EASY RID

ER AND

THE H

OLLYW

OOD

RENAISSANCE

THE HOLLYWOOD RENAISSANCE DEFINED• Late-1960s to mid- to late-1970s

• Also called “The New Hollywood”

• Characterized by studio production/distribution of significant number of films seen as innovative in content and style

• Social context of frequent social upheavals (Vietnam protests, civil rights movements, student protests on college campuses, assassination of political and civil rights figures) that led to wide-spread questioning of “American” values and identity.

• Made by directors with film school training and thus familiarity with film technique, history styles and theory (Coppola, Malick, Milius, Scorsese, Schrader, Lucas, Spielberg)

STYLE AND CONTENT OF HR FILMS

• Alienation/rebellion of young that frequently ends in death or disillusionment

• Frank depictions of sex, violence and drug use

• Political and social critique• “It is possible, at the risk of some simplification, to divide the social context of the

Hollywood Renaissance into two main currents. One . . . celebrates aspects of 1960s rebellion. The other explores or manifest elements of a darker mood in which alienation leads toward fear and disillusion” (Geoff King. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction. 18).

• Narratives that incorporated some characteristics of art cinema

• Handheld, moving camera

• Jump cuts

SELECTED FILMS• Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

(Scorsese 1974)

• Alice’s Restaurant (Penn 1969)

• American Graffiti (Lucas 1974)

• Badlands (Malick 1974)

• Bonnie and Clyde (Penn 1967)

• Boxcar Bertha (Scorsese 1972)

• Carnal Knowledge (Nichols 1971)

• A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick 1971)

• The Conversation (Coppola 1974)

• The Deer Hunter (Cimino 1978)

• Deliverance (Boorman 1972)

• Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet 1975)

• Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson 1970)

• The French Connection (Friedkin 1971)

• The Getaway (Peckinpah 1972)

• The Godfather/The Godfather: Part II (Coppola 1972/1974)

• The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich 1971)

• Little Big Man (Penn 1970)

• M*A*S*H (Altman 1970)

• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman 1971)

• Mean Streets (Scorsese 1973)

• Nashville (Altman 1976)

• Play It Again, Sam (Allen 1972)

• Straw Dogs (Peckinpah 1971)

• The Sugarland Express (Spielberg 1974)

• Taxi Driver (Scorsese 1976)

• Three Days of the Condor (Pollack 1975)

• Zabriskie Point (Antonioni 1970)

END OF AN ERA

• Films like Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977) ushering in blockbuster era, with studio desire for large profits generated by “tentpole” films with cross-marketing potential