STACK #153 Jul 2017

EXTRAS FEATURE

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Pieces , The Godfather and its sophisticated sequel, The Godfather Part II , brought – for a brief period of time – fame and power to a few of the auteur directors. In particular Francis Ford Coppola. The corporate film studios were only too happy to invest in the productions of young filmmakers as long as they were successful at the box office. However, the popularity of the auteur film was in fact beginning to decline just as the "second wave" of young Hollywood filmmakers emerged. Movie prodigy Steven Spielberg had begun

HOLLYWOOD'S SECOND GOLDEN AGE 1975-1981

...practically the whole of America – young and old – went to see Jaws

his career working in Universal's television studios, where he directed a memorable segment of Night Gallery titled "Eyes", starring veteran actress Joan Crawford. There followed various episodes of Marcus Welby, M.D. and Columbo where he honed his skills as a director. He was then given his first full TV feature film, Duel (1971), which was deemed worthy enough to be released theatrically. In 1974, Spielberg became a fully-fledged movie director with The Sugarland Express – a fugitive couple road film with more than a nod to Bonnie and Clyde . This positioned him for a film that would turn him into a movie wunderkind, and arguably Hollywood's most famous film director/producer. Jaws played on man's primal fear of the sea and what lurks beneath it. The film tells

Part IV: The Dawn of the Summer Blockbuster and Decline of the American Auteurs

M ovie storylines written during Hollywood's first Golden Age followed a simple and well tested template. They had a straightforward narrative structure that proceeded in a logical cause and effect manner to a clear and satisfactory resolution. The classical Hollywood movies produced during this era regularly presented an idealised version of a patriotic America that perpetuated the myth of the American dream. Good was always rewarded, evil was always routed.  But the new wave of young auteur film directors, who rose to prominence in early 1970s Hollywood, completely dismantled that template. As educated

The end of Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws

Little Big Man depicted former American hero General George Custer as a murderous lunatic. A prime example of the auteur directors' critical view of America's past

the story of a rogue Great White shark that terrorises bathers in a New England summer resort. Following an innovative nationwide television advertising blitz, Jaws was mass released into more than 460 US theatres in June 1975. This was a huge gamble as the summer was usually a low season for the film industry. But the media frenzy that ensued coined the term "Jawsmania". By the end of its opening weekend it had become the must- see "movie event" and in that pre-home video era, not just once but repeatedly. During that long summer of 1975, practically the whole of

cineastes, steeped in film history, they overhauled and revamped the classic film genres to align with the political and social awareness of young, modern moviegoers. The result was a myriad of motion pictures that presented a more critical view of America's past and present. A large proportion of their films projected a seedier side of American life that featured morally ambiguous, idiosyncratic protagonists. Moreover, these characters were predominately either

corrupt, dejected losers, eccentric loners, drug users, thieves or even violent killers. Free from studio interference, the auteur filmmakers' gritty movies, often with ambiguous endings, delivered for audiences an entirely different kind of American cinema. The first wave of auteur films scored big at the box-office, some winning Academy Awards. Successful films such as M*A*S*H , The French Connection , Little Big Man , The Exorcist , Mean Streets , The Wild Bunch, Chinatown , Five Easy

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JULY 2017

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