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By PAUL BRENNER
American film had its
fleeting wisp of glory in the period between,
roughly, 1967 and 1979, when fueled by the early
independent films of Cassavetes, European art
cinema, and the inclusion of film studies programs
in American universities, young and exciting
filmmakers fed off the rubble of the decaying
Hollywood studio system and brought American
movies down to earth to reconnect with the society
and culture. Filmmakers like Hal Ashby, Francis
Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin,
Monty Hellman, Peter Bogdanovich, Arthur Penn,
Woody Allen, Paul Schrader, Robert Altman, and
Jerry Schatzberg infused their films with a
quirky, personal style totally at odds with the
studio dinosaurs ("Hello Dolly," "Star," "The
Great Gatsby," "Paint Your Wagon") that almost
sucked the American film industry down into the
primordial ooze.
In "A Decade Under the
Influence," Ted Demme and Richard LaGravenese
(who finished the project after Demme's untimely
death) present a handy three-part introduction to
the American film scene of the 1970s (originally
seen on the Independent Film Channel), with the
usual assortment of talking head interviews and
assorted film clips toted out for documentaries
like this. Most of the main players of the decade
are here (Altman, Bogdanovich, Scorsese, Coppola,
Friedkin, Hellman, Schatzberg, Milos Forman,
Dennis Hopper, Sidney Lumet, Paul Mazursky, Sydney
Pollack, Robert Towne) along with a few
conspicuous absences (Woody Allen, Mel Brooks,
Mike Nichols, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas,
Robert Evans).
Unlike Peter Biskind's rollicking
and profane chronicle of the decade, "Easy Riders,
Raging Bulls," "A Decade Under the Influence" is
delivered in somber, measured terms, with
knowledge intoned by the Cinema Masters from Mount
Ararat (Coppola is framed with a vast Borgesian
library in the background as if all knowledge
leads from Coppola). Still, for anyone interested
in American film, this documentary is an
intoxicating treat. And not merely to understand
why these filmmakers are considered great and
influential (it may be a mystery to people who
have seen "Jack" or "Noises Off") but also, to
understand the irony of how these same filmmakers
who bucked the Hollywood monolith in the early 70s
with their low budget, character studies, ended
the decade out Hollywooding Hollywood ("One From
the Heart," "1941," "Howard the Duck," Heaven's
Gate," "New York, New York," "At Long Last Love"),
dismantling their careers and finances in a
greater explosion of ego and grandiosity than the
old Hollywood studio flaks could ever hope to
replicate.
The Docurama DVD also includes additional
interview footage with a number of the filmmakers
(Altman's ramble on "Nashville" is especially
valuable) and biographies of Demme and
LaGravenese. |
