I remember Shadows and how revolutionary and strange it seemed when it first appeared. It was premiered at Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 series in NYC and that's where (I think) I saw it. However I re-watched Easy Rider a few years ago with other movies of that time and found it very dated, while others (Five Easy Pieces for instance) are not. I see in your quote Rosenbaum says it's "overrated." I don't think it has held up well. Hopper was a big-time substance abuser -- as was Nick Ray. Who knows how much was lost for that reason of creative work both might have done. Not that both didn't produce memorable work, and Hopper built an amazing collection of modern art. Nick Ray and Dennis Hopper: two "glorious failures." Both important in the history of American film.
You won't mention Pauline Kael -- bofore your time and no longer fashionable, fashionable only to trash her -- but she championed the period you're talking about, and her big review of Bonnie and Clyde celebrated its seminal effect, but you haven't mentioned that either. I'd think it had a bigger effect than anything by Hopper. Of course it has no outlaw chic (despite being about genuine outlaws) since it turned a big profit. Kael to me made the Seventies seem like an exciting period in movies, when in some ways it wasn't. It was exciting to be able to read Pauline Kael's reviews every other week in The New Yorker. Not always so exciting to see the movies. I would not exchange that period with this but the crap machine is way bigger and better funded now, isn't it?
I recognize that Pauline's criticism (it's rather monumental though) is not pure gold, but neither is Rosenbaum's. It was she who made it exciting to think about movies during this period.
Bookmarks