Synopses & Reviews
The French Connection, The Last Picture Show, M.A.S.H., Harold and Maudeand#8212;these are only a few of the iconic films made in the United States during the 1970s. Originally considered a "lost generation," the 1970s are increasingly recognized as a crucial turning point in American filmmaking, and many films from the era have resurfaced from oblivion to become a reference for new directorial talents.
The Last Great American Picture Show explores this pivotal era in American film history with a collection of essays by scholars and writers that firmly situates the decade as the time of the emergence of "New Hollywood."
Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, Monte Hellman, Bob Rafelson, Hal Ashy, Robert Altman, and James Tobac: these legendary directors developed innovative techniques, gritty aesthetics, and a modern sensibility in American film. Here, contributors compellingly argue that the cinema of today's major directorsand#8212;Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Robert Zemeckisand#8212;could not have come into existence without the groundbreaking works produced by the directors of the 1970s. A wholly engaging and long-overdue investigation of this important era in American film, The Last Great American Picture Show reveals how the films of the 1970s transformed the American social consciousness and influenced filmmaking worldwide.
Review
"The Last Great American Picture Show offers a truly dizzying range of options simply for mapping the decade that has come--for better or worse, truth or legend--to acquire a hot retrospective golden glow. . . . The Last Great American Picture Show . . . restores to the decade the sense of fecund chaos that a more linear, journalistic account of the decade risks losing for the sake of imposing some retrospective linearity on what was ultimately remarkable for its incoherence: a few historical moments when Hollywood lost the script, forgot the plot, and stood there wondering just how it got there in the first place."
About the Author
Noel King teaches film and literary cultural criticism in the Department of Media, Music, Communication, and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney.
Table of Contents
Part One: Introductionand#160;
The Impure Cinema: New Hollywood 1967-1976and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Alexander Horwathand#160;
"The Last Good Time We Ever Had": Remembering the New Hollywood Cinemaand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Noel Kingand#160;
American Auteur Cinema: The Last - or First - Great Picture Showand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Thomas Elsaesserand#160;
Part Two: Historiesand#160;
The Decade When Movies Matteredand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Davidand#160;Thomsonand#160;
A Walking Contradiction (Partly Truth and Partly Fiction)
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Alexander Horwathand#160;
The Exploitationand#160;Generation, or: Howand#160;Marginal Movies Came in from the Coldand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Maitland McDonaghand#160;
New Hollywood and the Sixties Melting Potand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Jonathan Rosenbaumand#160;
Part Three: People and Placesand#160;
Dinosaurs in the Age of the Cinemobileand#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160; Richard T. Jamesonand#160;
"The Cylinders Were Whispering My Name": The Films of Monte Hellmanand#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160; Kentand#160;Jonesand#160;NASHVILLE
contra JAWS
, or "The Imagination of Disaster" Revistedand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
J. Hobermanand#160;
For WANDAand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Band#233;rand#233;nice Reynaudand#160;
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere: The Uneasy Ride of Hollywood and Rockand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Howard Hamptonand#160;
Auteurism and War-teurism: Terrence Malick's War Movieand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Dana Polanand#160;
Part Four: Critical Debatesand#160;
The Pathos of Failure: American Films in the 1970s: Notes on the Unmoticated Heroand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Thomas Elsaesserand#160;
Trapped in the Affection Image: Hollywood's Post-traumatic Cycle (1970-1976)and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Christian Keathleyand#160;
Grim Fascination: FINGERS
,James Toback and the 1970s American Cinemaand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Adrain Martinand#160;
Allegories of Post-Fordism in 1970s New Hollywood: Countercultural Combatand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Films and Conspiracy Thrillers as Genre Recyclingand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Drehli Robnikand#160;
BibliographyList of ContributorsPictures (with credits)Index of Film Titles