Hollywood makes the most widely successful pleasure-giving artworks the world has ever known. The industry operates under the assumption that pleasurable aesthetic experiences, among huge populations, translate into box office success. With that goal in mind, Hollywood has systematized the delivery of aesthetic pleasure, packaging and selling it on a massive scale. In  Hollywood Aesthetic , Todd Berliner accounts for the chief attraction of Hollywood cinema worldwide: its entertainment value. Analyzing Hollywood in the areas of narrative, style, ideology, and genre,  Hollywood Aesthetic  offers a comprehensive appraisal of the aesthetic design of American commercial cinema. Grounded in film history and in the psychological and philosophical literature on aesthetics, the book situates aesthetic analyses within the context of film reception, the film industry, and the current understanding of human psychology. Illustrated with numerous examples,  Hollywood Aesthetic  analyzes the design of a range of films that span Hollywood history. The book examines films, such as  City Lights  and  Goodfellas , that have earned aesthetic appreciation from both fans and critics. But it also studies curious outliers and celebrated Hollywood experiments, such as  The Killing  and  Starship Trooper s, films popular with cinephiles and cult audiences. And it demonstrates the ways in which even ordinary popular films, from  Tarzan and His Mate to Rocky III , as well as New Hollywood action blockbusters, like  Die Hard  and  The Dark Knight , offer aesthetic pleasure to mass audiences.  Hollywood Aesthetic  explains how these and dozens of other Hollywood movies engage viewers by satisfying their aesthetic desires. Many film scholars dismiss Hollywood cinema as mere commercial entertainment and leave it at that.  Hollywood Aesthetic  explains how Hollywood creates, for massive numbers of people, some of their most exhilarating experiences of art. "Has there ever been a work reflecting on the characteristic aesthetic features, value, and experience afforded by Hollywood filmmaking with anything approaching the self-consciousness, rigor, and flair exhibited in Todd Berliner's Hollywood Aesthetic ? ... Berliner's book offers us a theory of the aesthetic and of the Hollywood aesthetic, in which critical analysis plays a key supporting role." -- Murray Smith, Professor of Film, University of Kent "In his book Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in American Cinema (2017), Todd Berliner lays out a theory of how and why popular cinema succeeds in entertaining millions of viewers. His book is provocative and convincing, full of detailed examples from particular movies and fascinating general insights." -- James Cutting, Professor of Psychology, Cornell University "Todd Berliner's Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in American Cinema (2017) offers useful broad theoretical arguments about how to understand our pleasures in viewing cinema. The value of the project is combining standard film-critical knowledge with the cognitive strand of psychological theory. In this effort, Berliner provides an enhancement of a major trajectory in film and media studies." -- Janet Staiger, Professor Emeritus of Communication, University of Texas at Austin "Todd Berliner's Hollywood Aesthetic is a major contribution to the study of Hollywood movies. While many previous critics ― notably, auteur critics ― have defended the artistry of selected subsets of Hollywood films, Berliner makes a compelling case for the aesthetic value of Hollywood cinema as a whole ― as a rich and varied tradition that includes both ordinary films and time-tested classics. He supports his argument with detailed examples from dozens of movies." -- Patrick Keating, Professor of Communication, Trinity University "Scholars have long debated why we find Hollywood films pleasurable. Berliner's bold and provocative thesis is that they give us aesthetic pleasure , and he skillfully mines the philosophical and psychological literature to support his contention, providing fresh analyses of a number of well-known Hollywood films along the way. The book constitutes a passionate defense of Hollywood against its many detractors who condemn its aesthetics as uniform and therefore passivity-inducing, and is required reading for anyone interested in the enduring appeal of Hollywood cinema." -- Malcolm Turvey, Sol Gittleman Professor and Director of Film and Media Studies, Tufts University "Written in a lucid and engaging style, Todd Berliner's Hollywood Aesthetic explains why so many Hollywood films remain beloved today. Like the classic movies it examines, this smart and lively book strikes the perfect balance between interest and pleasure." -- Patrick Keating, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Trinity University "This is a provocative, lively analysis of the ways Hollywood movies pleasure their audiences. Berliner skillfully connects aesthetic and ideological meanings to