Synopses & Reviews
A smug glance at the seventiesandmdash;he so-called andquot;Me Decadeandquot;andmdash;unveils a kaleidoscope of big hair, blaring music, and broken politicsandmdash;all easy targets for satire, cynicism, and ultimately even nostalgia.
American Cinema of the 1970s, however, looks beyond the strobe lights to reveal how profoundly the seventies have influenced American life and how the films of that decade represent a peak moment in cinema history.
Far from a placid era, the seventies was a decade of social upheavals. Events such as the killing of students at Kent State and Jackson State universities, the Watergate investigations, the legalization of abortion, and the end of the American involvement in Vietnam are only a few among the many landmark occurrences that challenged the foundations of American culture. The director-driven movies of this era reflect this turmoil, experimenting with narrative structures, offering a gallery of scruffy antiheroes, and revising traditional genre conventions.
Bringing together ten original essays, American Cinema of the 1970s examines the range of films that marked the decade, including Jaws, Rocky, Love Story, Shaft, Dirty Harry, The Godfather, Deliverance, The Exorcist, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Apocalypse Now .
Synopsis
A smug glance at the seventies--he so-called -Me Decade---unveils a kaleidoscope of big hair, blaring music, and broken politics--all easy targets for satire, cynicism, and ultimately even nostalgia. American Cinema of the 1970s, however, looks beyond the strobe lights to reveal how profoundly the seventies have influenced American life and how the films of that decade represent a peak moment in cinema history.
Far from a placid era, the seventies was a decade of social upheavals. Events such as the killing of students at Kent State and Jackson State universities, the Watergate investigations, the legalization of abortion, and the end of the American involvement in Vietnam are only a few among the many landmark occurrences that challenged the foundations of American culture. The director-driven movies of this era reflect this turmoil, experimenting with narrative structures, offering a gallery of scruffy antiheroes, and revising traditional genre conventions.
Bringing together ten original essays, American Cinema of the 1970s examines the range of films that marked the decade, including Jaws, Rocky, Love Story, Shaft, Dirty Harry, The Godfather, Deliverance, The Exorcist, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Apocalypse Now .
Synopsis
A smug glance at the seventiesandmdash;the so-called andquot;Me Decadeandquot;andmdash;unveils a kaleidoscope of big hair, blaring music, and broken politicsandmdash;all easy targets for satire, cynicism, and ultimately even nostalgia. The contributors to this volume look beyond the strobe lights to reveal how profoundly the seventies have influenced American life and how the films of that decade represent a peak moment in cinema history. Bringing together ten original essays,
American Cinema of the 1970s examines the range of films that marked the decade, including
Jaws,
Rocky,
Love Story,
Shaft,
Dirty Harry, The Godfather,
Deliverance,
The Exorcist,
Shampoo,
Taxi Driver,
Star Wars,
Saturday Night Fever, Kramer vs. Kramer, and
Apocalypse Now.
About the Author
LESTER D. FRIEDMAN is the Senior Scholar-in-Residence in the Media and Society Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the author of numerous books on film.