American Cinema Of The 1970s » (1st Edition)

A smug glance at the seventies-the 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.

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.

Acknowledgments     ix
Timeline: The 1970s     xi
Introduction: Movies and the 1970s   Lester D. Friedman     1
1970 Movies and the Movement   Mimi White     24
1971 Movies and the Exploitation of Excess   Mia Mask     48
1972 Movies and Confession   Michael DeAngelis     71
1973 Movies and the Legacies of War and Corruption   Frances Gateward     95
1974 Movies and Political Trauma   David Cook     116
1975 Movies and Conflicting Ideologies   Glenn Man     135
1976 Movies and Cultural Contradictions   Frank P. Tomasulo     157
1977 Movies and a Nation in Transformation   Paula J. Massood     182
1978 Movies and Changing Times   Charles J. Maland     205
1979 Movies and the End of an Era   Peter Lev     228
Select Academy Awards, 1970-1979     251
Works Cited and Consulted     257
Contributors     267
Index     271