American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations (Screen Decades: American Culture / American Cinema) - Hardcover

Lester D. Friedman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813540224 ISBN 13: 9780813540221

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

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.

Review:

Contributors acknowledge the difficulty of characterizing a decade that birthed both the young (mostly male) auteur and the commercial blockbuster. Discussions of blaxploitation and sexploitation films and the increase in films celebrating male power and authority are particularly strong. Recommended. --Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0813540224
• ISBN 13: 9780813540221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 285
• Editor: Lester D. Friedman