New Hollywood, 1970s film movement

Without being conversant with the technical or creative ins and outs of New Hollywood (other than a college course I took about Robert Altman almost 25 years ago), here’s what I’ll say:

I’ve seen a few of those ‘70s movies and I didn’t enjoy a single one of them.

 

Opinions vary.

I think of Deliverance, Deer Hunter, Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, Heaven's Gate... stuff like that. Plus the entire output of Robert Altman. It was about a style of writing, editing, and camera movement.

Spielberg is lumped in with some of those directors, but he was smart enough to realize the value of newer VFX technologies. That makes his movies fundamentally different. Personally, I think the Star Wars/Rocky strand separated itself from New Hollywood and, ultimately, killed it.

 

I think that happened in "Superman II."

 

I watched The Exorcist and Jaws the other day and sort of enjoyed them. I liked the soft aesthetics of the cinematography. But when it came to SFX, I’m too used to CGI now. Few others I like, Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, Close Encounters, Convoy, Midnight Express, Live and Let Die, Star Trek.

 

IDK...that's one of my favourite American movies ever, but it's also Polanski and he has a tendency of following his own instinct more than anything else. I'd be hard pressed to put in in the same catalogue with some of the other movies that wikipedia lists as belonging to the aforementioned movement, including the ones that I truly like (The Dirty Dozen, Cool Hand Luke, The Wild Bunch...)

My $0.02 only...

 

Chinatown is a great movie regardless of how it’s categorized.

 

Early movies followed blocking techniques of stage shows. Directors finally realized it was a different medium.

 

It was a first step moving on from theater. After that, special effects helped take
it to another level. Things tend to move in stages. Someone does something that works, and others play copycat.

 

Not just techniques. Everything in Hollywood is copycat. Just like we had an era of westerns/spaghetti westerns, then sci Fi, then cop movies, then super hero moves, then rampant sequels, etc.

 

Totally agree.

The acting was sometimes bad but at least the car chases were real...

 

I made it a point to read about the various filmmaking scenes in the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s. I much prefer that era of film.