Film History of the 1970s
Film History of the 1970s
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The New Decade for Film-Makers:
Although the 1970s opened with Hollywood experiencing a financial and              artistic depression, the decade became a creative high point in the US              film industry. Restrictions on language, adult content and sexuality,              and violence had loosened up, and these elements became more widespread.              The hippie movement, the civil rights movement, free love, the growth of rock and roll,  changing gender roles and drug use certainly had an impact. And Hollywood was renewed and reborn with the earlier collapse of the              studio system, and the works of many new and experimental film-makers              (nicknamed "Movie Brats") during a Hollywood New Wave.
The counter-culture of the time had influenced Hollywood to be freer,          to take more risks and to experiment with alternative, young film makers,          as old Hollywood professionals and old-style moguls died out and a new          generation of film makers arose. Many of the audiences and movie-makers of the late 60s          had seen a glimpse of new possibilities, new story-telling techniques and more meaningful 'artistic' options, by  the influences of various European "New Wave" movements (French and Italian) and the original works of other foreign-language film-makers, and by viewing these surprise hits          in the previous decade:
Lindsay Anderson's If... (1968, UK)
Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969)
Robert Downey Sr.'s Putney Swope (1969)
Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969)
Young viewers and directors, who refused to compromise with mediocre film          offerings, supported stretching the boundaries and conventional standards of film even more in this          decade. Although the 50s and 60s were noted for wide-screen epics on CinemaScopic          silver screens (and lighter formulaic, squeaky-clean fare such as Pillow Talk (1959) or Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)), the 70s decade was noted for films with creative and memorable          subject matter that reflected the questioning spirit and truth of the          times.
Motion picture art seemed to flourish at the same time that the defeat            in the Vietnam War, the Kent State Massacre, the Watergate scandal, President            Nixon's fall, the Munich Olympics shoot-out, increasing drug use, and a growing energy crisis            showed tremendous disillusion, a questioning politicized spirit among the public            and a lack of faith in institutions - a comment upon the lunacy of war            and the dark side of the American Dream (documented, for instance, in            the bicentennial year's All the President's Men (1976)). Other            films that were backed by the studios reflected the tumultuous times,            the discontent toward the government, lack of US credibility, and hints            of conspiracy paranoia, such as in Alan J. Pakula's post-Watergate film The Parallax View (1974) with Warren Beatty as a muckraking investigator            of a Senator's death. The Strawberry Statement (1970), derived            from James S. Kunen's journal and best-selling account of the 1968 student            strike at Columbia and exploited for its countercultural message by MGM,            echoed support of student campus protests. Even Spielberg's Jaws              (1975) could be interpreted as an allegory for the Watergate conspiracy.
1960s social activism often turned into an inward narcissism, and yet              this uncertain age gave rise to some of the finest, boldest, and most              commercially-successful films ever made, such as the instant Oscar-winning              blockbuster The Godfather (1972) by a virtually              untested director, William Friedkin's horror classic The                Exorcist (1973) , Spielberg's Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ,              and Lucas' Star Wars (1977) .
The decade also spawned equally memorable cult films, as diverse as Monte Hellman's Two-Lane          Blacktop (1971) and the quirky Willy Wonka & The Chocolate            Factory (1971). Jerry Schatzberg's and 20th Century Fox's raw, relentless and uncompromising The Panic in Needle Park (1971) (produced by Dominick Dunne) starkly portrayed heroin drug use among addicts in New York City, with  Al Pacino in his first major acting role as a drug pusher and part of a heroin-doomed couple (opposite Kitty Winn). Czechoslovakian film-maker Milos Forman's first American film Taking Off (1971) insightfully satirized the adult          middle-class and its supposed generation gap from the youth generation.          There were also times when expected hits turned to disasters, however,          such as the musical fantasy remake Lost Horizon (1973) and Martin          Scorsese's darkly expressionistic period musical New York, New York            (1977).
The Search for a Blockbuster:
The "so-called" Renaissance of Hollywood was built upon perfecting some              of the traditional film genres of Hollywood's successful past - with bigger, block-buster dimensions. Oftentimes, studios would invest heavily              in only a handful of bankrolled films, hoping that one or two would succeed              profitably. In the 70s, the once-powerful MGM Studios sold off many of              its assets, abandoned the film-making business, and diversified into other              areas (mostly hotels and casinos).
Much of the focus was on box-office receipts and the production of action-                and youth-oriented, blockbuster films with dazzling special effects. But                it was becoming increasingly more difficult to predict what would sell                or become a hit. Hollywood's economic crises in the 1950s and 1960s, especially                during the war against the lure of television, were somewhat eased with                the emergence in the 70s of summer "blockbuster" movies or "event                films" marketed to mass audiences, especially following the awesome                success of two influential films:
33 year-old George Lucas' Star              Wars (1977)
Although            the budget for Jaws grew from $4 million to $9 million during production,            it became the highest grossing film in history - until Star Wars.            Both Jaws and Star Wars were the first films to earn            more than $100 million in rentals. [The average ticket price for a film            in 1971 was $1.65, and by 1978 cost about two and a half dollars in first-run            theatres. Second-run film theatres could charge less and often dropped            their admission price to $1.00. The average film budget by 1978 was about            $5 million - increasing dramatically to $11 million by 1980 due to inflation            and rising costs. Therefore, production of Hollywood films decreased precipitously            in the late 70s, e.g., down to 354 releases in 1978 compared to the previous            year's total of 560.]
New Markets for Hollywood's Products:
The emergence of ancillary markets for Hollywood's products                emerged during this decade:
cable television - the first pay/premium television                    channel, Home Box Office (HBO), was founded in 1972; in 1975,                    HBO demonstrated the popularity of its programming and became the first                    in the television industry to use satellites for regular transmission                    of programming, with its "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier
to maximize profits from weekend              audiences, the industry decided to move major film openings from mid-week              to Fridays, in 1973
pay cable television was able to allow profanity and              sex beyond what could be offered on commercial network television -              outrageous comedian George Carlin's first comedy special was              aired on HBO as On Location: George Carlin at USC (1977) with              cautionary disclaimers about the use of strong language; it was the first of many HBO comedy concert broadcasts
multi-plex              theaters - the proliferation of multi-screen chain theaters in suburban              areas, replacing big movie palaces, meant that more movies could be              shown to smaller audiences; the world's largest cineplex (with              18 theaters) opened in Toronto in 1979
publicity/celebrity magazines - after Life Magazine discontinued its weekly publications in 1972, People Magazine - first published as a weekly magazine in March of 1974 (with              Mia Farrow on its first cover), took over the role of celebrity watching              and film promotion for the industry
Hollywood realized that it could increase its profits              by advertising its new releases on television - first shown to              be successful with the massive TV marketing campaign (of $700,000) for Jaws (1975) - the film was also booked              into almost 500 theatres for its opening weekend - a record!
Gone with the Wind (1939) first aired on network TV in 1976 and drew a huge audience over              two nights - about 34 million people - the largest ever film              audience to watch a feature film on television
The Home Video Revolution:
earlier in the previous decade, Ampex in 1963 offered              the first consumer version of a videotape recorder at an exorbitant              price of $30,000; other iterations would follow, such as Sony's introduction              of the videocassette recorder (VCR) in 1969, and the introduction              of the U-Matic in 1972
in              1972, the AVCO CartriVision system was the first videocassette recorder              to have pre-recorded tapes of popular movies (from Columbia Pictures)              for sale and rental -- three years before Sony's Betamax system emerged              into the market. However, the company went out of business a year later
the appearance of Sony's Betamax (the first              home VCR or videocassette recorder) in 1975 offered a cheaper sales              price of $2,000 and recording time up to one hour; this led to a boom              in sales - it was a technically-superior format when compared to the VHS system that was marketed by JVC and Matsushita beginning              in 1976
in 1976, Paramount became the first to authorize              the release of its film library onto Betamax videocassettes. In 1977,              20th Century Fox would follow suit, and begin releasing its films on              videotape
in 1977, RCA introduced the first VCRs in the United              States based on JVC's system, capable of recording up to four hours              on 1/2" videotape
by the late 70s, Sony's market share in sales of Betamax              VCRs was below that of sales of VHS machines; consumers chose the VHS'              longer tape time and larger tape size, over Sony's smaller and shorter              tape time (of 1 hour)
video sales - the first films on videotape were              released by the Magnetic Video Corporation (a company founded              in 1968 by Andre Blay in Detroit, Michigan, the first video distribution              company) - it licensed fifty films for release from 20th Century Fox              for $300,000 in October, 1977; it began to license, market and distribute              half-inch videotape cassettes (both Betamax and VHS) to consumers; it              was the first company to sell pre-recorded videos; M*A*S*H (1970) was Magnetic's most popular title
video rentals - in 1977, George Atkinson of Los Angeles              began to advertise the rental of 50 Magnetic Video titles of his own              collection in the Los Angeles Times, and launched the first video              rental store, Video Station, on Wilshire Boulevard, renting videos              for $10/day; within 5 years, he franchised more than 400 Video Station              stores across the country
in 1978, Philips introduced the video laser disc (aka laserdisc and LD) -- the first optical disc storage media for the              consumer market; Pioneer began selling home LaserDisc players in 1980;              eventually, the laserdisc systems would be replaced by the DVD ("digital              versatile disc") format in the late 1990s
VHS video players, laser disc players and the release of films on videocassette              tapes and discs multiplied as prices plummeted, creating a new industry              and adding substantial revenue and profits for the movie studios. One              film-related industry that side-benefited from the development of the              VCR was the pornography industry - no longer would adult-movie viewers              have to visit seedy X-rated film theatres to view porn films, and this              resulted in sky-rocketing profits from the sales and rentals of X-rated              VCR videotapes. Another side result was that independent film-makers and              producers could now market their films more effectively by distributing              tapes and discs for viewing.
But all of these changes had a down-side too: theater attendance would                begin to drastically decline in the next decade due to the home video                invasion.
Changes from Traditional Hollywood Movie Studios:
The established Hollywood movie studios (except for Universal and Walt Disney's Buena Vista) no longer directly controlled production.                    Although studios still dominated film distribution, other areas including                    production, filming and financing (in whole or part) were increasingly                    in the hands of independent studios, producers, and/or agents. A new generation                    of movie stars, including Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and                    Dustin Hoffman - were more skilled as "character actors," who could adapt                    and mold their screen images to play a number of diverse roles.
In 1975, the Creative Artists Agency was founded by Michael Ovitz                      and colleagues (from the William Morris Agency) to become a 'packager'                      of talent for film projects - resulting in the creation of competition                      among agents. And conglomerate investment corporations were buying up                      many of the studios' properties as part of their leisure entertainment                      divisions, with decisive power over decisions about the number of films                      and which hopefully-profitable projects to choose. All the elements of                      a film were brought together and packaged - the 'properties' of original                      screenplay, novel, or stage play were combined with proven box office                      stars, directors, and marketing strategies.
The cheaper cost of on-location filming (using Cinemobiles or film studios                        on wheels) encouraged more location shoots, or filming in rented production                        facilities. Faster film stock, lightweight cinematographic equipment,                        and the influence of the cinema vérité movement brought                        less formal styles to American productions. The functions of film makers                        were beginning to merge - there were actor-producers, director-producers,                        writer-producers, actor-writers, and more.
For                          example, the decade's popular independent hit and Best Picture winner,                          director John Avildsen's sports film Rocky (1976) was the first (and best) in a long series of self-parody sequels that                          featured rags-to-riches actor and unknown scriptwriter Sylvester Stallone                          as underdog, inarticulate, Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa (inspired by                          boxer Chuck Wepner) in a "Cinderella" story. [As an up-and-coming star,                          Stallone had earlier co-scripted and starred as leather-jacketed Stanley                          Rosiello, opposite Henry Winkler as Butchey Weinstein, in the coming-of-age                          gang drama The Lords of Flatbush (1974).] The film's hero actually                          lost his bout after taking a brutal beating from Apollo Creed (inspired                          by Muhammad Ali), but he 'went the distance' and won girlfriend Adrian!                          The low-budget boxing film was one of the first major feature films to                          utilize the revolutionary "Steadicam" developed by inventor Garrett Brown - Bound for Glory (1976) marked its first use.                          It was a hand-held camera that produced fluid, unjerky motion shots -                          during the choreographed bouts and the scene in which the boxer jogged                          up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
American International Pictures (AIP) (1956) and Roger Corman:
This low-budget, exploitative, and successful film company, founded in the mid-50s (and first named American Releasing Corporation), was largely responsible for the wave of independently-produced films of varying qualities that lasted into the decade of the 70s. The studio's executive producers were James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff, while its most notable and successful film producer was Roger Corman. He was one of the most influential film-makers          of the 50s and 60s (he was dubbed the "King of the Drive-In and          B-Movie")  for his production of a crop of low-budget exploitation          films at the time.
The studio released            their first successful "beach party" films (mostly to drive-in theatres) - beginning with the musical            comedy Beach Party (1963) starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon - to appeal to the lucrative teen market. Teenagers were also Corman's dominant target audience in exploitative films such as Teenage Doll (1957) (aka The Young Rebels) - about juvenile delinquency, and Sorority Girl (1957). As was the case with most AIP films, they were aggressively marketed with publicity campaigns and lurid posters.
Corman's own B-movie horror films included a series of adapted Edgar Allan Poe literary tales featuring Vincent Price (i.e., House of Usher (1960) and The Raven (1963)), and science-fiction horror films such as X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963) with Ray Milland. Corman's counter-cultural biker film The Wild Angels (1966) with a star-making role for Peter Fonda pre-dated the popular Easy Rider (1969) by three years, and his The Trip (1967) was the first major studio film to chronicle the effects of LSD. AIP also distributed a number of Godzilla (and Gamera) films in the 60s and 70s, while Corman  specialized in other exploitative  science-fiction/horror films and dramas, such as It Conquered the World (1956), Not of This Earth (1957), Naked Paradise (1957), The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea   Serpent (1957), Teenage Caveman (1958), the satirical black comedy A Bucket of Blood (1959), The Wasp Woman (1960), The Last Woman on Earth (1960), and Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961).
Roger Corman ("King of the B's"), and A New Generation of Maverick Directors: "Movie            Brats"
With more power now in the hands of producers, directors, and actors,            new directors emerged, many of whom had been specifically and formally            trained in film-making courses/departments at universities such as UCLA,            USC, and NYU, or trained in television.  Corman supported this new breed of youthful maverick            directors, referred to by some as "Movie Brats" or "Geeks." The AIP studio (and Corman himself) was  responsible for giving a start and apprenticeship experience to many upcoming filmmaking cineastes and actors, emphasizing low-budget film-making techniques and exploitative elements.
Corman  hired the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan            Demme, Joe Dante, Peter Bogdanovich, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Robert            DeNiro, Paul Bartel, and Robert Towne. He gave many of these novices            their first career-breaking employment opportunities, as actors, producers,            directors, writers, members of film crews, etc. He encouraged them to produce personally-relevant and creative works            of art, and new genre interpretations. This support revived the notion            of auteurism (the belief that the director was most influential            and responsible for creating a film's ultimate form, meaning and content).
For instance, Peter Bogdanovich's directorial            debut was for Targets (1968), made for AIP. And Francis Ford Coppola directed (and scripted) Corman's horror-thriller film Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first mainstream picture. Jack Nicholson appeared in a number of early Corman movies, including his screen debut in The Cry Baby Killer (1958) and later a small role in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), about a carnivorous pet plant. One of Martin Scorsese's earliest-directed films (and his first commercially-conventional film) was Corman's Boxcar Bertha (1972) with Barbara Hershey and David Carradine as two Depression-era outlaw folk heroes. Writer/director Jonathan Demme's directorial debut was for Corman's Caged Heat (1974) -- a memorable women-in-prison film with lots of sex, action and violence. And Monte Hellman's two westerns Ride in the Whirlwind (1965) and The Shooting (1967) both starred Jack Nicholson (who also co-wrote and produced the first film).
Some of the Prominent Movie Brats (or Geeks) of                  the 70s
George Lucas (USC)