![]() Biskind provides some essential historical information - reminding us, for example, how very, very old the people at the top of the studios were by the late ’60s (many of them had begun their careers in the silent days). An attempt to sum up what was important in ’70s American moviemaking, it’s cast in the form of an anecdotal history of, as the subtitle puts it, “how the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll generation saved Hollywood.” Of the two, Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” (Simon & Schuster) is by far the more substantial. Both have new books out (the quotes above are taken from them). Peter Biskind and Charles Fleming both write under the spell of this view. The reporters content themselves with tales of executives and deals. Video game-style action comedies and tedious indie flicks made by kids who think movie history began with “Pulp Fiction.” So the serious film critics write essays about the end of the era of the cinéaste and odes to the glories of the Iranian cinema. Then the mood of the country turned again, a reaction set in and - here come the ’80s! - the producers took over, delivering vacuous if shiny blasts of energy. This judgment is the inevitable consequence of a widely shared interpretation of recent movie history, which goes like this: The spirit of the ’60s came to Hollywood with “Easy Rider” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” The public responded to a new mood the studios, in confusion, opened their doors for once, talent poured through the system on its own terms. ![]() Diller, Eisner and Katzenberg - they ruined the movies.” And here’s what producer Don Simpson said about the end of his own go-go years, the 1980s: “The failing of the present-day system is quite simply based on the fact that the studio executives are by and large ex-lawyers, agents, business-oriented people who are fantastic executives and managers who don’t have a clue about telling stories.” Different decade, same message: The movies are dead, business killed ’em, and things are only getting worse.Ī consensus exists among some of the more serious, informed movie journalists and critics that all American moviemaking passion is spent. Remembering the feverish moviemaking days of the 1970s, writer-director John Milius said, “The stuff that brought it all to an end came from within. ![]() Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese ![]()
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