While the anti-establishment rebels of 1969's Easy Rider were morphing into the nostalgic yuppies of 1983's The Big Chill, Seventies movies brought us everything from killer sharks, blaxploitation, and disco musicals to a loving look at General George S. Patton. Indeed, as Peter Lev persuasively argues in this book, the films of the 1970s constitute a kind of conversation about what American society is and should be-open, diverse, and egalitarian, or stubbornly resistant to change.
Examining forty films thematically, Lev explores the conflicting visions presented in films with the following kinds of subject matter:
Hippies (Easy Rider, Alice's Restaurant)
Cops (The French Connection, Dirty Harry)
Disasters and conspiracies (Jaws, Chinatown)
End of the Sixties (Nashville, The Big Chill)
Art, Sex, and Hollywood (Last Tango in Paris)
Teens (American Graffiti, Animal House)
War (Patton, Apocalypse Now)
African-Americans (Shaft, Superfly)
Feminisms (An Unmarried Woman, The China Syndrome)
Future visions (Star Wars, Blade Runner)
As accessible to ordinary moviegoers as to film scholars, Lev's book is an essential companion to these familiar, well-loved movies.
Preface
Introduction: "Nobody knows anything"
Part 1
Chapter 1: Hippie Generation
Easy Rider
Alice's Restaurant
Five Easy Pieces
Chapter 2: Vigilantes And Cops
Joe
The French Connection
Dirty Harry
Death Wish
Chapter 3: Disaster and Conspiracy
Airport
The Poseidon Adventure
Jaws
The Parallax View
Chinatown
Chapter 4: The End Of The Sixties
Nashville
Shampoo
Between the Lines
The Return of the Secaucus Seven
The Big Chill
Part 2
Chapter 5: Last Tango in Paris: Or Art, Sex, And Hollywood
Chapter 6: Teen Films
American Graffiti
Cooley High
Animal House
Diner
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Chapter 7: General Patton and Colonel Kurtz
Patton
Apocalypse Now
Chapter 8: From Blaxploitation To African American Film
Shaft
Superfly
Claudine
Leadbelly
Killer of Sheep
Chapter 9: Feminisms
Hester Street
An Unmarried Woman
Girlfriends
Starting Over
Head over Heels/Chilly Scenes of Winter
Coming Home
The China Syndrome
Chapter 10: Whose Future
Star Wars
Alien
Blade Runner
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Time Line, 1968-1983: American History, American Film
Appendix 2: Filmography
Notes
Bibliography
Index
