11|33 pages

Four Films of Lana Turner

chapter 12|6 pages

First a Star

chapter 13|4 pages

The Son of the Sheik

chapter 14|16 pages

Don't Look Now

The Instabilities of the Male Pin-Up

chapter 15|13 pages

Coming to Terms

Gay Pornography

chapter 16|10 pages

In Defence of Disco

chapter 17|14 pages

Getting Over the Rainbow

Identity and Pleasure in Gay Cultural Politics

chapter 18|5 pages

The Waning of Entertainment