The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking

This is a summary of  The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking from the book "Film Art: An Introduction" by Bordwell and Thompson.

The Hollywood industry was very healthy because of the blockbuster films that became famous during the 1960s such as The Sound of Music (1965) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). But despite of this success, problems arose the Hollywood film industry. Imagine losing over $200 annually. A shock, isn’t it?

But they didn’t give up. They produced a lot of films that were aimed for youth. The directors that produced new flavored films were what they called movie brats. Most of these movie brats went to film school to learn and master the techniques and history of films. That’s why they were able to apply their own techniques with a touch of narrative Hollywood cinema on their works. Some of the movie brats are Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma and Steven Spielberg.

The Godfather (1972)

American Grafitti (1973)

Jaws (1975)

Taxi Driver (1976)

A lot of films of the New Hollywood were influenced by the Old Hollywood and traditional techniques such as European cinema. They continued the tradition of classical Hollywood cinema and continued to use the continuity and its traditional storytelling strategies with ofcourse their own style. Some movie brats remained successful and produced more films that moved the public.  

Independent Filmmakers somehow managed to enter the world of mainstream films. That’s why the New Hollywood managed to have directors from independent films. They contributed into getting back the success of film industry.

Independent directors in the 1980s and 1990s have experimented with narrative construction of films and adapted classical conventions with modern touch. They started pushing their guts. That’s why they were able to win large audiences.

The New Hollywood created most of the great and thrilling Hollywood films. The directors involved, the movie brats, tried to reshape the stylistic conventions while making innovations to win more audiences.

Reference:
Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. (1979). Film Art: An Introduction (8^th ed.).  McGraw-Hill