The ‘New Hollywood’ Demonstrate understanding of an aspect of a media industry Full details to come but… Three basic issues: 1.The final collapse of the Hollywood Studio System 2.The rise of cine-literate filmmakers who challenged the System (‘independent cinema’) 3.The beginning of the Blockbuster era (as Peter Biskind argued, the B-movie rises to the top and stays there)

Choose one aspect from each column to research Historical/Social/Cultural/ Political 1.Civil Rights Movements 2.Vietnam War 3.Political paranoia 4.Censorship (collapse of the Hays Code) 5.The American Experience 6.Precursors; e.g. foreign cinema, TV, AIP, etc Economic/Industrial 1.Hollywood structure; e.g. shift to filmmaker power, ‘the deal’ 2.Capital flows 3.Production changes 4.‘High Concept’ 5.Marketing and advertising 6.Precursors; e.g. studio failures in the 1960s, restricted capital

The Research Task Choose three PRIMARY films, and three secondary texts. These may be linked by: key director key theme/concept You will need to have access to the Primary films and to watch them closely at least once. The secondary texts are ones that, preferably, you have watched and are closely aware of. They may be linked to the primary texts in various ways, such as themes and concepts, production commonalities, or as counter comparisons.

NOTE It is important to note that you are not working towards close readings of these films in themselves, but how they emerge from or are affected by aspects of the Hollywood industry at the time they were made. They are, then, important as examples of the context in which they are made and you still need to note specific instances from these films that support your argument (e.g. the opening shot from Star Wars).

Your first task By the end of Thursday’s double period, you need to indicate what subject you want to research and what films you may wish to use as primary texts.

Key directors and films Robert Altman Hal Ashby Francis Ford Coppola Brian De Palma William Friedkin Dennis Hopper George Lucas Sydney Lumet John Schlesinger Martin Scorsese Steven Spielberg Badlands Bonnie and Clyde The Conversation Dog Day Afternoon Easy Rider The French Connection The Godfather The Godfather, Part II Jaws The Last Picture Show Mean Streets Star Wars Taxi Driver

Films Civil Rights Movements Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore Shaft Cruising Midnight Cowboy Planet of the Apes Cabaret Little Big Man Vietnam War Apocalypse Now The Deer Hunter Coming Home Zabriskie Point Bonnie and Clyde (depictions of violence) Planet of the Apes Cabaret

Films Political Paranoia All the President’s Men The Parallax View Chinatown The Conversation Serpico Dirty Harry Marathon Man Three Days of the Condor Blow Out Censorship Bonnie and Clyde Midnight Cowboy Dressed to Kill The Exorcist Deliverance Head

Films The American Experience (What/Where is America?) Easy Rider The Sugarland Express, Badlands Two-Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point Dirty Harry Deliverance The Godfather Part II (The American Dream) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Foreign Films, AIP, TV Badlands, Days of Heaven Mean Streets Easy Rider, Head Blow Out (Blow Up) The French Connection Rosemary’s Baby Targets American Graffiti

Films Hollywood Structure Taxi Driver The Conversation Jaws Carrie Close Encounters of the Third Kind Dirty Harry (new kind of star) Capital flows Easy Rider The Last Movie Apocalypse Now Heaven’s Gate Rocky New York New York

Films Production changes The French Connection (cinema verite) Dog Day Afternoon Star Wars, CE3K (motion control cameras) One from the Heart (video) ‘High Concept’, the Blockbuster The Godfather Jaws The Poseidon Adventure The Towering Inferno Rocky Airport

Films Marketing and Advertising Jaws Star Wars The Towering Inferno Earthquake (Surroundsound) Rocky CE3K Saturday Night Fever Grease Precursors: studio failures Paint Your Wagon Hello Dolly Tora, Tora, Tora Doctor Doolittle

Your Research Proposal 1.Confirm the focus of your research 2.Why are you interested in these specific aspects of ‘The New Hollywood’? 3.Five valid and reliable sources of information that you have found so far (at least two of which must be print). See me with your source if you are unsure. Through your research you will be contributing to class discussions and knowledge, so make yourself heard. The above is due on Thursday 19 th June.