What is "New Hollywood"? The "art" cinema of the Hollywood "Renaissance" or the corporate controlled blockbuster? The introverted world of Travis Bickle or the action heroics of Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear, and Maximus the Gladiator? Innovative departures from the "classical" Hollywood style or superficial glitz, special effects, and borrowings from MTV? Wholesale change or important continuities with Hollywood's past? The answer suggested by Geoff King in New Hollywood Cinema is all of these and more. He examines New Hollywood from three main perspectives: film style, industry, and the social-historical context. Each is considered in its own right, sometimes resulting in different ways of defining New Hollywood. But one of the book's central arguments is that a combination of these approaches is needed if we are to understand the latest incarnations of the cinema that continues to dominate the global market. King looks at the Hollywood "Renaissance" from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, industrial factors shaping the construction of the corporate blockbuster, the role of auteur directors, genre and stardom in New Hollywood, narrative and spectacle in the contemporary blockbuster, and the relationship between production for the big and small screens. Case studies considered include Taxi Driver, Godzilla, and Gladiator, tracing the roots of New Hollywood from the 1950s to the start of the twenty-first century.

This publication is a major evaluation of the 1970s American cinema, including cult film directors such as Bogdanovich Altman and Peckinpah.

In When the Movies Mattered Jonathan Kirshner and Jon Lewis gather a remarkable collection of authors to revisit the unique era in American cinema that was New Hollywood. Ten eminent contributors, some of whom wrote about the New Hollywood movement as it unfolded across the 1960s and 1970s, assess the convergence of film-industry developments and momentous social and political changes that created a new type of commercial film that reflected those revolutionary influences in American life. Even as New Hollywood first took shape, film industry insiders and commentators alike realized its significance. At the time, Pauline Kael compared the New Hollywood to the "tangled, bitter flowering of American letters in the 1850s" and David Thomson dubbed the era "the decade when movies mattered." Thomson's words provide the impetus for this volume in which a cohort of seasoned film critics and scholars who came of age watching the movies of this era reflect upon and reconsider this golden age in American filmmaking. Contributors: Molly Haskell, Heather Hendershot, J. Hoberman, George Kouvaros, Phillip Lopate, Robert Pippin, David Sterritt, David Thomson

Addresses the stylistic, industrial, and socio-historical contexts of the New Hollywood cinema, identifying its distinctive characteristics and its points of similarity with the Hollywood of the past. Topics include the industrial context to the blockbuster format of contemporary Hollywood; the frameworks of authorship, genre, and stardom through which New Hollywood films have been produced and consumed; and the growing importance of small screen media to the overall economy of Hollywood. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

This extensively revised second edition offers a comprehensive introduction to Hollywood cinema, providing a fascinating account of the cultural and aesthetic significance of the world’s most powerful film industry. Provides a fascinating account of Hollywood history. Examines the cultural and aesthetic significance of the world's most powerful film industry. Explores and interprets Hollywood cinema in history and in the present, in theory and in practice. Extensively revised and updated with new chapter features including box sections, further reading lists, Notes and Queries, and chapter summaries.

The "Old Hollywood" of studios, stars, and house directors began to break up in the 1960s. Newly independent directors freed from budgetary and aesthetic limitations imposed by studio moguls were the "New Hollywood." Directors could develop their own styles, hire whom they wanted, and make movies that would dazzle jaded audiences. Hollywood would never be the same ... What happened? The author looks at the productions of the "New Hollywood" to answer that question. Scene by scene analyses of some of the 70s most significant films (i. e., Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, M. A. S. H., Annie Hall, and American Graffiti) assess both the successes and failures of the New Hollywood.

A comprehensive overview of the film industry in Hollywood today, Contemporary Hollywood Cinema brings together leading international cinema scholars to explore the technology, institutions, film makers and movies of contemporary American film making.