Hollywood Renaissance: American Cinema of the 1970s

This course will explore Hollywood cinema from the dissolution of the Production Code in the late 1960s through the rise of the Blockbuster in the late 1970s, arguably one of its richest, most diverse, and prolific periods. We will consider the profound changes in the Hollywood studio system and post-Vietnam American culture, which lead to the rise of the so-called “New American Cinema” and the film school generation of directors (Scorsese, Schrader, Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas), and, in turn, the Hollywood Blockbuster. In addition to mainstream Hollywood cinema, we will also look at the role of independent film, cult cinema, and “grindhouse” films. Films will likely include Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Shaft (1971), American Graffiti (1973), The Conversation (1974), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Taxi Driver (1975), Jaws (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Star Wars (1977), Eraserhead (1977), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).