Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003)

How the Sex, Drugs & Rock n' Roll Generation nearly killed Hollywood...

As a glorification, and explanation, of the wonderful 70's Hollywood industry, it's a great little documentary. Plenty of clips from films, interviews with major players, and a decent time line of the indies that left some indelible cultural marks on the country. Sadly the people glorifying this era don't quite understand that almost ALL these efforts were merely the decaying underflesh of an industry abandoned to delinquents bent on an experimental rampage.

Anyone remember the early seventies films? The companies? Movies were crashing hard and fast, few between made a splash, and what we now know as a blockbuster didn't exist. MGM was rolling up the awning and selling off the red carpet due to the absolutely paltry turn out of money making films. And why was that? Films were lame most of the time. The memorable films of that era generally apply to those who lived through the time with fond memories or juvenile hipsters today.

Q: But what DID save the movie industry? A: STAR WARS.

Though films like Godfather, Annie Hall, and Chinatown were well visited, they didn't make the industry over and revive a business from near collapse. Jaws was the first sign of a true block buster, but was really just a well made horror film. Star Wars, though, was a family entertainment using every bit of design and technology available to put a fresh spin of archetypal classic story. And what a success it was. Despite the film industry not recognizing the reasons of success of that film for years to come, it began a flood of revitalizing public interest in Hollywood due to the upbeat entertainment being the remedy for the awful hell hole the 70's was.

Nerds saved Hollywood. And you can hear the anger and resentment in one celebrity on this documentary as she describes how disturbing it was for her that these two geeks succeeded where the 'cool people' who deserved success weren't recognized.

A great window into the excesses of a generation brought to life in low budget, generally wide release film of the time. And if you are smart enough this is a primer on the arrogance and stupidity of cliques within the Hollywood film community bent on self gratification rather then international escapist product. May 23, 2007

Intro. to 1970's Independent Film

This is a kind of Independent Film of the Seventies 101. It's a good solid introductory course that explains just what forces conspired to make the early seventies the moment for the film artist or auteur. If you are already familiar with early seventies cinema and have seen Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands plenty of times then what you need is a graduate seminar on one particular area of cinema (Marty Scorcese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY for instance is an excellent overview of Italian cinema and Italian cinema's influence on the American independents).

Both EASY RIDERS & RAGING BULLS and that other documentary on seventies cinema A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE came out at about the same time and both really cover the same ground. Film students and film buffs will already be familiar with the story of what happened to the studio system in the late sixties and just why film students like Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg and Scorcese were allowed to make the kinds of gritty realist films that they wanted to make. Both of these documentaries are good solid introductions to early seventies independent cinema but neither will be enough to satisfy the film connoisseur.

The reason these overview documentaries are unsatisfying is because they deal only in generalities and they do not have time to explore what drove each independent artist to make the films they made and so the documentaries just feel like yearbooks of the directors and stars waxing about their youth which was a time when the artist reigned supreme. It was no doubt a heady time when experiment was encouraged (by a few prescient and opportunistic producers who knew Hollywood needed new formulas for bringing young people to the theatres and who also knew that these young filmmakers just might hold the key to those new formulas). This was a generation brought up on foreign films and they were taught to believe that film could be art. A lot of them made some art but also a lot of them made a lot of money as well. The heyday of independence lasted only about seven or eight years (roughly 1967-1975) and it ended once the studios realized that the big money was in marketing the cr*p out of a new kind of blockbuster (Jaws, Star Wars, Alien)that appealed to the widest demographic possible. The other reason the era of the independents waned was because some of the independent film makers began spending vast amounts of cash on outrageous projects (Apocaplypse Now, Heaven's Gate)that didn't translate into box office sales. So there were those who blamed Spielberg and Lucas for their successes in crafting a new kind of formula picture that still dominates the industry today; and there were those who blamed the end of the era on Coppola's and Cimono's excesses. But this is a story that many are already very familiar with.

The kind of documentary I would like to see is one that explores the lesser celebrated genres (horror, sci fi, exploitation, avant-garde cinema) and the lesser celeberated directors like Donald Cammell and Joseph Losey and Nic Roeg (as well as some of the stranger foreign influences on American & English directors of the seventies). This documentary is fine for those who are not yet tired of Coppola and Altman and Scorcese and the other oft celebrated bright lights of seventies cinema who will all no doubt get lifetime achievement awards. But a really good documentary tries to break new ground not just reiterate what is already common knowledge. One way to do this might have been to interview young directors and ask them about their influences and maybe even interview a group of young directors along with some of the older directors and get some interesting conversations going about where cinema has been and where its going.

As it is this documentary like A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE is just a popular history. The names of the directors represented here and the list of films will surprise no one. A worthy introduction for beginners but not a very daring or groundbreaking take on a fascinating fistful of years in film history.

August 21, 2006

A Glance at the Second Golden Age of Cinema

"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is an orgy for movie lovers. How can anyone who loves film not be in heaven at the constant parade of landmark films and key industry figures that charges across the screen in this fast-paced documentary? If you've read the book, the movie will feel cursory, and one will find himself wishing for more detail, more insider stories. There are curious omissions here, and wonders if Bowser structured his content based on who he could get to agree to interviews. Altman is hardly mentioned, Scorsese (who shows up everywhere talking about movies) is not interviewed, and Kubrick isn't mentioned at all (save for one shot of the "2001" poster). Still, what's there is great, and if you're like me, you'll be left with a twinge of sadness that such a rich time in film artistry seems to be gone forever.

Grade: A- April 27, 2005

Glad I recorded it from TV.

I haven't seen all of this, yet, but while it's an interesting look at the films and film makers - an interesting documentary - I'm glad I got it off of TV - I would't want to buy it or own it. I plan to erase it after I have seen it. April 11, 2005

Good documentary with some teeth missing

As a subject, the explosion of creativity in 1970's cinema is absolutely bursting with possibility. And since most of the principal players are not only still alive but still working, there should be a fantastic documentary to be made about the period...but "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is not that documentary, I'm sorry to say.

There are some major figures from the era involved here (Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Schrader, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Dennis Hopper, Karen Black), but simply not enough to sustain a 2-hour film. Among the missing are Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Robert Evans, Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Jane Fonda...oh, God, the list goes on. We're presented with a vague background, the collapse of the studio system and the rise of the counter-culture and European cinema, but we see precious little of it onscreen. The participants are filmed against a black background, they talk, we see a short film clip, and back to the black talking. Considering the astonishing originality of the period being discussed you'd think some of it would leak into the documentary. No go.

To be sure, what's here is decent and interesting, but this decade deserves a real, hands-on exploration. How about somebody who was THERE getting on the job? Surely Dennis Hopper could put together a spectacular piece of cinematic art on the Seventies...and who'd turn down the man who directed "Easy Rider", freeing Hollywood from the dust of old men and launching the second Golden Age of American movies? C'mon, Dennis, let's go! While we're young! March 4, 2005

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