Book Review of Peter Biskind's Easy Riders Raging Bulls

This book was great. Even the parts about Paul Schrader and Bob Rafealson were good and those were the parts that filled in the space between the big stories about Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas, and others. Learning about how what has come to be called "the New Hollywood Cinema" developed into a movement with Warren Beatty, Robert Towne, Billy Friedkin, and others all producing great Cinema that was supposed to be of high Cinematic quality. It was a break from the past. A stab at the heart of the old studio system era. It would turn the power of production over the directors like never before, and perhaps since. Sure there comes along some new talent, but not like during the late sixties and early seventies. Perhaps the Independent Cinema of the 90s is comparable.

This Fall I'm scheduled to teach a course about American Cinema called American Masterworks. I plan on using this book to assign readings and prepare lectures from. I had heard of many of the directors referenced in the book. I had also seen many of the films before, but it caused me to watch Bonnie and Clyde for the first time. We had watched Easy Rider in class and I had seen it once before back when I was 17. It brought back memories and provided more substance about the Godfather. I had screened the Godfather to my classes when I was teaching English in Shanghai. I'm not sure if I will show the Godfather II, which I think is, perhaps, the best film of the 70s.

Yet, I read the book until the end, up until Friedkin's The Sorcerer, Scorsese's Raging Bull, and Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Each fell from the peak of their careers, with the exception of Scorsese who went into a funk, but eventually came back to, perhaps, even bigger success then what he had tasted with Taxi Driver and New York, New York. Several of the filmmakers; producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, etc who were prominent in the period of the New Hollywood, 1968- 1980, fell off the earth in the 80s and the prevailing tastes of the Reagan-Bush years. Like Friedkin and Peter Bogdanovich, praised as auteurs there status quickly evaporated with flop after flop.

There is so much to write about from this book. One blog post wouldn't do it justice. Biskind talks about George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and the enormous success they had. But, Biskind also talks about the costs that each endured; the critical rejection of their movies, how their circle of friends became smaller and smaller, how their movies changed Hollywood, perhaps for the worst in terms of Cinematic art. In perhaps his most poignant discussion of the film industry Biskind talks about how Star Wars was a total game changer for the industry. He present Lucas's side of the story; how he created a "Disney" movie that was unpretentious. But, he also presented some of the critical reception that the film received and that Lucas had to endure. Particularly harsh was Robert Altman who said Star Wars ruined movies. I hope to read further into Lucas's life and learn more about the changes in the film industry and how, perhaps I'm wrong, but I think Star Wars has become the model on which so many of the Superhero movies are based. The concept that film is like a publishing franchise begins, I think with Star Wars and I think Biskind makes the point that it was a not so subtle transition in how films were produced, marketed, and cross promoted.

Biskind gives the dish on many famous directors who crumbled on the pressure and substance abuse, particularly Scorsese and Hal Ashby. According to Biskind not a few didn't make out of the 70s alive. The last call for the New Hollywood movement came with Cimino's Heaven's Gate. This film caused all the studios and anyone with money to finance film production to become extremely risk averse, especially toward anyone associated with the New Hollywood. Heaven's Gate was a disaster. I don't know what the loss would be in today's dollars, but it would be massive. If the movement needed a clear ending point this was it. I suppose you could talk about changing political, social, and economic trends and that would be valid and the clearest expression of those trends would be the utter failure of Heaven's Gate. By 1980 many of the famous directors, like Coppola, were taking great risks and would fall into bankruptcy, not to make a return until the 90s, if even then.

To understand 80s Cinema I think you have to understand the New Hollywood movement. The 80s Cinema represented everything that the New Hollywood movement sought to destroy or at least render to a lesser power. The New Hollywood director reinvigorated a profitless, moribound industry that was producing large scale musicals to an audience that wanted new stories, not the recycled, bland tales of the previous era in Cinema History. The New Hollywood movement was a watershed period where young directors could rise to immense fortune and fame, only a few had lasting success.

Very interesting book. I'm looking forward to Biskind's other film history title about the 1990s Independent film movement.