Friday, November 9, 2007

THEY HAD BEARDS, AND ALMOST ALL OF THEM WENT TO FILM SCHOOL: At this year's Oscar ceremony, it certainly seemed like the fix was in when Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg strolled out to present the award for Best Director -- which finally, if predictably, went to their old friend and colleague Martin Scorsese. After all, these four directors represented a whole generation of American filmmakers: the so-called "movie brats" who arrived in Hollywood in the late '60s and early '70s and helped to reinvent and reinvigorate the movie industry, both artistically and commercially. (Their story is memorably told in Peter Biskind's colorful and controversial Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. It's also covered in "The Film School Generation," an episode of the documentary series American Cinema, which is conveniently available online through Annenberg Media; just scroll down to the episode title, click "VoD," sign up for the free registration, and watch the streaming video.)

The "brats" combined a professional craftsmanship honed in the burgeoning film schools of NYU, UCLA, and USC with a more independent view of the director's role. (Insert obligatory reference to auteur theory here.) Inspired by both classic Hollywood and international cinema, they produced more personal, often unconventional films -- like Lucas's THX 1138 (1971), Coppola's The Conversation (1974), Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976) -- films that redefined the cinematic vocabulary and pushed studios to grant directors more artistic freedom.

Yet along with this creative explosion came a commercial revolution. Despite (or because of) their "outsider" perspective and stylistic innovation, several of the "brats" proved to be spectacularly successful moviemakers. Coppola's The Godfather (1972) broke all-time box-office records; Spielberg's Jaws (1975) pioneered the concept of the summer blockbuster; Lucas's Star Wars (1977) demonstrated the enormous value of merchandising. Having helped to accelerate the demise of the old studio system, the "brats" wound up leading the way into a new corporate age of franchises and tentpoles, sequels and prequels, $200 million budgets and mammoth opening weekends.

Two questions to you, then, regarding the Big Four of Coppola, Lucas, Scorsese, and Spielberg. First, who do you believe is the best filmmaker? Second, whose movies do you enjoy the most? (Not necessarily the same answers, I would imagine....)

Next week: punk and disco, cable and VCRs, and MTV.

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