I am in the process of reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, by Peter Biskind. My friend Allison has been talking about it to me for a couple of weeks now - and leaving me messages about it, messages of increasing feverishness, until I finally thought that she was going to go out and buy the damn book for me - so we could discuss it. I started to read it a couple of days ago, and I am tearing through it.
The book is the story of Hollywood and the American film-making revolution that happened in the 1970s. (Well, Hollywood isn't quite accurate, because there was a huge coastal swing towards filming in New York in the 70s: Woody Allen, Scorsese - Coppola insisting on filming "The Godfather" in New York, stuff like that, Sidney Lumet's films...)
Something major happened to the movies we made in this country during that decade - and this book looks at all of the factors (and the personalities) which allowed this to happen. It is exhaustively researched, and filled with quotes from such luminaries as Spielberg, Robert Altman, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola (Biskind is the former executive editor of "Premiere" so he obviously has access to these high-level people, willing to talk about that crazy decade). Even more interesting, are these massive producers and directors who never really made it out of that decade, for various self-destructive reasons.
Biskind gives you an insider's look at the whole "Easy Rider" phenomenon, which was one of the first films to launch this "New Hollywood", although "Bonnie and Clyde" certainly hinted at what was to come.
Reading this book, I can't help but think: "It is absolutely astonishing that Dennis Hopper is still alive."
That man sounded like such a LUNATIC. I met him about 6 years ago, and he was completely clean and sober - very articulate - and basically just a big love-ball. He loves acting, he makes fun of himself, he has seen every movie ever made ...
I cannot reconcile the man I met with the RAGING LUNATIC in the book. Of course, he was on major major drugs for about 15 years - raging out of control - until finally nobody would hire him, and he sank into total obscurity for many many years.
David Lynch helped revive his career with "Blue Velvet". [Update: This is incorrect. I forgot about the movie which gave him the jump-start: "River's Edge". Which I remember seeing in the movie theatre, way back when. There's a final scene in a hospital, when Hopper gives an interview, and he is clearly mad - I mean, insane - and I remember the press Hopper started getting again, like: Woah. Dennis Hopper was GREAT once, wasn't he? "Blue Velvet" came after that] "Hoosiers" came along at the same time. All 3 films came out in 1986. It was a very big year for Dennis Hopper. And then there was that great GREAT scene with Christopher Walken in Quentin Tarantino and Tony Scott's "True Romance" (one of my favorite scenes of all time)
Anyway. He survived! He survived what he did to himself!
He's one of the lucky ones. Many of the characters in this book (men who once ran Hollywood - Robert Evans, Bert Schneider, and others) were ruined. By drug addiction, financial irresponsibility, insane scandals - and yet at the same time, these men (like Evans, who brought us the Godfather movies, who brought us Chinatown - and like Schneider who was responsible for Easy Rider and others) - were breaking new ground in film, these men were taking the power out of the studios, and handing it to talented new young directors.
Like the 25 year old Spielberg, directing "Jaws". "Jaws" which is generally seen as the first "summer blockbuster". "Jaws" changed how movies are marketed, "Jaws" created the landscape we live in now.
It's a very VERY interesting book.
I am keeping a list on the back pages of movies I either need to see for the first time or ones I need to re-watch.
This book makes you HUNGRY to see movies.
"Last Picture Show". Need to see it again. I will never forget the first time I saw this film. It kind of is without a peer. Peter Bogdonavich never came close to that accomplishment again, although he will ALWAYS have my undying love for directing one of the goofiest and funniest movies ever made: "What's Up, Doc".
"Five Easy Pieces" - only seen parts of it - that famous scene of Jack Nicholson giving the waitress a hard time, when he's ordering a sandwich. It makes me laugh every time I see it. Need to see the whole movie.
"Chinatown" - Time to rent that baby again. Amazing movie.
"Carnal Knowledge" - I am ashamed to admit I have only seen parts of it, even though I love everyone involved. Nicholson, Mike Nichols ... Ann Margaret, for God's sake!
"Days of Heaven" - Never seen it. Although parts of it are featured in that great documentary about cinematographers called "Visions of Light". The images created in this film are absolutely unbelievable. A work of art, really.
I need to see "Bonnie and Clyde" again.
I saw "Dog Day Afternoon" when I was 12 years old, babysitting. I was WAYYYY too young to see it. But I can honestly say that that film was a life-changing experience. One day I was one way, the next day everything seemed different, because of that movie. I realized I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be like Al Pacino. It was a moment of enormous impact. I should see it again. I'm almost afraid to re-watch it, afraid it won't measure up to my memory. Al Pacino screaming, "ATTICA" to the crowds - and - the way Lumet filmed it, it looks like a documentary. It looks like it was really happening, in real-time - as though you turned on the television and saw this footage. Great film. Great acting.
I am going to busy seeing all the films this book mentions for a long long time!
Posted by sheilaMy film education is lacking; half of the films you mentioned I've never seen.
Posted by: Dan at April 20, 2004 3:06 PMGet cracking. :)
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 3:19 PMFrom the pure coincidence department, Netflix just shipped me Easy Rider today. I can't wait to see it.
Posted by: Bill McCabe at April 20, 2004 3:45 PMBill, just a warning: even by today's standards it is considered an extremely subversive, controversial, and out-there film. There's no storyline, nothing like that.
It's just 2 guys on a bike, getting high, visiting communes ... and one WACKED-OUT Mardi Gras!
It's the movie that started the revolution. It brought the counter-culture to the mainstream.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 3:48 PMAlso, just a bit of trivia:
It is the first movie to use current songs on the radio as a soundtrack, in the way that we understand soundtracks.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 3:49 PMTo me, one of Bogdanovich's most important accomplishments was as a film teacher. During the late Sixties and early Seventies (sigh) I took two film history/appreciation courses from him at UCLA. During each class we would watch a film or two and discuss, then be required to write a paper. We saw Hawkes, we saw Ford, we Mamoulian and Lubitsch and more. He actually let me get away with a paper comparing 2001: A Space Odyssey to Once Upon A Time In The West. Got a good grade, as I recall. Hmmm?
Michael - WOW!
Apparently - unlike the Hoppers and the Fondas - who were interested in fighting back against the "establishment" (which meant the Old Guard of the studios, and the old directors) - Bogdonavich was much more of a classicist. He loved those old movies (which is so obvious in Last Picture Show).
That must have been such an amazing class! I'm very jealous!
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 3:56 PMSheila -
It's also why What's Up Doc is essentially Bringing Up Baby. Oh, and he wrote a book around that time, which is a collection of his in-depth interviews with all the classic directors, including those I mentioned plus Welles and Houston, among. Sorry I can't remember the title.
That's a great, great book, one of my favorites, and I've read it three or four times. It's much better than the '90s/Miramax version by the same author, which may as well have just repeated the phrase "Harvey Weinstein is an asshole" a couple hundred thousand times.
Oh, and the correct title of the movie is, "Easy Rider, man!"
Posted by: Stephen Silver at April 20, 2004 4:24 PMI thought that What's Up, Doc was the funniest movie I had ever seen until I saw Bringing Up Baby.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 4:25 PMIt is amazing, isn't it, Steve? A great work of research.
That Bert Schneider guy is FASCINATING to me. Like: what the hell is he doing now?? Holed up in his Beverly Hills house, saying, during the race riots in 1992: "I wish they'd come up here and trash MY house..."
i haven't finished the book so I am excited (and also a little scared) to find out what happened to him.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 4:26 PMThere are a lot of great movies mentioned there. My favorite of the bunch is The Last Picture Show. It's exceedingly rare for a movie to stand on equal footing with a great book on which it was based, but Bogdanovich pulled it off. It probably has extra resonance for me because I grew up in that part of the country. As a child, in the summertime I went to see movies with my grandparents in a number of small Oklahoma towns around their farm, most of whose theaters ceased operation long ago. Towns that dried up in exactly the same manner as Archer City - Larry McMurtry's hometown on which the book was based. I'm old enough to remember when those towns were still cohesive communities - I can attest that the feelings of loss and sadness woven into The Last Picture Show are very real.
Posted by: MikeR at April 20, 2004 5:04 PMI'm gonna find an excerpt to post for you, Mike - hang on. It's about Last Picture Show - I think you'll dig it.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 5:12 PMExcellent post, comrade, but I am duty-bound to inform you that you will be henceforth monitored by the Party for additional bourgeois and revanchist tendencies such as the use of "luminary" and "George Lucas" in the same sentence. It is my belief--and devout hope--that this was an inadvertent act, but the Revolution demands much of us, not least of which is iron discipline.
Posted by: Ken Hall at April 20, 2004 5:17 PMbwahahahaha
Please remember though, comrade, that the Lucas I refer to is the "correct" Lucas of the early 70s.
Or have we airbrushed him out of the photos completely??
Speaking of this: there is a VERY funny quote in this book about Lucas and revolutions - which made me think of the socialist thing I inadvertently started. I will try to dig it up.
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 5:36 PMOh and by the way:
I think my revolutionary credentials are pretty sterling, considering the fact that I am #2 on Google for "George Lucas is an asshole".
Posted by: red at April 20, 2004 5:52 PMSheila--I love "Five Easy Pieces." The acting is very good. Karen Black is incredible--watching her is like watching a hidden-camera documentary. One other thing, every one talks about the scene with the waitress, but I love the scene where Nicholson is leaving without Black, he goes out to his car, has a small fit, and then returns to the house to ask her if she wants to go with him. While on the subject of movies, one of my all-time favorites that I never/rarely see mentioned is "Little Big Man." It is funny, poignant, historical, and captivating, in my less-than-reliable opinion. Ever seen it?
Posted by: DBW at April 20, 2004 6:07 PMum... Nashville?????
Posted by: Mitchell at April 20, 2004 11:42 PMsheila, sheila, sheila!!! we need to talk about this book. i've just finished it, but am still working my way through the scores of pictures i need to see. just watched days of heaven last night. by all accounts, a commercial failure, but one of the most beautifully shot (i mean breathtaking) films i've ever seen. really the plot, and even the characters, are secondary.....to me, the film at its core is simply a long saturated string of stunning imagery. you think dennis hopper was bad...did you get to artie ross yet? he was one of bert schenider's friends and he had a tank of nitrus oxide which he kept full at all times at his house. there was a mask attached to the tank that most people held over their noses, so in case they passed out it would fall away. but artie insisted on strapping the mask to his face. anyway, he wound up dying of an overdose and a friend found him curled in the fetal position with the mask strapped to his head. talk about an undignified way of going!
Posted by: Allison at April 21, 2004 2:57 PMHey you! I was thinking we should start having a "movie night". Once a week.
I need to see so many of these again.
Have you seen Harold and Maude??? One of my favorite movies.
And I need to see Paper Moon again ... so much. So much to see, so little time.
Yes, I remember nitrous oxide guy ... woah. Lunatic. Billy Friedkin right now is the one blowing my mind. Wearing the "Cocteau" scarf, using women, tossing them away ... but then, of course, making these great movies.
Posted by: red at April 21, 2004 3:03 PMhey...i have two documentaries about this whole era in film that we must watch. i mean they are interviewing billy friedkin today, paul schrader today, etc. so strange and surreal to go from reading about them as popmpous, irascible, immortal youths, so thoroughly convinced of themselves, then CUT TO: men who are older, humbled, deflated, physically unconvincing, and sort of undramatically clean and sober. i read them in easy riders/raging bulls and they became stationary figures in my mind, as though time never passed, life never diluted their drama and dreams. kind of like a dissapointing film dissolve. still, their reflections (hail the clarity of hindsight!) on that era in film, and especially their reflections on their own follies, make for a very illuminating postscript to the book. also have a doc on the making of Heavens Gate and the resultant unmaking of paramount. yes, movie night. let's do it. we can start sunday. harold and maude, are you kidding me? seen it at least 12 times. love it love it. recently found myself pondering the fate of bud cort (in one of those "whaever happened to andrea mccardle moments) and went online. there he was. he's balding, but he's still kicking and even occasionally working.
Posted by: Allison at April 21, 2004 3:54 PM