Genres:
Film
TV & Radio
Release Date: 01/01/2001
Distributor/Studio: Shout! Factory
Based upon
Peter Biskind's book of the same name, this
BBC-produced
documentary traces the rise of a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who briefly changed the face of movies with a more personal approach that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable onscreen. Influenced by such European directors as
Jean-Luc Godard,
François Truffaut, and
Federico Fellini, the movement kicked off in the mid-'60s with two films directed by
Arthur Penn:
Mickey One and
Bonnie and Clyde. (The latter had been offered to both
Godard and
Truffaut before it wound up with producer/star
Warren Beatty and
Penn.) What really kicked it into gear was the unexpected success of
Easy Rider, a
biker-
road movie that became that rare film phenomenon: acclaimed at the
Cannes Film Festival and a huge commercial success. Film school graduates, the first generation brought up with movies as their main cultural reference, flooded the studios (whose own regimes were changing) with production chieftains such as
Robert Evans of
Paramount and
David Picker at
United Artists; they approved risky-looking projects and allowed relatively untested filmmakers like
Francis Ford Coppola to take on heavyweight movies such as
The Godfather or Hollywood newcomers like Britain's
John Schlesinger to make quirky stories like
Midnight Cowboy. Enriched by success with their TV show
The Monkees, producer
Bert Schneider and director
Bob Rafelson formed a company that produced not only
Easy Rider but seminal '70s films such as
Five Easy Pieces and the Oscar-winning Vietnam War
documentary Hearts and Minds. Another godfather to the new movement was producer
Roger Corman, who gave early career opportunities to
Coppola,
Martin Scorsese,
Peter Bogdanovich, and
Jonathan Demme on low-budget projects that allowed them to learn their craft.
Two things brought this movement to an end: Some individual filmmakers' personal excesses (such disastrous flops as
Dennis Hopper's follow-up to
Easy Rider, appropriately titled
The Last Movie, and
Scorsese's
New York, New York), and the studios growing fascination with special effects-driven B-movies. An outgrowth of two box-office and marketing juggernauts --
Jaws and
Star Wars -- the resulting films became entertainments rather than personal statements of the directors. Narrated by
William H. Macy,
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features vintage clips of
Coppola,
Scorsese,
Beatty,
George Lucas,
Sam Peckinpah,
Roman Polanski,
Robert Altman, and
Pauline Kael. It also includes original interview material with
Penn;
Corman;
Bogdanovich;
Hopper;
Picker; writer/directors
John Milius and
Paul Schrader; actresses
Karen Black,
Cybill Shepherd,
Margot Kidder, and
Jennifer Salt (the latter two shared a house in Malibu, a social center for young filmmakers); actors
Peter Fonda,
Kris Kristofferson, and
Richard Dreyfuss; producers
Jerome Hellman,
Michael Phillips, and
Jonathan Taplin; editor
Dede Allen; production designer
Polly Platt; writers
David Newman,
Joan Tewksbury,
Gloria Katz, and
Willard Huyck; cinematographers
Laszlo Kovacs and
Vilmos Zsigmond; agent
Mike Medavoy; and former production executive
Peter Bart. Among the films discussed are
Rosemary's Baby,
The Wild Bunch,
Mean Streets,
American Graffiti,
The Rain People,
Midnight Cowboy,
M*A*S*H,
McCabe and Mrs. Miller,
The Last Picture Show,
Shampoo,
Taxi Driver, and
Raging Bull. (Three interviewees -- cinematographer
Gordon Willis, critic
Andrew Sarris, and writer-director
Monte Hellman -- listed in the
Variety review of this film, were not included in this version from a screening on
Bravo.) ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
;)
