The Seventies
The Seventies
The Decade That Changed American Film Forever
Vincent LoBrutto
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham Boulder New York London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: LoBrutto, Vincent, 1950 author.
Title: The seventies : the decade that changed American film forever / Vincent LoBrutto.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2021]. | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Summary: This book tracks the changing of the guard in the 1970s from the classic Hollywood studio system to a new generation of filmmakers who made personal movies targeted primarily to a thirty-and-under youth audience. These filmmakers reinvented the content and aesthetics of the medium to show that movies can be more than entertainment Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020042188 (print) | LCCN 2020042189 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538137185 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538137192 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion picturesUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Motion picture industryUnited StatesHistory20th century.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.U6 L56 2021 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.U6 (ebook) | DDC 791.430973dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042188
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042189
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
To
Peter Fonda (19402019)
Dennis Hopper (19362010)
Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984)
Captain America, Billy, and El Jefe
they didnt leave motion pictures the way
they first found them.
Prologue
The sixties did not end at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1969, but on Saturday December 6, 1969. The Woodstock music festival held that summer kindled hope that people could live together in peace and harmony. A free concert on December 6 by the Rolling Stones at Californias Altamont Speedway was planned to celebrate the end of the decade. The Hells Angels were asked to provide security. Instead of Woodstocks peace and love, chaos, confusion, and terror reigned. There were injuries and a man was stabbed to death by one of the Angels. The sixties ended before its time, slaughtered in the night by hate and violence. All of this was captured on film by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin for the documentary Gimme Shelter, which was released on the anniversary of the tragic event.
The 1960s started with hope and transformation. The 1970s had a gloomier outlook. A severe economic downturn impacted jobs and personal incomes. In this climate, a cultural and cinematic movement would grow.
Acknowledgments
Since the seventies, my wife Harriet Morrison and I began going to every movie we could possibly see. I thank her for inspiring and elevating every book Ive written and for her wise counsel and fine literary hand. She will always be the love of my life.
My son Alex Morrison screened hundreds of films (maybe thousands) with me and became my first film student. My six-year-old grandson Noah is already an avid watcher of shows and my granddaughter Callie is a liberated four-year-old; they are both signs of hope for the next New Wave. My daughter Rebecca Roes has been a continual source of inspiration for her accomplishments and her support for me and my work. My daughter-in-law Sharon Morrison has a discriminating eye for moving images, my son-in-law Jrgen Roes is a man of few words, and when he speaks, I listen intently.
I have been affiliated with the School of Visual Arts (SVA) from 1970 to 2019, which includes my student years and a teaching career of more than twenty-five years. I thank all my students for engaging in a Socratic learning experience in each and every class.
At William Cullen Bryant High School, a substitute teacher found out I was in one of the only high school film classes in the country and gave me my first Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) schedule; he penciled off what I should see. MOMA became my second home for the first four years of the seventies. Thanks for giving me a start in alternate venue screenings.
The New York Film Festival, especially under festival director Richard Roud, exposed me to films I never would have seen elsewhere and served as my yearly fall celebration. Third Avenue on the east side of Manhattan was a haven for cinema lovers. There was Cinema 1, Cinema 2, the Coronet, and the Baronet; at times I went from one theater to the next to catch the 12:00 to 2:00 and the 4:00 to 6:00 shows. Thanks to Anthology Film Archives, Film Forum, the Thalia, and the many venues that were a cinema university of their own.
All the bookstores in New York were special to me. There were two that featured movie books that were out of the ordinaryboth Cinemabilia and Coliseum Books nurtured writers on film.
Thanks to author and critic Peter Tonguette. Although he was not yet born in the seventies, he knows more about that magical decade than most his age. To Everett Aison, then chairman of the School of Visual Arts film school who claimed in a film class that The Exorcist was a poorly made movie and then, with patience, wisdom, and a smile on his face, asked me to stand up and argue him down point by point while a handful of bewildered students looked on. To John Donovan for being a great friend who is on the side of the angels, understanding that film is a wider medium than most people can comprehend. My gratitude to my friend Carl Perini for joining me on countless excursions to Manhattan to see seventies movies. I treasure your insight and companionship.
Thanks to Henry Jaglom who screened for a small band of cinematic warriors his daring Vietnam experimental film Tracks. After the viewers were gone, he stayed and talked with me about what I should do with my life, leading to an after-midnight self-revelation to quit my messenger job and do what I was born to do.
For Gary Carey, my thesis mentor in the first SVA class to receive BFAs, youll never know the gift you gave me, spending hours and hours poring over the first book manuscript to qualify as a BFA thesis. We lost you too young.
My gratitude to everyone at Rowman & Littlefield for their unconditional support, professionalism, and care for this author and this book during times that challenged us all.
My sincere thanks to all the filmmakers who were part of the Hollywood New Wave and seventies American cinema. They continue to inspire and remind me that film is truly an art.
Introduction
Before the creation of the Classical Hollywood Studio System, small studios such as Biograph, Essanay, and Nestor Studios existed. Walt Disney created his animation studio in 1923 and for four years he made the
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