In the era of the Internet Movie Database, one may wonder what use a film encyclopedia could possibly have. After all, the IMDB can cover far more ground, provide afar wider range of information than any film book could. And it never needs to be reissued.

The latest version of David Thomson’s work proves there still is use for a good film reference book. Thomson's book may lack the width of IMDB but it beats it in terms of depth. Filled with bite-sized insights and concise explanations about movie people from D.W. Griffith to Reese Witherspoon, this is a work of passion, precision and knowledge.

No one will agree with him on everything, even on most things. But, his skill at argument makes his opinions impossible to dismiss, and he rarely seems unfair. He recognizes when he represents the minority opinion on a subject (as with director John Ford, whom he has little admiration for) and rarely dismisses an interesting subject out of hand. Here are two samples of his writing, one a rip and one a bit of praise:

On writer-director-producer Carl Foreman: There is no reason why the House Committee on Un-American Activities should be regarded as a more reliable test of talent than any other. To be sure, it righteously excluded or impeded some of the most interesting writers, directors and actors in America during the McCarthy era. But it was not always discriminating; it also blacklisted Carl Foreman.
On actor Elisha Cook Jr.: Who wouldn't want to read a good biography of Elisha Cook Jr.? He was small, scrawny; he was losing his hair, and he had a high-pitched voice; he had eyes screwed into his head with all the desperate resolve of wanting to be taken seriously. But Elisha Cook was guaranteed. Put him in a bad picture, and he made it watchable for 10 minutes. Put him in something good, and he was a metaphor for glue, or the medium itself. He could make you trust a film.

Thomson clearly hasn't a sense of wonder about the movies --- underlying everything one can sense a commitment to the never-ending search for great movies and great big-screen moments. The movies often let him down, of course, but it’s easy to see how much films mean to him. After all, who else would open the book the way he does: His acknowledgments list each person’s three favorite films after their names? At the end he tallies them up. I can't disavow a poll (no matter how informal) in which 'The Lady Eve' and 'His Girl Friday' are locked in victory, he writes, before listing his own choices.
Those are pretty clever opening credits if you ask me.

David Cohen is a copy editor at the PhiladelphiaInquirer and the author of 'Rugged and Enduring: The Eagles, The Browns and 5 Years of Football.'