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