COM 329, Contemporary Film



COM 329, Contemporary Film

Study Guide

Williams & Hammond textbook

The 1970s

The 1970s--Introduction

-Release of Jaws in 1975 constitutes birth of New Hollywood; invention of the concept of the “summer blockbuster”

-The new blockbuster was not an expensive “A” picture, one element in a diverse studio portfolio across which financial risk could be spread; it now was a studio’s primary product

-David Cook identifies the 70s as the decade of greatest change in the US film industry (outside of the coming of sound)—(a) inflating film production costs, (b) cost of promoting the film exceeded production cost, (c) with corporate buy-outs, films now seen as part of a wider range of products, and (d) franchise filmmaking (e.g., Star Wars, 1976)

-1975 also the year Sony launched Betamax (followed in 1976 by Matsushita’s VHS)

-In spite of “stunningly unconventional movies” of the 70s, American films were still made by, for, and with white men

-“Trickle up” influence from “low”/fringe products to “high”/mainstream fare; Roger Corman noted, “The major challenge has been finding new markets and recouping costs while the majors have dominated the exploitation genres,” and quoted NYT reviewer Vincent Canby, “What is Jaws but a big-budget Roger Corman movie?”

Chapter 6: American Cinema 1970-75

by Mark Shiel, et al. (boxes)

-Alan Arkin as ironic and dilemma-ridden male protagonist

-Kirk Kerkorian and MGM

-Early 70s recession; move from studios as producers/distributors to financier-distributors of independently produced films

-Buyouts/mergers and unprecedented debt (see also the Studio Genealogies handout on the class web site)

-More on the blockbuster—saturation publicity over a long lead-in time, followed by saturation booking; advertising with simple imagery, catchphrases, and tune

-The “disaster movie” genre—large all-star casts, predictable narratives, two-dimensional characters, characters isolated from outside world, human interest element (e.g., Shelley Winters’ character in Poseidon Adventure)

-BBS, American Zoetrope, and Malpaso Pictures

-All Hollywood film production now “independent”

-Roger Corman, AIP, and New World Pictures

-Blurring of the lines between exploitation cinema, pornography, and European art cinema

-Evolution of horror genre, inc. the “splatter movie” and the Romero-Craven mode of substituting slapstick for social content

-Auteurism—role of Francois Truffaut and Andrew Sarris, definition by Helen Stoddart, Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola as examples (and Sam Peckinpah, in his own box), combining auteur notions with theories of stardom (e.g., Quentin Tarantino)

-Revisionist films noir and Westerns

-Conspiracy thrillers, police thrillers, and vigilante revenge thrillers

-Lavish period costume dramas

-Sci-fi emerging in the mainstream

-Robin Wood’s notion of the “Spielberg-Lucas syndrome”

-Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, and neo-noir

Chapter 7: Blockbusters in the 1970s

by Sheldon Hall, et al.

-Fiscal collapse of Hollywood in 1969-71 resulted in financial retrenchment by US studios

-Interest in blockbusters fueled by—collapse of Studio System, buyouts by multinational conglomerates, diversification into non-film activities, “spin offs” into ancillary markets

-90/10 arrangement becomes standard

-Heaven’s Gate and the fate of UA

-Steven Spielberg as auteur (?)—dysfunctional families, absent or irresponsible father figures, models of moral behavior, suspenseful chases, sensual thrills and emotional stimulation, the political concerns of the baby boomers

-Road show method (slow, staggered release and exclusive, two-show-a-day exhibition at raised prices) was out; saturation releasing was in (e.g., The Godfather at 355 theaters, Jaws at 464)

-Saturation coverage possible due to the multiplex theater

-“Tentpole” films that also allowed for “franchise” outcomes

-The “Sleeper” (e.g., Star Wars)

-Tie-ins with novels (e.g., Love Story, The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

-Sequels! And, the first sequel/series franchise of the modern era—James Bond (1962()

-Short-term genre cycles (“mini-genres”?) (e.g., “dirty cop” films)

-The big genres of the time—disaster films and science fiction

-Sci-fi—not just for kids anymore, and enhanced with new special effects technologies, plus advances in sound (Dolby optical stereo soundtracks for 35 mm in 1975; 70 mm blow-up prints with multi-channel magnetic tracks and Dolby noise reduction)

-The Spectacle (e.g., shark blowing up in Jaws)

Chapter 8: Blaxploitation

by Eithne Quinn & Peter Kramer, et al.

-Over 100 low-budget films released between 1970 and 1975, featuring mainly black casts performing action-adventure narratives in the ghetto

-Three key films launched the movement—Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970, Ossie Davis), Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1970, Melvin van Peebles), Shaft (1971, Gordon Parks, Sr.)

-The highly successful Super Fly (1972, Gordon Parks, Jr., & Gordon Parks, Sr.) was met with criticisms

-Blaxploitation just one of a number of exploitation cycles in the 70s

-Criticisms of blaxploitation films—disempowering influence on youth, romanticizing criminality, flamboyant style

-Positives—the films employed blacks, the films’ content and style largely determined by blacks, celebrated marginal identities (often with that flamboyant style), highly acclaimed soundtracks by top black musicians

-Gender transgressions and genre transgressions

-Blaxploitation’s rich afterlife—(1) caper comedies (either all-black or with an interracial team), (2) the work of Richard Pryor (including the first stand-up comedy film, Richard Pryor Live in Concert, 1979), (3) ghetto action films (e.g., by John Singleton, the Hughes brothers), (4) neo-blaxploitation spoofs and remakes (e.g., by Quentin Tarantino)

Chapter 9: The 1970s and American Documentary

by Jonathan Kahana

-In the 70s, documentaries moved away from cinema verite style and toward the methods of the historian

-New technologies—small-format video (Sony introduction of the Portapak in 1967), public access cable (inc. George Stoney)

-New sound tactics—“the less sophisticated the technology of representation, the higher the fidelity to the movement”; use of “wild” sound

-TVTV (Top Value TV)—The World’s Largest TV Studio and Four More Years (both 1972)

-The Newsreel group…and other Left groups and filmmakers

-Use of the interview—Interviews with My Lai Veterans (1970) and Winter Soldier (1971), both films critical of the Vietnam War

-Emile de Antonio’s Underground (1976), about the Weathermen

-Two films about the 1971 Attica riots—Attica (1973, Cinda Firestone) and Teach Our Children (1973, Christine Choy & Susan Robeson)

After Chapter 9: Eraserhead

by Mark Kermode

-A “cult movie” (see also class notes on Cult Films)

-Ambient industrial soundscapes

-What we know of the film’s background

-David Lynch’s subsequent work

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