[Thomas Elsaesser,Noel King,Alexander Horwath]The Last Great American Picture Show : New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s (pdf){Zzzzz}

The French Connection, The Last Picture Show, M.A.S.H., Harold and Maude—these are only a few of the iconic films made in the United States during the 1970s. Originally considered a "lost generation," the 1970s are increasingly recognized as a crucial turning point in American filmmaking, and many films from the era have resurfaced from oblivion to become a reference for new directorial talents. The Last Great American Picture Show explores this pivotal era in American film history with a collection of essays by scholars and writers that firmly situates the decade as the time of the emergence of "New Hollywood."

Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, Monte Hellman, Bob Rafelson, Hal Ashy, Robert Altman, and James Tobac: these legendary directors developed innovative techniques, gritty aesthetics, and a modern sensibility in American film. Here, contributors compellingly argue that the cinema of today's major directors—Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Robert Zemeckis—could not have come into existence without the groundbreaking works produced by the directors of the 1970s. A wholly engaging and long-overdue investigation of this important era in American film, The Last Great American Picture Show reveals how the films of the 1970s transformed the American social consciousness and influenced filmmaking worldwide.

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press; 1 edition (March 30, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9053566317
ISBN-13: 978-9053566312

Editorial Reviews
Review
"The Last Great American Picture Show offers a truly dizzying range of options simply for mapping the decade that has come--for better or worse, truth or legend--to acquire a hot retrospective golden glow. . . . The Last Great American Picture Show . . . restores to the decade the sense of fecund chaos that a more linear, journalistic account of the decade risks losing for the sake of imposing some retrospective linearity on what was ultimately remarkable for its incoherence: a few historical moments when Hollywood lost the script, forgot the plot, and stood there wondering just how it got there in the first place."
(Geoff Pevere Cinema Scope 20040401) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
Noel King is an independent scholar.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Movies in the Sixties
By Nancy Shattuck on September 6, 2013
This book was invaluable in a course on movies made in the 1960's. I used it for all of the essays required for the course because it contained many entries regarding the director that I was studying, Altman.