Being a major film fan, it's pretty impossible to have any true appreciation of the form without knowing a thing or two about American film in the 1970's. The late sixties were a transitional phase, with the giants of the system mostly succumbing to age, and leaving the keys to the kingdom in the hands of a whole new generation of filmmakers.
The major turning point was 1967- the year of BONNIE & CLYDE, and THE GRADUATE, and their genesis is exhaustively recounted here. But, as Biskind makes clear, the real game changer was EASY RIDER in '69, which radically changed the studios perception as to what people would or would not go see.
In the years that followed, directors like Peter Bogdonovich, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, and William Friedkin radically changed the landscape of film- but many of them succumbed to excess (not to mention the over-abundance of cocaine) and crashed and burned by the decades end. Their rise and fall is recounted here in fascinating detail- with Bogdonovich' career in ruins after his ego ran amuck, and William Friedkin finding out what would happen if he opened his grim opus, SORCERER (a brilliant film) a week after STAR WARS. Some of these stories have happy endings. Spielberg had a flop with 1941- but it didn't effect him in the least, and Martin Scorcese, in the midst of a hard-core drug-addiction of the set of NEW YORK, NEW YORK, and THE LAST WALTZ, bounced back with the epochal RAGING BULL- which marked the true pinnacle (and climax) of seventies film. It's all recounted here in fascinating detail by Peter Biskind- who's a master of the industry memoir. If this is your type of read, his follow-up, DOWN & DIRTY PICTURES (a look at the eighties-nienties indie scene) and STAR- A WARREN BEATTY biography are essential.
The major turning point was 1967- the year of BONNIE & CLYDE, and THE GRADUATE, and their genesis is exhaustively recounted here. But, as Biskind makes clear, the real game changer was EASY RIDER in '69, which radically changed the studios perception as to what people would or would not go see.
In the years that followed, directors like Peter Bogdonovich, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, and William Friedkin radically changed the landscape of film- but many of them succumbed to excess (not to mention the over-abundance of cocaine) and crashed and burned by the decades end. Their rise and fall is recounted here in fascinating detail- with Bogdonovich' career in ruins after his ego ran amuck, and William Friedkin finding out what would happen if he opened his grim opus, SORCERER (a brilliant film) a week after STAR WARS. Some of these stories have happy endings. Spielberg had a flop with 1941- but it didn't effect him in the least, and Martin Scorcese, in the midst of a hard-core drug-addiction of the set of NEW YORK, NEW YORK, and THE LAST WALTZ, bounced back with the epochal RAGING BULL- which marked the true pinnacle (and climax) of seventies film. It's all recounted here in fascinating detail by Peter Biskind- who's a master of the industry memoir. If this is your type of read, his follow-up, DOWN & DIRTY PICTURES (a look at the eighties-nienties indie scene) and STAR- A WARREN BEATTY biography are essential.
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