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New Hollywood SeriesIndexIntroductionThe year 1968 is widely recognized as the start of the period sometimes called the Golden Age of American cinema. Whether that label is true or not is debatable, but it is a unique and special period of time between 1968 and 1980 where filmmakers had more control over their work than in any previous generation of filmmakers since the pre-studio era. By 1968, the old studio system that had been in power throughout the 1940s was dead, ownership of the film studios was changing and there was an emerging independent film scene, although it would not be commercially viable for a couple more decades. This period of time is often referred to as New Hollywood and it was a period of time that saw the emergence of filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Peter Bogdanovich, George Lucas, Sydney Lumet, and William Friedkin. The films of this crowd were marked by innovative film techniques and a willingness to push boundaries of sex and violence while also making deeply personal films. The filmmakers were products of the counter-culture generation and they carried the revolutionary spirit into the cinema. Throughout the year 2008, Sounds of Cinema has taken a close look at some of the films of this period, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of this extraordinary period of American filmmaking. The films selected including critical darlings such as The Godfather, The Graduate, and Raging Bull and box office blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars. The series has also included a look at films not often included in other discussions of the period (but should be) such as Planet of the Apes, Night of the Living Dead, and Halloween. Below are reviews of the films that were examined throughout Sounds of Cinema's New Hollywood Series. 2001: A Space OdysseyDirected by: Stanley Kubrick Premise: In a future where
mankind has begun exploration of the solar system, astronauts discover an
artifact on the moon and send a space crew on a mission to investigate its
origins. What Works: 2001: A Space
Odyssey has influenced nearly every major science fiction and fantasy film
since its release from Star
Wars and Alien
to Star
Trek: The Motion Picture and The
Matrix, and for that reason alone it is worth viewing by film and
science fiction aficionados. Concepts like hibernation, artificial
intelligence, and realistic space travel were presented in this film in ways
that have been alluded to, imitated, and downright ripped off ever since.
Despite featuring Kubrick’s unique auteur style, the film features a lot of
sequences that have been seen in later pictures; this is especially true of
extended scenes of the crew in hibernation that were duplicated in both camera
style and music score in Alien and Aliens.
HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), the artificial intelligence computer
controlling the ship, is both a terrifying and a sympathetic character, and
its relationship to the crew has been highly imitated in everything from Data
in Star
Trek: The Next Generation to the Dr. Christian Szell in Marathon
Man. Aside from being influential, 2001 is a great piece of
movie making. The special effects of ships and other spacecraft have a wonder
and beauty to them that has not been equaled in a science fiction film since.
The use of sound and music is interesting, including large spaces with nothing
but the breathing apparatus of the astronauts. Classical music by artists such
as Richard Strauss is used throughout the picture and it lends splendor to the
scenes of interstellar travel and a portentous atmosphere to scenes of danger.
2001 represents an honest attempt to make an intelligent, pure science
fiction film and the picture is able to reach into the possibilities of the
genre. While many science fiction films deal with fantasies of intergalactic
politics and warfare, the issue truly central to the genre is the relationship
between humans, their civilization, and technology, and this is where 2001
shines. Spanning from the dawn of humanity to a future where humans take the
next turn in their evolution, 2001 establishes themes of dehumanization
and mechanization and a uses deep and sometimes abstract symbolism to take
humanity to a new level where it is reaches a new beginning. What Doesn’t:
2001 has a reputation as a challenging film and it's well deserved. The
picture includes very little dialogue and there are many spaces with little or
no sound. The purpose is to create a vacuous audio environment that simulates
the empty space that the film takes place in, and it’s unsettling. The story
does not conform to a typical three-act narrative and that may frustrate
viewers. Its parts add up but only with some thinking on the part of the
audience. DVD extras: The two-disc
special edition includes a commentary track, trailer, documentary and
featurettes, audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick. Bottom
Line: 2001: A Space Odyssey demands a lot from its viewers and
those who are willing to engage the film will be rewarded. It may take a
second or third viewing to understand the film and even those who have viewed
it multiple times debate the picture’s ultimate meaning. But what 2001
proves is that film can be a medium for serious intellectual and entertaining
expression. American
Graffiti
Directed by: George Lucas Premise: In the summer of
1962, teenagers cruise the streets of Modesto, California for one last night
out while pondering their futures. What Works: American
Graffiti is a piece of nostalgia, capturing the teenage years of the early
half of the baby-boomer generation. But unlike many pieces of nostalgia, this
film remembers the past in a far less romanticized way. Where Gone
with the Wind recalled the pre-Civil War American south as a place of
cordiality and sophistication with no traces of the horrors of slavery and Forrest
Gump removed drug abuse from its portrayal of the counter cultural
movement, American Graffiti retains
a layer of teenage vulgarity that maintains its authenticity. It’s not over
the top or shocking (this is not a Larry Clark film) but the picture’s
dealings with sexuality, teenage angst, and burgeoning adulthood avoids
sentimentality. Instead, the film transitions the characters, and by extension
the culture, from the optimism and naiveté of youth and the post-war era and
into a much more complex and even dangerous world. The film splits its story
into different narratives, following four teenage boys, each going through his
own odyssey of self discovery. Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve (Ron Howard)
prepare to leave for their first semester of college and each deals with
separation anxiety, with Curt debating if he should go and Steve trying to
negotiate his relationship with his girlfriend (Cindy Williams). At the same
time, Toad (Charles Martin Smith) gets a date with the girl of his dreams
(Candy Clark) and John (Paul La Mat) cruises the strip with a precocious
youngster (Mackenzie Phillips). Each character takes a very different journey
and they don’t all arrive in the same place emotionally or intellectually
but they do cross into some new understanding about themselves and about the
world. As a piece of cinema, American
Graffiti is recognized for its use of sound and especially music, which
calls upon pre-Beatles rock and roll that is distinctly American and situates
the film in a specific time and place. The film also uses radio personality
Wolfman Jack to fill in the background sound, and his banter and the musical
selections do a lot to give the film its period feel and to provide a running
commentary on the events going on at any particular moment. As a New Hollywood
picture, American Graffiti is more
optimistic than many of them but it also displays the kind of experimentation
with narrative form that came to characterize the period. The film is shot in
a documentary style and lacks a score, relying on the source music. This,
along with the naturalistic performances by the cast, makes American
Graffiti a terrific cinematic experiment. What Doesn’t: The film gets
a bit long in places and the women of American
Graffiti, except perhaps for Mackenzie Phillips, are largely left as flat
periphery characters for the males to lust after. The film is primarily about
the young men, but the film’s treatment of the female characters is still a
sore point. DVD extras: The “American
Graffiti Drive-In Double Feature” DVD includes a documentary and a
trailer as well as the sequel, More
American Graffiti. Bottom Line: American Graffiti is a film about the transition from youth to adulthood both for the individual characters and for the culture and it is a terrific bit of nostalgia that remembers this particular moment in American culture in a way that truly preserves the period rather than replicate in some Leave It to Beaver fantasy. The film’s use of sound and split narrative continues to influence films from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Crash to Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Apocalypse NowDirected by: Francis Ford
Coppola Premise: Based on Joseph
Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, an army captain (Martin Sheen) is
given a secret mission to assassinate an American colonel who has gone insane
deep within the Vietnamese jungle. “The Compete Dossier” edition includes
both the original release and the extended cut, Apocalypse Now Redux. What Works: Apocalypse Now
is an unconventional war film. There are none of the typical war film clichés;
no taking the hill, no waving flags, no Rambo-style heroics, no buddies in
combat. What the film does include is a fusion of the politics of films like Patton
with the visceral nature of later war films like Platoon.
The result is a picture that is a commentary on war, the way they are fought
and why they are fought, and on war stories, how they are told and the values
and themes they reflect. The picture is structured to take its protagonist
through the Vietnam War, but also through civilization, gradually stripping
away social and technological signs of human advancement and returning man to
a primal state of nature. By doing this the film is able to take a look into
the origins of violence and the nature of warfare, making Apocalypse Now
a deeper exploration of the Thanatos drive. As a technical exercise, Apocalypse
Now has some great examples of visuals and sound working together. The
helicopter attack is an iconic piece of film history with a sensory overload
of explosions, camerawork, and music that satirizes the contemporary war film
(and is quite clearly referenced—without irony—in Rambo:
First Blood – Part II). There are also some great performances in
the film. Marlon Brando gives the last great performance of his career as
Colonel Kurtz, a tortured soul burdened with terrifying insight into the truth
of war and the worst elements of human existence. Martin Sheen stars as
Willard, a conflicted army captain who has lost his way in the amoral nature
of warfare. Willard’s narration of the tale provides the film with direction
and shapes the themes of the story, making them much clearer than if they were
just presented visually and Sheen’s performance is the glue that holds the
film together. Apocalypse Now also has some terrific supporting
performances by Robert Duvall as the reckless Colonel Kilgore and Dennis
Hopper as an eccentric photojournalist. The two add some insanity of piece,
but just as importantly they contribute a wicked sense of humor. Apocalypse
Now Redux, the extended cut of the film, adds to these performances and
unlike some other director’s cuts that add a few seconds of footage here or
there, Redux alters the entire layout of the film, moving sequences
around and adding entirely new sequences that build upon the themes and
further develop the characters. The most interesting addition is a sequence on
a French plantation in Vietnam. It furthers the links the film to its literary
source and gives the film a chance to lighten its tone before going to the
Kurtz compound. What Doesn’t: Although
additions like the plantation scene expand the scope and deepen the themes of Apocalypse
Now Redux, they also grind the narrative to a halt. It’s disrupting to
the flow of the film and many of the new sequences overstay their welcome,
especially a scene in which the PBR crew encounters Playboy bunnies at a
chaotic army base. Apocalypse Now is not a flag waving patriotism fest
and those expecting reverence and traditional depictions of national pride and
noble self-sacrifice will not find it here. Apocalypse Now is an
intellectual film with an emotional style and an art film on a blockbuster
scale, and those contradictions may confuse or frustrate the viewer. Also, Apocalypse
Now completists will note the absence of the documentary Hearts
of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse from this set. DVD Extras:
"The Complete Dossier" edition includes both versions of the film,
an introduction and commentary track by Francis Ford Coppola, complete reading
of “The Hollow Men” by Marlon Brando, deleted scenes, featurettes on the
sound and cinematography of the film, retrospectives by the cast and crew, and
a Redux marker. Bottom Line: While Apocalypse
Now is one of the most controversial war films of all time, it’s also
one of best, a film that mixes art house style with Hollywood spectacle to
create an engaging and sophisticated portrait of modern warfare set against
the primeval barbarity of human nature. Close Encounters of the Third KindDirected by: Steven Spielberg Premise: The film tells the
story of a working class family man (Richard Dreyfuss) who has an encounter
with a UFO and becomes obsessed with trying to comprehend what he has seen,
eventually running off to discover the truth. What Works: Close
Encounters of the Third Kind is a unique film in a variety of ways. First,
it was a science fiction film released before science fiction was mainstream
or marketable. Hitting theaters just months after the original Star
Wars, Close Encounters demonstrated that the genre could have
mass appeal. Unlike Star Wars, Close Encounters is almost pure
science fiction and is closer to Kubrick’s 2001:
A Space Odyssey
than George Lucas’ space fantasy. Second, the film places character as
its centerpiece. The aliens don’t actually show up until the very end and
instead the picture places its focus on Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and his
growing obsession with extraterrestrial visitors. Where a lot of science
fiction films are marked by pyrotechnics, poor acting, spotty writing, and
obsess over the minutia of their own mythology, Close Encounters takes
an intimate view of its subject and carefully constructs a metaphor of
spiritual awakening around the UFO phenomenon. Following that, a third way Close
Encounters is unique is that is combines the kind of mass appeal that
Spielberg is known for with the very intimate scope and personal themes that
came to define the New Hollywood era. Close Encounters uses a lot of
Judeo-Christian imagery and is a film about revelation, discovery, and new
beginnings. Neary sees lights in the sky and is marked with a burn,
experiences visions and obsessions that disrupt his life, eventually climbing
a mountain and connecting with the otherworldly beings. The symbols aren’t
heavy handed but they are there and the film uses them as signposts to point
viewers towards the themes of revelation and consciousness, similar to what
Fritz Lang accomplished in Metropolis.
Although Close Encounters shares this exploration of internal struggles
of faith, familiar to New Hollywood filmmakers like Martin Scorsese or Paul
Schrader, there is also a Spielbergian optimism. This is a post-Vietnam and
post-Watergate film, including government cover-up and the possible threat of
an alien invasion, but the extraterrestrials of Close Encounters turn
out docile and represent hope for a new age, a bit like the ending of Apocalypse
Now but with a decisively more hopeful tone. Aside from the thematic
issues, the film itself is unique in its use of sound, especially John
Williams score, which is one of the composer’s best. The score includes a
five-note signature that becomes the basis of communication between human
beings and extra terrestrials. The universality of music among human being is
the olive branch through which humans and otherworldly beings are able to
connect and begin a process of communication and communion. What Doesn’t: Those
accustomed to the slam-bang entertainment of most contemporary science fiction
adventures may be turned off by the slower and more thoughtful approach of Close
Encounters. DVD Extras: Close
Encounters is also significant in that it was one of the first films to
undergo significant reediting after its initial release and introduce the
concept of “special editions.” The 30th Anniversary Edition DVD
includes all three drafts of the film including the original 1977 theatrical
version, the 1980 special edition, and the 1998 director’s cut. The
evolution of the film is interesting to watch, as items are added, discarded,
and then sometimes restored for the final cut. The set also includes trailers,
a documentary, and an interview with Spielberg. Bottom Line: Close
Encounters of the Third Kind is unique within the New Hollywood era and
within the science fiction genre. The film combines traditional
Judeo-Christian imagery with science fiction in deep and meaningful ways that
makes for a picture that is as speculative about outer space as it is about
mankind’s social and spiritual future. Easy
Rider
Directed by: Dennis Hopper Premise: In the late 1960s,
two motorcyclists (Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda) transport drugs across
multiple states and in the process come across the cultural rifts in the
American south at this time. What Works: Easy
Rider is one of the defacto New Hollywood films. The picture established
filmmaking styles and attitudes that came to define the period and Easy
Rider is largely regarded as the picture that started the movement. There
are several outstanding cinematic elements of Easy
Rider. The first is its cinematography. The film manages a balance of
handheld, on-location, guerilla-style filmmaking with the kind of smooth,
highly controlled, traditional cinematography of a studio film. This can be
seen especially well in the traveling montages and in the Mardi Gras sequence,
which combine lots of avant-garde techniques with classical, closed form
compositions. Second is its editing. The film uses a lot of cross cutting,
especially between scenes, cutting rapidly back and forth between the final
seconds of the current scene and the opening seconds of the next. The film
uses a similar but less aggressive cutting style in the bike sequences, as the
camera cuts back and forth between the men in different geographic locations
on their journey and as they spatially relate to one another on the road. This
is an unusual kind of editing technique that even now is rarely seen in
mainstream feature films (although it is common in film trailers and in music
videos). The other outstanding
element of Easy Rider is its
soundtrack. This was one of the first films to use the popular music of the
period and the film includes artists like Steppenwolf, The Byrds, and Jimi
Hendrix to provide a rock and roll background of sound that works beyond just
filing in the audio of the scenes and provides narration and commentary on the
events taking place on screen. The music selection is also key to Easy
Rider’s importance as a piece of cinematic art; the film is a time
capsule of the period. This is a movie about the counter culture made by
participants of the counter culture which makes Easy
Rider unique; the picture deals with subjects such as bigotry, drug use,
and alternative hippie lifestyles from the point of view of people within the
counter culture looking out rather than outsiders looking in. But rather than
just deliver a simplistic, one sided argument that, Easy
Rider accomplishes something very profound in its last few minutes: the
picture puts to question the whole counter cultural movement and the rider’s
motives for transporting the drugs. It’s a brief but powerful moment that
makes Easy Rider both an artifact
of its time and a reflective bit of social criticism. What Doesn’t: Audiences
accustomed to more conventional editing and storytelling styles may find Easy
Rider difficult to follow. The film is very much a product of its time and
will be best appreciated in that context. DVD extras: A commentary track
and a documentary. Bottom Line: Easy Rider was not the first biker film but it remains among the best. Aside from being a solid picture in and of itself, this is a film that is important for historical and artistic reasons and like The Godfather it is an essential piece of American film. The ExorcistDirected by: William Friedkin Premise: When Regan (Linda
Blair) is possessed by a demon, her mother (Ellen Burstyn) turns to Father
Karras (Jason Miller), a Catholic priest in a crisis of faith. He and an older
priest (Max Von Sydow) attempt to help the girl by performing an exorcism. What Works:
Like The
Omen, The Exorcist suggests
that evil is alive in the world and that rational methods are ill equipped to
deal with it. The Exorcist goes
further both in its attempt to undermine rationality and in its suggestions
about evil. The battery of tests Regan is placed through exhausts scientific
knowledge and the depths of depravity and evil the girl suffers through are
extremely horrific. But the underlying point of the possessed girl’s extreme
behavior and appearance is to suggest that evil's primary goal is to debase us
and make us act as animals or something worse. The exorcism ritual is more
than just a religious procedure, it is the attempt of good people to act in
the face evil out of love for this girl. And, rather incredibly, the film
manages to sell that. The Exorcist
accomplishes its goals partly through the film craft; the make-up and sound
effects sell the possession, but this is a skillfully written and tightly
edited film that uses a lot of parallelism between Regan’s affliction, her
mother’s concern, and Karras’ own crisis of faith to draw the journeys of
the characters together. William Peter Blatty’s dialogue hits all the right
notes, rarely lecturing on principles of good and evil and letting the subtext
organically emerge. As a New Hollywood film, The
Exorcist takes a slight step away from many other film in that it deals
with the supernatural but it also deals with it in a very realistic style and
it takes on these big themes of good and evil and presents them in a very
intimate setting, dealing with personal issues of the filmmaker and larger
cultural issues of the time. What Doesn’t: There is a
more disturbing interpretation of the film’s agenda. The symptoms of demonic
possession have a lot of parallels to adolescence and puberty and some of the
sexual metaphors of The Exorcist do
hint at a misogynist streak underlying the movie. The scientists and medical
technicians treat Regan’s burgeoning womanhood as a disease to be cured and
when it can’t be stopped she is turned over to a pair of men to
ritualistically dispel it, freezing Regan in a innocent stage of emotional
development. This interpretation has serious implications for the Catholic
themes of the film and it is worth considering. DVD extras: There are two
versions of the film: the original theatrical cut and the extended “Version
You’ve Never Seen.” The original cut is only currently available in The
Exorcist: The Complete Anthology box set. In single disc edition of “The
Version You’ve Never Seen” includes trailers, a commentary track, and text
features. Bottom Line: The Exorcist remains an important film of the New Hollywood period and a very frightening horror film. While some of its messages may be mixed, this film’s ability to get under the skin of the viewer is still very powerful and the final confrontation between the priest and the devil is among the finest endings in the genre. The GodfatherDirected by: Francis Ford
Coppola Premise: The aging patriarch
of a mafia family (Marlon Brando) passes his duties to his son (Al Pacino). What Works:
New Hollywood filmmakers often redefined genre and opened up its
possibilities, such as George Lucas with Star
Wars, Martin Scorsese with Mean
Streets, and Steven Spielberg with Close
Encounters of the Third Kind. Coppola does that in The Godfather,
creating an American epic that is both sweeping and intimate. The grandiosity
of the saga is spread across the scope of the story from beginning to end but
within the individual scenes the picture often goes for the personal stories
of familial ties, and much of this is familiar to the audience as the
Coreleone family deals with death, sibling rivalry, an abusive in-law, and a
family business. The balance of the micro and the macro is done perfectly in
this film to create a portrait of intimate detail that spans multiple
generations. The Godfather has several classic performances. The most
visible is Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone. The character is larger than
life but Brando’s performance allows the man a great deal of empathy as he
struggles with his roles as a businessman and a father. James Caan stars as
Sonny, the troublesome older brother who is at least partly a psychopath. Caan
brings a lot of energy to the role and is a terrific counterpoint to Al
Pacino’s role as Michael. Pacino’s performance is quite different from his
roles in the later films of his career. Here he is more controlled and does a
lot of acting through silence and subtle actions. The corruption of Michael is
very smartly staged and happens so easily yet convincingly that it is a shock
to the audience to see what he has become by the end of the film. The
cinematography and direction of The Godfather are an excellent
demonstration of reinterpreting the styles of a previous era and presenting
them in ways that both reflect past entries and establish new a new style. In
this case, The Godfather uses darkness and shadows the way noir films
like The
Maltese Falcon, Kiss
Me Deadly, or Howard Hawk’s 1932 version of Scarface
did, but elevates the style and the genre from pulp entertainment to high
craft. Retroactively, the style of The Godfather has come to influence
contemporary directors such as David Fincher and Christopher Nolan. As a New
Hollywood picture, The Godfather is a reinterpretation of the story of
the immigrant family, which is a uniquely American narrative style. The film
joins the family with their success intact and catalogues the passing of the
family business from one generation to the next. This is also an American
Dream success story, but it is twisted by placing that success within a
criminal context. As such, The Godfather ties together various elements
of our culture, ethnic and economic, into a image of the American Dream gone
awry. What Doesn’t: Viewers who
grew up on the violence, noise, and style of later gangster films like Brian
DePalma’s Scarface
may have trouble adjusting to the quieter style The Godfather. That’s
not to denigrate the film, but to say that it is quite different. DVD extras:
The most recent release of The Godfather is “The Coppola
Restoration” which makes minor adjustments to the picture and cleans up the
quality, making it the best presentation of the film to date. The “Coppola
Restoration” box set includes of all three Godfather films, a
documentary, additional scenes, featurettes, trailers, profiles on the
filmmakers, photo galleries, and storyboards. Bottom Line: The Godfather is significant for enjoying commercial and critical success but it is also one of the premier films of New Hollywood, as it acknowledges the legacy of American cinema to that point as well as American immigrant narratives, and then reinterprets these elements for the contemporary audience. The Godfather: Part IIDirected by: Francis Ford
Coppola Premise: The film cuts between
the rise of a young Vito Corleone (Robert DeNiro) as an Italian immigrant in
New York and the rising power of his son Michael (Al Pacino) after taking his
father’s place. What Works: The Godfather:
Part II is unique as a sequel in that it does not just continue the story
of the original
film but ambitiously reinvents it, making the audience reconsider
everything they had assumed to know about the Corleone family. Cutting between
the rise of the father and the advancement of the son, the film deepens both
of the original picture’s tracks: the immigrant narrative and the capitalist
story. In the immigrant narrative, the film takes the ironic twist on the
American Dream of the first film and goes further with it, as Vito displays
traits like ingenuity, ambition, and resourcefulness, which are traditionally
defined as positive American attributes, and then uses them to build the
foundations of a criminal empire. At the same time the film also shows Vito
building his family and this puts his something vital at stake. And, like the
original film, it centers the film’s grand scope inside an intimate family
context. Vito's story is cross cut with Michael’s management and expansion
of the family business. The first film turned Michael from a ambitious and
idealistic young man into a cold and Machiavellian leader. In Part II,
Michael’s ambition to spread the Corleone brand threatens the internal
structure of the family as well as aggravating rivals and it sets Michael and
his family on a crash course that threatens to destroy them. This is tied back
to the very foundation of the family upon a criminal background and displays a
further critique of the American Dream gone awry. As a New Hollywood film, The
Godfather: Part II is unique in that it is a sequel, which was rare among
most of these filmmakers and their work in this time. But even by the
standards of sequels, Part II goes in entirely different and unexpected
directions and in some ways produces a picture that exceeds the original film. What Doesn’t: The only
respect in which Part II stumbles is in its pacing. This is a very slow
picture and although every scene is there for a good reason, it is nonetheless
a picture that requires a lot of patience from its viewers and may not
translate as well to a contemporary audience. DVD extras: The most recent
release of The Godfather: Part II is “The Coppola Restoration”
which makes minor adjustments to the picture and cleans up the quality, making
it the best presentation of the film to date. The “Coppola Restoration”
box set includes of all three Godfather films, a documentary,
additional scenes, featurettes, trailers, profiles on the filmmakers, photo
galleries, and storyboards. Bottom Line: The Godfather: Part II is a sequel that is unlike almost any other follow up to a major Hollywood film. It defies nearly every convention of a sequel while telling its own story and deepening the audience's understanding of the first picture. The GraduateDirected by: Mike Nichols Premise: Ben (Dustin Hoffman),
a recent college graduate, begins an affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne
Bancroft), the wife of his father’s business partner. Things get complicated
when Ben falls for Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter (Katharine Ross). What Works: The Graduate
was one of the earliest of the New Hollywood films and it establishes a number
of styles, techniques, and themes that later became key to the New Hollywood
movement. The cinematography of The Graduate demonstrates how staging a
scene and picking the right camera angles can heighten tension and create
subtle effects that change or enhance the subtext of the scene. Two famous
examples are the shot that frames Ben between Mrs. Robinson’s thighs, and
another deep focus shot of Ben as he runs toward the climax. The editing of
scenes like Ben and Mrs. Robinson’s first confrontation uses insert shots
and quick cuts that were unusual and quite new to a Hollywood film at that
time. The editing works in collusion with the camera angles to give a sense of
sexual tension as well as cinematize Ben’s anxiety. The music of The
Graduate is one of the most outstanding features of the film. Composed and
performed by Simon & Garfunkel, the music captures the pop sound of the
late 1960s while also supporting the plot points of the story.
The soundtrack includes cuts that have become classics such as
“Scarborough Fair,” “Sounds of Silence,” and “Mrs. Robinson” and
this music is repeated throughout the film in ways that reveal insight into
Ben’s character and function in the story almost like a narrator, cluing us
into his thoughts. As a piece of
New Hollywood cinema, The Graduate takes on the issue of sexuality and
plays out a scenario that, if dealt with superficially, would be merely a
shallow male Oedipus fantasy. Instead, the sexuality of The Graduate is
much more complicated and is part of a larger, more intricate character study
of Ben as he navigates through the hypocrisy of society and the expectations
placed on him as young man. The
film also deals with female sexuality in a way that is extraordinarily even
handed. The film does not condemn Mrs. Robinson or Elaine for their sexual
desire but it does hold everyone accountable for their actions and plays out
the complex emotional and social issues associated with sexuality, infidelity,
and love. What Doesn’t:
Those expecting something more along the lines a contemporary teen sex
comedy like American Pie won’t find it here, although coincidentally that
film makes direct reference to the Graduate in its use of the song “Mrs.
Robinson.” DVD Extras: The 40th
Anniversary edition includes commentary tracks, documentaries, screen tests, a
trailer, and a second disc of Simon and Garfunkel’s soundtrack for the film. Bottom Line: The Graduate remains a gem of American filmmaking. The humor still works, its drama is just as upsetting, and the film’s take on themes of growing up and coming of age are still superior. Halloween (1978)Directed by: John Carpenter Premise: Years after he killed
his sister, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to his
small town, stalking a babysitter (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the children in her
care. What Works: Despite being such
a low budget film, the filmmaking craft of Halloween is excellent. The
quality of the cinematography is very good, framing the potential victims in
lots of dark, empty space and using camera movement to suggest danger. In its
sound, Halloween uses music and sound effects to full advantage,
allowing silence to do its work in the build up and then punctuating the
jumps. The score to Halloween is terrific and one of the most memorable
in the genre, especially the chase music which builds so well. The villain of
a horror film often determines its success or failure, and Halloween
has one of the most memorable of all slasher films. Ironically, Michael Myers
status as one of the great villains has little to do with the acting of Nick
Castle and much more to do with the way the character is shot, the use of
music to punctuate his presence, and the speeches made by Donald Pleasence as
Dr. Sam Loomis, the psychologist who understands the potential evil of Michael
Myers. Pleasence’s performance is really the key to whole movie, selling the
gravity of the situation and filling in what we don’t see about the killer.
Also carrying in the film is Jamie Lee Curtis as the Laurie, the lead
babysitter. Something extremely important about Halloween that
differentiates it from a lot of the slasher films that followed in the early
1980s after the release of Friday
the 13th, is the sympathy of the film remains with the
female hero. Michael Myers and the terrible acts of violence that he commits
are not to be cheered or admired, something that happened in some later
entries in this sub-genre (although not to the extent that some film critics
would accuse it). Keeping the focus on the woman and the children under her
charge makes the movie a much more watchable experience and it makes it
considerably scarier, and Curtis’ performance as Laurie does not play into
the stupid, overly hormonal portrayal of teens of other films. Instead, she is
sensitive and vulnerable but her character also has integrity and
intelligence, traits missing from a lot of female characters across most
genres of film. As an entry in the New Hollywood pantheon, Halloween is
a film that succeeds artistically and financially in spite of the studio
system, which itself makes the picture interesting. As a New Hollywood era
horror film, Halloween acts subversively as a story about the return of
the repressed and as Michael Myers stalks suburbia, where everyone is supposed
to be safe, he undermines the "white flight" of the previous
generation. What Doesn’t: Those
accustomed to the blood and guts of later slasher films might be disappointed
by the lack of it here. In style, Halloween has more in common with
Alfred Hitchcock than Mario Bava. DVD extras: There are two cuts
of the original Halloween: the theatrical cut and a version extended
for television. Both have been made available on DVD. The Anchor Bay release
of the theatrical cut includes trailers, TV spots, talent bios, image
galleries, and a documentary. Bottom Line: Halloween is one of the great contemporary horror films. Although the critical regard for Halloween has started to shift more in its favor, it remains a subversive film that undercuts the illusion of safety and anthropomorphizes the fears of repressed violence and desire. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)Directed by: Wes Craven Premise: In Wes Craven’s
original film, a suburban family on its way to California gets stuck in the
middle of the desert on a deserted back road. The suburban family soon finds
that they are being preyed upon by a family of savages living in the
surrounding hills. What Works: As
a piece of cinema, The Hills Have Eyes is a great piece of
entertainment that is engaging as a horror film and as a survival film. It is
tightly directed by Craven, savage in its violence but also smart in its
direction. The film is frightening with plenty of jump scares and an ongoing
sense of tension that increases as the film goes on. Despite the far out
premise of the story, the film is able to sell it with solid performances all
around, but especially by James Whitworth as Papa Jupiter and John Steadman as
Grandpa Fred, who gives a speech about the origin of the hills family that
rivals Robert Shaw’s Indianapolis speech in Jaws
for creepiness and intensity. The original Hills Have Eyes is a great
survival story that mixes contemporary storytelling sensibilities with classic
frontier myths. The attacks by the savages on the family’s motor home mirror
the tradition of stories about Indians attacking White settlers. What Hills
does remarkably is to make the film a commentary on these kinds of stories and
explore the implications of what it takes to survive and conquer the west.
Unlike the 2006
remake, the original Hills Have Eyes explores the family dynamics
of the suburban family and the feral family. The result is more frightening
because both sides are drawn well and this works towards a climax that
undermines a good versus evil binary. In this film, conquering savagery
requires that the civilized people become as violent as their attackers, a
point punctuated in the climax, and blurs the moral line between the civilized
and the savage. In the context of the film’s original release, just after
the end of the Vietnam War, the Manson Family murders, and in the wake of the
cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s, The Hills Have Eyes is a look
into a culture that was fighting itself and discovering that its sense of
moral righteousness was more rickety than it realized. Watching the film
today, in the context of the Iraq War, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the
Columbine massacre, and other events, the film still has social relevance. What Doesn’t: Some may laugh at the MacGyver-like ending of the film. It is a theme repeated in Craven’s early work like Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street and this plays into the frontier myths of ingenuity and resourcefulness. In the end, however, cleverness ultimately gives way to barbaric hand-to-hand combat. DVD extras: Anchor Bay has put
together an impressive 2-disc DVD set that includes a documentary on the
making of the film, commentary tracks, an episode of The
Directors spotlighting Wes Craven’s career, as well as trailers and
an alternate ending. The film has been cleaned up considerably, as proved by a
restoration demo. The DVD features the original uncut edition of the film. Bottom Line: The Hills Have
Eyes was only Craven’s second directorial feature, but it remains one of
his best. Like Romero’s original Night
of the Living Dead, The Hills Have Eyes is a critique of a
civilization at war with its own savage heart. JawsDirected by: Steven
Spielberg Premise: A great white shark
begins stalking the beaches of a New England resort town. After repeated
attacks, the local police chief (Roy Scheider), a marine biologist (Richard
Dreyfuss), and a fisherman (Robert Shaw) must hunt the animal and destroy it. What Works: Some critics have
tried to diminish Jaws because its
blockbuster success signaled the decline of the New Hollywood period and the
beginning of corporate control over film production. That is not a fair
accusation to the filmmakers or to the film, which is one of Steven
Spielberg’s best works. This film is as well crafted as anything from the
period. The cinematography is comprised of perfectly composed shots, many of
which are handheld, and assembled through very skillful editing. The second
shark attack of the film, in which a boy
is attacked on an inflatable raft, is a sequence worth studying by anyone
interested in how cinema works. The scene uses subjective and objective
angles, wipes and cuts all with purpose to suggest the imminent threat and
make the perspective of the scene clear; it is ostensibly about the attack on
the boy but the subtext is about the paranoia of the police chief and his duty
to the citizens. Many scenes in Jaws
show this kind of artistic complexity and that alone separates from so many
imitators. The sound design of Jaws
is also extremely impressive, using silence or just the gentle sound of water
lapping the side of the boat to suggest the danger just beneath the surface of
the water. John Williams provides one of the most iconic musical scores of his
career and what is very interesting about it is the way in which the music is
placed. The film uses a Pavlovian technique, associating the shark with the
musical motif and then using it to cause anticipation or fear. As a New
Hollywood film, Jaws is a picture
that puts a lot of focus on masculinity and finds some new angles on it. Roy
Scheider stars as Martin Brody, the chief of police, and in many ways Brody is
the essential modern hero. He is caught between his duties to public safety
and the public’s economic needs, and the tension between those two
conflicting ideals causes him considerable guilt. Richard Dreyfuss and Robert
Shaw are terrific as well, one a rich scientist and the other a blue collar
fisherman, and the tension between them adds to the excitement and fear of the
chase. Also relevant to Jaws as a horror film of the New Hollywood
movement is the conflict between nature and man. Many of the horror films of
this time such as The
Exorcist, Night
of the Living Dead, and The
Hills Have Eyes forced their heroes to deal with the irrational and
the bestial. Jaws does this as
well, bringing man and animal closer and closer together and constantly
undermining the mankind’s ability to assert dominion over the earth. What Doesn’t:
As a film of its time viewers do need to recognize that Jaws was made
before the advanced special effects of today. Most of the special effects hold
up just fine but viewers who are expecting some grandiose visuals like Peter
Jackson’s remake of King
Kong should be prepared to judge the film based on the context in
which it was made. DVD extras: The 30th
Anniversary edition contains a documentary, featurettes, image galleries,
trailers, deleted scenes, and outtakes. Bottom
Line: Jaws remains one of
Steven Spielberg’s best films. Everything about Jaws
as a piece of cinema makes this as perfect as a film can be and it manages to
thrill and frighten decades after its release. Last House on the Left (1972)Directed by: Wes Craven Premise: An unofficial remake
of Ingmar Bergman’s film The
Virgin Spring. Two country girls are abducted by a group of psychotics
who torture, sexually assault, and kill them just yards from the home of one
of the girls. When her parents discover what has happened they go after the
gang. What Works: Last
House on the Left is remembered primarily for launching the careers of Wes
Craven, who went on to direct The
Hills Have Eyes, A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream,
and Red
Eye, Sean Cunningham, who directed the original Friday
the 13th, and Steve Miner, who directed Friday
the 13th Part 2 and Part
3. The film has a notorious reputation that is well deserved. Last
House on the Left was made ultra-low budget by people who had never made a
feature film before and it shows. Oddly, the rawness of the film actually
works to its advantage as the picture takes on a documentary look and the
violence is staged in ways that were adapted in later pictures like Friday
the 13th. As a part of the New Hollywood movement, Last
House on the Left was one of the first films to ever commit to showing
acts of sadism and violence as explicitly as they are presented here. The
images retain their power years later and the casting works very well, with
the two teenage girls (Sandra Cassel and Lucy Grantham) capturing the fear of
their situation and the villains epitomizing the evil of a post-Manson Family
culture, especially David Hess as gang leader Krug. Where the film gets truly
subversive is in the story’s final act as the parents of one of the victims
become as vicious as the gang members. In the finale, good has not stamped out
evil, but rather evil has polluted good and the vengeance is neither
triumphant nor righteous. This theme is echoed in such mainstream New
Hollywood films as Taxi
Driver and Last House on the
Left and the other horror films of this period deserve some credit for
introducing it. What Doesn’t: Last
House on the Left has not aged as well as other films of the period. Parts
of the film are clumsy or shoddily done and the humor of the picture really
doesn’t work. In an odd way the gross jumps in tone make the film more
disturbing but they also interrupt the story. DVD extras: The MGM DVD
release includes outtakes, a documentary, and a trailer. Bottom Line: Last House on the Left is more interesting as a cinematic artifact relevant to studies of the filmmakers, the genre, and the time period rather than as a film in and of itself. It is important and should be preserved but it is also a nasty little picture that is not intended for all audiences. Night of the Living Dead (1968)Directed by: George A. Romero Premise: A group of people
take refuge in a farm house while a growing hoard of flesh eating zombies
gathers outside. What Works: Night
of the Living Dead is one of the great horror films of American cinema and
it is also an important film within the New Hollywood pantheon. One of the
things that makes Night of the Living
Dead so special is that it is a time capsule of the late 1960s. Nearly
every social issue of the day including racial conflict, fears of communism,
social upheaval, and the space race are addressed in the film in some way.
Aside from the topics of the time, Night
of the Living Dead carries within it the revolutionary and subversive
spirit of the period but without the optimism. The film embodies the anxiety
of the period and instead of exorcizing that fear through drama, it throws
those anxieties back in the audience’s face. Night
of the Living Dead is also a terrific narrative social experiment. Instead
of working together for the survival of the group, the people in the farmhouse
work against each other, trying to assert dominion over the resources of the
house while the army of zombies rips it down. The conflict between Ben (Duane
Jones) and Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) drives the film and the two men’s
bickering escalates in tandem with the threat from outside, building toward a
perfect storm in a climax that is devastating on visceral, ideological, and
emotional levels. As a piece of cinema, Night
of the Living Dead is a terrific argument for the use of black and white
film. The deep contrasts of light and darkness and the simple but effective
makeup effects work very well together and sells the premise of the film. As
an entry in the zombie subgenre, Night
of the Living Dead, establishes nearly every convention (now cliché) that
has been used in this type of film and it remains one of the best entries in
the genre. What Doesn’t: Although Night
of the Living Dead has aged well, it is now shocking on narrative and
ideological levels rather than visceral ones. Compared to more recent zombie
films, Night of the Living Dead is
not nearly as gory and it is not paced as fast as contemporary films like the
remake of Dawn of the Dead. DVD extras: There have been
many DVD releases of the original Night
of the Living Dead and there are several different versions. The original
film was released in black and white but there is also a colorized version.
The 30th anniversary edition by Anchor Bay includes new scenes shot
without George A. Romero’s involvement and a new film score. The Millennium
Edition by Elite Entertainment is probably the best version in terms of the
quality of the film and extras features. This release includes the original
cut, the parody “Night of the Living Bread,” image galleries, featurettes,
a video interview with Judy Ridley, an audio interview with Duane Jones, the
shooting script, linear notes, and a commentary track. Bottom Line: Night of the Living Dead is a terrific film and forty years after its release the film is still an assault on the audience. Although the zombie film has been done bigger and bloodier, it hasn’t been done better than Romero’s original version. The Omen (1976)Directed by:
Richard Donner Premise: After contact with a
mysterious priest and a string of unusual accidents, an American diplomat
(Gregory Peck) and his wife (Lee Remick) begin to suspect their son is the
Antichrist. What Works: The
Omen is a frightening thriller that executes suspense, horror, and drama
equally well and uses them together to undermine the notion of good always
triumphs over evil. The film works as a family drama first, as Robert Thorne
(Peck) lies to his wife about the death of their son in childbirth and
unofficially adopts a baby he knows nothing about. As the story continues,
Thorne finds the lie unraveling his life and he digs himself deeper into it,
refusing to acknowledge what is right in front of him. Beyond
the family drama, The Omen pries
into questions of modernity, free will, and the nature of evil. While Thorne
searches for the truth of his son’s parentage, the film forces Thorne into a
spiritual conflict as the modern rational man trying to grasp things that are
irrational. The Omen is notable for
some iconic sequences, namely the very creative death scenes that were copied
and borrowed by the slasher genre in the 1980s. But what the film does so well
is to allow these accidents to occur in ways that suggest ambiguity; they
might be the hand of a supernatural force or just circumstance working itself
out. Thorne, as the contemporary man, keeps trying to take control of things
that are beyond his means to manipulate and the film’s conclusion suggests
the hopelessness of prophesy and determinism; if his son is indeed the
Antichrist and the end is nigh, then there is nothing Thorne can do to stop
it. As a New Hollywood film, The Omen
places Gregory Peck, a respected and masculine actor, in a place of
powerlessness. Like Charlton Heston in Planet
of the Apes or Robert DeNiro in Raging
Bull, this suggests frustration with a world that is too big and too
complicated for us to control. Beyond that, The
Omen suggests that evil will not merely overpower good but that it is
predestined to do so. What Doesn’t: Of the films
in the trend of demonic cinema to come out at this time, The
Omen is by far the darkest in its outlook and for that reason audiences
may find it too upsetting. DVD extras: The two disc
special edition includes commentary tracks, featurettes, deleted scenes, and
image galleries. Bottom Line: As a part of the New Hollywood movement and as a film in its own right, The Omen is a frightening thriller not just because it suggests that evil is alive and functioning in the world, but because it suggests that our ability to combat evil is inherently thwarted. The Planet of the Apes (1968)Directed by: Franklin
Schaffner Premise: Astronaut Taylor
(Charlton Heston) travels into the future in a space ship and crash lands on a
planet where apes are the superior beings and humans are mute savages. After
being taken in by ape veterinarians, Taylor’s intellect and ability to speak
makes him a threat to the social order of the ape society. What Works: Planet
of the Apes is one of the great moments in cinematic science fiction. As a
piece of entertainment, Apes
succeeds with rousing action sequences, especially in the hunt scene early in
the film, and with well timed humor that alleviates the tension and pokes fun
at the film’s outlandish premise. But
Planet of the Apes manages to go
further than just disposable entertainment and makes for a piece of social
satire. As the film goes forward, Taylor observes and is threatened by the
dogmatic and hegemonistic structure
of ape society and through Taylor’s story the viewers are able to experience
criticism of their own society in the safety of a fantasy, and Planet
of the Apes presents this very acutely. This is a film with a heavy social
message to it, dealing with class and race issues as well as conflicts between
religious and scientific matters, but it is able to couch the social criticism
in an entertaining story and use humor to diffuse the stuffiness and
self-importance that usually makes a “message” film unbearably pompous. As
a film, and particularly as a science fiction film, Planet
of the Apes stands out in few ways. The first is in Charlton Heston’s
performance as Taylor. Rather than provide the kind of earnest, good natured
character who represents our ideals, the film gives the job of defending the
human race to a misanthrope. This gives Heston’s character some depth and an
arc to go through from the beginning of the story to the end. Heston’s
nemesis in the film, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), is a very interesting figure
and a very complex character. Rather than shouting at the rain in the mode of
someone like Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit
the Wind, he is instead portrayed as someone who views himself as
protecting society from itself by concealing the truth. Another way Planet
of the Apes stands out is in its impressive make up work, which still
holds up forty years later. What is most extraordinary about the make-up
effects is that they were designed in such a way that the actors playing them
can emote through the appliances on their faces. Lastly, the sound of Planet
of the Apes is very effective. Jerry Goldsmith provides one of his most
interesting scores here, filing the music with unconventional sounds and using
traditional orchestral sound very sparingly. The use of percussion is a great
example of score supporting the visuals to help create the world of the film. What Doesn’t:
Contemporary viewers may struggle with the opening half hour of The
Planet of the Apes which is very slow compared to many of today’s sci-fi
adventure films. This is a more thoughtful picture and it is told in a style
that is quite different from films like Transformers. DVD Extras: The two-disc
edition of Planet of the Apes
includes two commentary tracks, one with actors Roddy McDowell, Natalie Trundy,
and Kim Hunter and make-up artist John Chambers, and the other with composer
Jerry Goldsmith, as well as text commentary by film historian Eric Greene. The
second disc includes the documentary Behind
the Planet of the Apes, outtakes, makeup tests, sketch and photo
galleries, behind the scenes footage of some Ape
sequels, and theatrical trailers. Bottom Line: Planet of the Apes is a watershed film; like the original Night of the Living Dead, this is a film of its time, but the themes are deep enough that it remains a picture that penetrates deeply into American culture. It is also extremely entertaining and proof that broad box office appeal and intelligence are not mutually exclusive. Raging BullDirected by: Martin Scorsese Premise: Character study of
boxer Jake La Motta (Robert DeNiro), following the ups and downs of his life
and career. What Works: Raging Bull
is one of the de facto examples of cinematic craft in much the same way as
Michelangelo’s "Statue of David" is an example of excellence in
sculpture or Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” is held as the ultimate in
Renaissance-era oil painting. Raging Bull pulls together the elements
of cinema, bending and weaving the possibilities of sound and image together
in ways that make the film a tour of the possibilities of the form. Varying
everything from color and focus to film speed, the cinematography captures the
claustrophobia of a Bronx apartment, the savage violence of the boxing ring,
and the isolation of a prison cell and demonstrates the right techniques at
the right moments to amplify the meaning of the scene and explore the
character’s psychology through cinema. The sound is used equally well,
especially in the boxing scenes, which incorporate great sound effects work; Raging
Bull uses silence when it is most effective, and relies on music of the
1940s to give the period feel and fill in the cultural background of Little
Italy. Raging Bull has a few great performances by the cast such as
Cathy Moriarty as Vickie, La Motta’s wife, and Joe Pesci as Joey, La
Motta’s brother. But the performance of the film that stands out, partly due
to the structure of the film but largely due to the excellence of the work, is
Robert DeNiro as Jake La Motta. It is a performance on par with Daniel Day
Lewis in There
Will Be Blood, Forest Whitaker in The
Last King of Scotland, and George C. Scott in Patton.
DeNiro portrays La Motta as a monstrous human being, good at what he does for
a living but self-destructive and unable to control himself outside of the
ring. The tension between how the character sees himself and how he behaves
creates a portrayal of a man and his masculinity that is complex and, if not
sympathetic, is extremely empathic and allows insight into this tortured soul
and more broadly into the conflicts of post-war men in America. What Doesn’t: This is a film
of a different era and it is unconventional in its narrative structure and how
it handles the boxing than many other fight films like Rocky.
Here the fighting is not a means to an end; it is an end in itself and is used
to explain the psychological make up of the lead character. Raging Bull
is not a feel good movie and audiences who expect films to be easily
accessible may find themselves locked out of the movie if they won’t put
forth the effort to try and understand it. DVD extras: The two-disc
special edition of Raging Bull includes a four-part behind the scenes
feature, a short documentary, comparisons between DeNiro and La Motta’s
fighting footage, newsreel footage of La Motta, and trailers. Bottom Line: Raging Bull is necessary viewing for fans of DeNiro and Scorcese and one of the key films of the New Hollywood era. It is not an easy movie to screen but it is worth the time and effort not merely to watch, but to re-watch, dissect, and learn from. Rosemary’s BabyDirected by:
Roman Polanski Premise: A young couple (Mia
Farrow and John Cassavetes) moves into a high class New York apartment and
find themselves surrounded by strange neighbors. After Rosemary mysteriously
becomes pregnant she begins to suspect a Satanic cult is at work in the
building and intends to sacrifice her child. What Works: Rosemary’s
Baby is very different from a lot of other horror pictures from the New
Hollywood era. The film features Polanski’s style, and Rosemary’s Baby
is much quieter than other pictures like The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The
Hills Have Eyes. Polanski uses odd or distant framing of the subjects
on the screen, which keeps the audience’s interest up even when very little
action is presented in the film. The horror of Rosemary’s Baby is
based in the fear of impending motherhood; it is internal rather than an
external fear, and that works because of the wonderful performance by Mia
Farrow. She might be crazy or she might be right and Farrow’s performance
walks that line terrifically. The film keeps the audience on tenterhooks by
not showing its hand and letting the ambiguity work itself out, waxing and
waning between one explanation or the other. Like a lot of New Hollywood
horror films, Rosemary’s Baby plays on subverting or defeating
audience expectations, which the film does in a terrific reversal in its
finale. As an early entry in the trend of demonically themed films, which
later became a major force in the culture and in the movies, Rosemary’s
Baby established a number of themes and ideas that that were central such
as a Satanic conspiracy, the impending arrival of the Antichrist, and the evil
of the everyday. In this way, Rosemary’s Baby was highly influential
both on later films and on American culture. What Doesn’t: A contemporary
audience might struggle with film’s pace, which is much slower than the
movies they are accustomed to. Some of the characters in the building are so
offbeat that they come off as comic now, almost like a darker version of
characters in The
Devil Wears Prada or Sex
and the City. DVD extras: Featurette,
documentary. Bottom Line: Rosemary’s Baby remains a smart thriller. Some of its style has aged but the performance by Mia Farrow still holds up and the underlying themes of the film are as strong now as they were in their initial release. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New HopeDirected by: George Lucas Premise: The original
installment of George Lucas’ six-film space adventure. Set a long time ago
in a galaxy far, far away, farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) finds himself
thrust into a galactic space conflict between the evil Empire and the Rebel
Alliance. What Works: Much has been
written about Star Wars and its impact upon the culture. Like Jaws,
Star Wars has generally been derided for leading to the end of the New
Hollywood era. And like the attacks made against Jaws, this accusation
is both impudent and untrue. The end of the New Hollywood era was brought on
primarily by box office failures, not successes, and studios reasserted
control over productions as filmmakers spent more and more money on projects
that had diminishing returns rather than balance their artistic aspirations
with financial sense. That said, Star Wars is an extremely well crafted
film and today, with the market saturated with science fiction and fantasy
product, it still stands among the great pictures of the genre. Star Wars
is partially an updated version of the science fiction serials of the 1940s
like Buck
Rogers and this first installment captures that more successfully than
any other film in this series. Like Steven Spielberg’s reworking of genre in
Close
Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws, Lucas demonstrates good
sense for what elements of the past to keep and combining those elements with
storytelling styles that appeal to the contemporary audience. In particular,
the characters and the dialogue of Star Wars walk that line between
camp and seriousness very well. The lead characters are very human and
likeable, especially Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Carrie Fisher as Princess
Leia and the picture includes one of the great film villains of all time,
Darth Vader (acted by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones). As a genre
story, Star Wars takes the setting of a science fiction film but also
incorporates elements of other stories such as the Western and Japanese
samurai films. In this way the film is able to transcend the appeals of other
story genres and escape the clichés that usually trap these movies within
formula. Aside from the film’s work in story, the filmmaking craft and
design of this film are also very good and key to the defense of Star Wars
as a significant piece of cinema. The sets established the “used future”
look and are shot with a realistic style that sells the fantasy. Most of the
original special effects, both visual and aural, continue to hold up and the
editing of those effects, especially in the last half hour, are as exciting as
a viewer could ask for. The score by John Williams stands as one of the great
soundtracks in American film and in an era where synthetic music and songs by
pop artists were most popular in film, Star Wars brought back the
orchestral sound of the studio era in a way that served story and allowed the
composer as much creative freedom as the writers and directors of New
Hollywood were enjoying. As a piece of New Hollywood cinema, Star Wars
is interesting in its relationship to the themes of the period. Many New
Hollywood filmmakers were interested in ideas of revolution and new
beginnings, and many films undermined traditional views of heroism. Star
Wars presents the Rebel Alliance fighting for democratic values against
the threat of totalitarianism and in that respect the film is a throwback to
pre-Vietnam, post-World War II (or a precursor to early Reagan era) politics.
However, Star Wars was made in the wake of Vietnam, and its
presentation of a small rebellion defeating a larger, militarily superior
force smacks of subversion or at least a mixed message. So while Star Wars
at least superficially reaffirmed traditional values and gave America
something to believe in again the film also reflected New Hollywood tendencies
toward redefining those values. What Doesn’t: Although Star Wars taps into important cultural archetypes this does not in itself make Star Wars good and despite being extremely entertaining it is not a particularly deep film like The Godfather, Raging Bull, or The Planet of the Apes. The social and symbolic significance that Star Wars has come to take on largely has to do with what the culture has ascribed to it rather than anything in the film itself. DVD extras: Star Wars
has gone through several adjustments over the years with minor changes made
here and there. The most significant change came in the 1997 “Special
Edition” which saw new footage, some of it computer generated, was
incorporated into the film. These changes were again adjusted for the 2004 DVD
release. Whether these changes help or hinder the film has been fiercely
debated and the ability of the director to make changes to his film have
serious implications for the film medium, implications that are too
complicated to get into here. The 2007 DVD release of Star Wars is a
two-disc edition that contains both the 2004 edition and the original 1977
version. This release includes a commentary track, an Xbox Game Demo, and a
Lego Game Trailer. Bottom Line: Star Wars in an important film for historical, business, and financial reasons but also for aesthetic reasons. It remains one of the most influential pictures of the New Hollywood or any era of American film and decades after its release the film has retained a joy in its viewing that makes it a pinnacle of entertainment. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973)Directed by: Tobe Hooper Premise: The original classic
film about a group of hippies who run into a psychotic cannibalistic family in
rural Texas. What Works:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of those rare films that lives up to
the hype. Like other slasher films it has a fairly simple story, but the
simplicity is one of the film’s great strengths. It features an array of
characters that are memorable and terrifying, Leatherface being the most
obvious. The technical mastery and artistic experimentation is the area in
which the film really shines. The use of sound, such as non-digetic effects
and an experimental music score, adds to the madness. The cinematography is
gorgeous in many respects and the film’s use of editing and camera movement
is as good as filmmaking can get. The intensity of the original Chainsaw
is rooted in the way its very simple narrative moves gradually from a calm
opening to a chaotic, loud, and disorienting ending that undermines narrative
expectations. The traditional triumph of good is undermined and Chainsaw’s
that uncompromising vision of evil and madness makes it far stronger than any
other film in the slasher subgenre. What Doesn’t: This is not
the kind of bloodbath that contemporary audiences may be anticipating based on
the sequels and remakes to this film. DVD extras: There have been
several editions of this film as the home video rights have changed hands over
the years. The most recent issue by Dark Sky Films, a two-disc edition in a
tin package, could be considered the definitive Texas Chainsaw release.
The sound and picture quality on this DVD is the film’s best presentation
yet. The film features two commentary tracks, one (from a previous DVD
release) with director Tobe Hooper, Leatherface actor Gunnar Hanson, and
cinematographer Daniel Pearl , and the other with actors Marilyn Burns, Paul
Partain, Allen Danzinger and art director Robert Burns. The second disc
includes two excellent documentaries, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth and Flesh Wounds,
detailing the making of the film and the cultural impact of Chainsaw.
Also included are trailers, stills, outtakes, and radio spots. Bottom Line: Decades after its
original release, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is still one of
the great horror films in American cinema. The film’s willingness and
ability to immerse the audience in madness and taboo has never been equaled. |
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