This documentary is based on Peter Biskind's book. It charts the decline of the movie studios in the 1960s and how the new auteur directors fuelled the rise of the new Hollywood.
In the 1970s troubled studios such as Paramount Pictures turned round their fortunes with movies such as The Godfather by Francis Coppola and Chinatown by Roman Polanski.
Other studios took note and realised that they needed to tap the new younger audience. Studios were willing to give a freer hand to young directors such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Actors such as Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson also got into the production side of the movie business. Being an actor was not enough, they wanted to write or produce or direct. Even as in the case of Beatty it meant conflicting the director's vision.
Of course it was not all plain sailing. Too much booze and drugs meant that some filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich and Dennis Hopper could not keep control and deliver hit movies.
This was an informative documentary but it was also clear that it was bite sized. It was a primer that skims through much of the 1970s cinema and I suppose the book goes into the subject in greater detail.
The documentary also suffers from some key players not being directly involved. There are no direct interviews with Spielberg or Coppola or Friedkin. Instead relying on archive footage.
In the 1970s troubled studios such as Paramount Pictures turned round their fortunes with movies such as The Godfather by Francis Coppola and Chinatown by Roman Polanski.
Other studios took note and realised that they needed to tap the new younger audience. Studios were willing to give a freer hand to young directors such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Actors such as Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson also got into the production side of the movie business. Being an actor was not enough, they wanted to write or produce or direct. Even as in the case of Beatty it meant conflicting the director's vision.
Of course it was not all plain sailing. Too much booze and drugs meant that some filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich and Dennis Hopper could not keep control and deliver hit movies.
This was an informative documentary but it was also clear that it was bite sized. It was a primer that skims through much of the 1970s cinema and I suppose the book goes into the subject in greater detail.
The documentary also suffers from some key players not being directly involved. There are no direct interviews with Spielberg or Coppola or Friedkin. Instead relying on archive footage.