I don't know if this topic has been beaten to death on this fine website, since I just recently joined, thanks to the kind invitation of its founder, but I'll give it a go.
I've been around long enough to remember with fondness the anticipation of a new film from Altman, Ashby, Coppola, Kubrick, Scorcese, and the two wunderkinds probably singlehandedly responsible for the rise of the dreaded multiplex and wide release: Spielberg and Lucas. These gifted and adventurous mavericks (granted, Kubrick was already a god with Dr. Strangelove and 2001), along with others, changed the American film landscape. It really began in the late 60s with films like Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider, and Medium Cool: an artistic expression and freedom born out of the turmoil of the 60s. As someone pointed out to me recently on IMDB, for every Godfather or Taxi Driver, there was a Hammersmith Is Out or Bluebeard. True enough. We all tend to filter our perceptions through the comfy prism of nostalgia, but there was a creative excitement back in the 70s that the studios allowed to foster. Yes, it did lead to self indulgence and hubris and all the unfortunate side effects of too much laissez faire. The Deer Hunter lead to Heaven's Gate, Shampoo to Ishtar, Taxi Driver to New York New York, The Last Picture Show to At Long Last Love (maybe the Gigli of it's day), Apocalypse Now to One From The Heart, and on and on. No doubt there is a lesson to be learned there, but until the fallout in the 80s, there was a spirit of adventure in the American film community. Risks were taken and even failures were sometimes interesting, certainly less formulaic than they are now. I won't parade all the great films from that decade here since I'm sure most of you know what they are, but I think the point I'm trying to make is that they were part of the mainstream moviegoing experience back then. Now it's called independent filmmaking and thank God we have it. If it weren't for films like Lost in Translation, American Splendor, Dirty Pretty Things, and The Secret Lives of Dentists, it would be a barren creative landscape indeed.
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