A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Directors:

Ted Demme
Richard LaGravenese

Genre:

Documentary | History

Plot:

A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.

Plot Keywords:

Filmmaker | 1970s | Director | Cinema | Interview

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert Altman	...	Himself
John G. Avildsen	...	Himself
Warren Beatty	...	Himself (archive footage)
Linda Blair	...	Herself (archive footage)
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Himself
Peter Boyle	...	Himself (archive footage)
Marshall Brickman	...	Himself
Ellen Burstyn	...	Herself
John Calley	...	Himself
Jimmy Carter	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Cassavetes	...	Himself (archive footage)
Julie Christie	...	Herself
Francis Ford Coppola	...	Himself
Roger Corman	...	Himself
Bruce Dern	...	Himself
Clint Eastwood	...	Himself
Louise Fletcher	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jane Fonda	...	Herself (archive footage)
Peter Fonda	...	Himself (archive footage)
Milos Forman	...	Himself
William Friedkin	...	Himself
Pam Grier	...	Herself
Goldie Hawn	...	Herself (archive footage)
Monte Hellman	...	Himself
Jimi Hendrix	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dennis Hopper	...	Himself
Mick Jagger	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei	...	Himself (archive footage)
Martin Luther King	...	Himself (archive footage)
Piper Laurie	...	Herself (archive footage)
Sidney Lumet	...	Himself
Paul Mazursky	...	Himself
Marshall McLuhan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mike Medavoy	...	Himself
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Polly Platt	...	Herself
Sydney Pollack	...	Himself
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert Redford	...	Himself (Archival Footage) (archive footage)
Dick Rodstein	...	Offscreen Voice
Jerry Schatzberg	...	Himself
Roy Scheider	...	Himself
Paul Schrader	...	Himself
Martin Scorsese	...	Himself
Sissy Spacek	...	Herself
Robert Towne	...	Himself
Jon Voight	...	Himself

MPAA:

Rated R for language, and images of sexuality, violence and drug use.

Runtime:

138 min | USA:108 min (Sundance Film Festival) | 152 min (DVD) | USA:180 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:R

Company:

Constant Communication

Trivia:

This documentary is presented on DVD in 3 parts, as they aired on television.

Movie Connections:

References Safe (1995)

"You got a gun? Suck on this!"

This exploration of a unique decade in US cinema begins with the fall of one ailing, out-of-touch empire and culminates with the unstoppable rise of another, equally associated with escapism and box office receipts. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Or, as Peter Fonda observed in Easy Rider, "We blew it." In between, from Bonnie And Clyde to Star Wars, the young Turks (some under the guerrilla tutelage of Roger Corman) were creeping under the wires to produce some of the greatest artworks of the 20th century. While the story is already familiar from Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls directors Demme and LaGravenese are less concerned with muckraking than in providing a platform for the filmmakers and stars themselves.

Everyone from Martin Scorsese to Francis Ford Coppola and Julie Christie is interviewed and a roster of well edited clips places the decade in a socio-cultural and economic context. If their responses are self-congratulatory (to say the least), they're also highly quotable, funny and revealing, making this something of a cinephile's wet dream. Director William Friedkin reveals how the original The Exorcist poster was to feature a little girl's hand holding a bloodied crucifix and the legend 'For God's sake, help her", before he complained. Former Warner Bros.' head John Calley recalls that when he first saw Robert De Niro in Mean Streets he assumed Scorsese had secured a psychopath's day release for the shoot.

Happily, a certain amount of hard perspective has crept into the mix, as might be hoped from a politically motivated, consciousness-expanded generation; Hopper stresses "there's a lot of real crap in there too". Julie Christie observes that 1970s US cinema was "not a good time for women". But if Demme responds with a spoonful of sops to women's movies - brief clips of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, They Shoot Horses, Don't They and Klute - we're soon dragged back to the usual male wall-pissing contests.

The shift from tough, socially-conscious film-making to no-risk crowd-pleasers like Jaws for 'Nam-weary, fantasy-craving audiences is also documented, though a little rushed. But kudos too, for the inclusion of lesser-sung, but equally relevant films like Panic In Needle Park and Joe. "We weren't handsome," muses Bruce Dern on his contemporaries. "But we were f****** interesting."