History MediaNotes / NewHollywood

1977 was the year when the shift from New Hollywood to MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood, first heralded by Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' two years earlier, kicked into high gear, with two films made on modest budgets with no "big stars" in particular heralding the transition. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', which debuted at the end of 1976 and dominated the box office throughout early 1977, starts out very New Hollywood, as a gritty urban drama centered around a seeming {{Antihero}}, but eventually transitions into a traditionally inspirational underdog tale. The rapturous response from critics, audiences, and ultimately Hollywood itself (with its MediaNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture) showed that there was still a market for old-fashioned crowd-pleasing. Then ''Franchise/StarWars'', a SpaceOpera that was about as far removed from realism as could be, made at considerable risk (described by Creator/RogerCorman, TheMentor of the group, as a BMovie during production), became an immensely profitable smash hit. Directors at the time such as Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/JohnMilius, and in 2015 Quotes/GeorgeLucas himself, noted that its very success taught new investors [[RightForTheWrongReasons the wrong lessons]], causing many to believe that the popularity of ''Star Wars'' lay in its ability to [[MerchandiseDriven spin off merchandise]] rather than its own merits as a film.

1977 was the year when the shift from New Hollywood to MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood, first heralded by Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' two years earlier, kicked into high gear, with two films made on modest budgets with no "big stars" in particular heralding the transition. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', which debuted at the end of 1976 and dominated the box office throughout early 1977, starts out very New Hollywood, as a gritty urban drama centered around a seeming {{Antihero}}, but eventually transitions into a inspirational underdog tale. The rapturous response from critics, audiences, and ultimately Hollywood itself (with its MediaNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture) showed that there was still a market for old-fashioned crowd-pleasing. Then ''Franchise/StarWars'', a SpaceOpera that was about as far removed from realism as could be, made at considerable risk (described by Creator/RogerCorman, TheMentor of the group, as a BMovie during production), became an immensely profitable smash hit. Directors at the time like Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/JohnMilius, and in 2015, Quotes/GeorgeLucas himself, noted that its success taught new investors [[RightForTheWrongReasons the wrong lessons]], causing many to believe that the success of the film lay in its ability to [[MerchandiseDriven spin off merchandise]] rather than its own merits as a film.

With high-profile bombs discrediting the auteurs, Hollywood turned away from their sorts of adult films and towards making films for the whole family, which led [[FollowTheLeader to several imitations]] and the drying up of funds for many of those filmmakers, ironically erasing the context which led to ''Franchise/StarWars'' being made in the first place. Directors like Creator/WoodyAllen argued that, despite the occasional flop, by and large these films made a profit and were {{misblamed}} for changes the industry was going through anyway. Scorsese has described the period as being, more accurately, the space between [[MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood the old]] and the new, where the next generation of blockbusters were once again in control of the situation, and the MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood was underway. Somewhat tellingly, the New Hollywood ethos still persisted for a brief period of time during the early days of the Blockbuster Age, with Creator/FrancisFordCoppola's 1983 film ''Literature/RumbleFish'' being more or less the last film of the former era, and the idea that directors deserved just as much say in the artistic product as-- if not more than-- studio executives would become a mainstay well into the Blockbuster Age.

Alas, these good times were not to last. For one thing, while some of these films were huge hits, average weekly attendance plummeted from roughly 45 million per week in 1965 to roughly 19 million in 1969. While some of this can be attributed to the continued collapse of the studio system, the numbers only crept back up into the 20-25 million per week range for the next decade, staying there and never recovering to old heights. TV was here to stay, and film would never again enjoy the dominance it once had in the broader American entertainment industry.

Furthermore, towards the end of the '70s, the New Hollywood film-makers who had originally burst on the scene to make low-budget adult alternatives to TheSixties EpicMovie started making films with bigger budgets and moving towards riskier ventures. In the case of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', the risk paid off; the film won several awards and was a box-office success despite its notoriously TroubledProduction, chronicled by several tabloids and gossip mongers, which had led many to predict a ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}''-sized catastrophe in the making. Formerly, Hollywood film-makers would court this publicity, but the mood had shifted by this point. While earlier, such artistic fastidiousness had been praised as an example of uncompromising artistic commitment, the story that was now spun was that of [[PrimaDonnaDirector over-reaching]] and [[ProtectionFromEditors spoiled film-makers]] who were abusing their privileges. Michael Cimino's notorious 1980 flop ''Film/HeavensGate'' became the rallying point for this mentality. At the end of it all, Creator/UnitedArtists (the studio behind ''Heaven's Gate'') had gone bankrupt and had been sold to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], and TheEighties was a time when directors, even economical ones, struggled to make ambitious films in a market driven towards family fare.

Realism and immersion were major themes in such movies, a backlash against the {{spectacle}} and artificiality that defined the studio system. A symbol of this emphasis on realism was the choice of many filmmakers to shoot on location-- not only was this now far less expensive than shooting on set due to advances in technology, it also heightened the feeling that the people on screen were in a real place. In addition, such films were infused with [[HotterAndSexier sexuality]], [[BloodierAndGorier graphic]] [[{{Gorn}} violence]], drugs, rock music, {{anti hero}}es, anti-establishment themes, and other symbols of the '60s counterculture that would've been unthinkable in mainstream American cinema just a few years earlier. Many New Hollywood filmmakers openly admitted to using marijuana and psychedelic drugs, furthering their popularity in the general climate of the '60s. In addition, the rigid cliche of the [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP-y]], [[WhiteMaleLead white-bread all-American movie star]] was challenged with the rise of actors who forced the parameters open, like the suave, intelligent black man Creator/SidneyPoitier, [[EuropeansAreKinky exotic European sex symbols]] like Creator/BrigitteBardot and Creator/SophiaLoren, the awkward but lovable Jews Creator/DustinHoffman, Creator/WoodyAllen, and Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Italian-American antiheroes Creator/AlPacino and Creator/RobertDeNiro, and the [[MrFanservice hardbody heartthrob]] Asian tough guy Creator/BruceLee. These and other actors hit it big in part by being seemingly nothing like any major movie star before.

The success of New Hollywood's early films stood in sharp contrast to the colossal, [[CreatorKiller studio-busting]] failures of the last stretch of Old Hollywood-style filmmaking -- in particular, the many money-losing, big-budget, mostly family-friendly musicals (such as ''Film/DoctorDolittle'', ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'', and ''Film/HelloDolly'') made in the wake of the 1965 smash ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic''. This caused the studios to grant [[ProtectionFromEditors almost complete creative control]] to these upstart filmmakers. As TheSeventies rolled in, films like Creator/FrancisFordCoppola's ''Film/TheGodfather'', Creator/SidneyLumet's ''Film/DogDayAfternoon'' and ''Film/{{Network}}'', Creator/RomanPolanski's ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'', Creator/MartinScorsese's ''Film/TaxiDriver'', Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}'s ''Film/TheDeerHunter'' were released to not only near-universal critical acclaim, but also massive ticket sales, earning their studios boatloads of cash in the process. For a while, it appeared that this strategy was paying off big time. On top of all that, cinema was finally taken seriously from an artistic point of view. With TV becoming the dominant mass medium, the cultural scorn heaped on it changed the image of film by comparison. Whereas cinema was previously considered a low-class medium, now it became "quality entertainment" with an artistic respectability nearly on a par with other arts like live theater. (Compare it to the situation today, where cable and streaming television is itself becoming "respectable" while video games and webshows are often labeled as "low-brow" and network TV is struggling to stay relevant, as well as the way popular music was taken more seriously by critics in the wake of Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.) For a time, it looked as if the worst was over, and it seemed like Hollywood was [[HopeSpot finally out of its post-war slump]].

-->-- '''Empire Magazine'''

The New Hollywood era, also known as the American New Wave, the Hollywood Renaissance, and the auteur period, is when the [[TheSixties Swinging '60s]] arrived in Hollywood. Lasting from approximately 1965 to 1983 (though different sources give different estimates, with one such example being pictured above), the period was marked by the rise of a new generation of young, film-school-educated, countercultural filmmakers – directors, screenwriters, and actors alike – whom Hollywood felt could speak to the new generation of young people in ways that their older stars could not. By this point in time, Hollywood was desperate to hold onto any remaining scrap of big-screen relevance in an era when its longtime dominance of American pop culture was getting pulverized by a trifecta of television grabbing its mass audience, foreign cinema by masters like Creator/AkiraKurosawa, Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni, Creator/IngmarBergman, and Creator/FrancoisTruffaut eroding its critical respectability, and independent films such as those produced by Creator/JohnCassavetes and Creator/RogerCorman sucking up younger talent. Driven by a combination of both [[MoneyDearBoy mercantile interests]] (keeping pace with the changing tastes of the moviegoing public) and genuine enthusiasm to depict stories and elements never before seen in American cinema, the studios opened the doors like never before. Aspiring filmmakers who had graduated from film school and made one or two movies could now shop their big ideas to the studios and receive total AuteurLicense of the kind that Creator/OrsonWelles had received for ''Film/CitizenKane''. The result was a decade or so of bold experimentation, perhaps the greatest creative explosion in mainstream American cinema.

The success of New Hollywood's early films stood in sharp contrast to the colossal, [[CreatorKiller studio-busting]] failures of the last stretch of Old Hollywood-style filmmaking -- in particular, the many money-losing, big-budget, mostly family-friendly musicals (such as ''Film/DoctorDolittle'', ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'', and ''Film/HelloDolly'') made in the wake of the 1965 smash ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic''. This caused the studios to grant [[ProtectionFromEditors almost complete creative control]] to these upstart filmmakers. As TheSeventies rolled in, such films as Francis Ford Coppola's ''Film/TheGodfather'', Sidney Lumet's ''Film/DogDayAfternoon'' and ''Film/{{Network}}'', Creator/RomanPolanski's [[FilmNoir neo-Noir]] ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'', Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}'s ''Film/TheDeerHunter'', and Creator/MartinScorsese's ''Film/TaxiDriver'' were released to not only near-universal critical acclaim, but also massive ticket sales, earning their studios boatloads of cash in the process. For a while, it appeared that this strategy was paying off big time. On top of all that, cinema was finally taken seriously from an artistic point of view. With TV becoming the dominant mass medium, the cultural scorn heaped on it changed the image of film by comparison. Whereas cinema was previously considered a low-class medium, now it became "quality entertainment" with an artistic respectability nearly on a par with other arts like live theater. (Compare it to the situation today, where cable and streaming television is itself becoming "respectable" while video games and webshows are often labeled as "low-brow" and network TV is struggling to stay relevant, as well as the way popular music was taken more seriously by critics in the wake of Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.) For a time, it looked as if the worst was over, and it seemed like Hollywood was [[HopeSpot finally out of its post-war slump]].

Furthermore, towards the end of the '70s, the New Hollywood film-makers who had originally burst on the scene to make low-budget adult alternatives to TheSixties EpicMovie started making films with bigger budgets and moving towards riskier ventures. In the case of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', the risk paid off; the film won several awards and was a box-office success despite its notoriously TroubledProduction, chronicled by several tabloids and gossip mongers, leading many to predict a ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}''-sized catastrophe in the making. Formerly, Hollywood film-makers would court this publicity, but the mood had shifted by this point. While earlier, such artistic fastidiousness was praised as an example of uncompromising artistic commitment, the story that was now spun was that of [[PrimaDonnaDirector over-reaching]] and [[ProtectionFromEditors spoiled film-makers]] who were abusing their privileges. Michael Cimino's notorious 1980 flop ''Film/HeavensGate'' became the rallying point for this mentality. At the end of it all, Creator/UnitedArtists (the studio behind ''Heaven's Gate'') had gone bankrupt and had been sold to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], and TheEighties was a time when directors, even economical ones, struggled to make ambitious films in a market driven towards family fare.

1977 was the year when the shift from New Hollywood to MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood kicked into high gear, with two films made on modest budgets with no "big stars" in particular heralding the transition. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', which debuted at the end of 1976 and dominated the box office throughout early 1977, starts out very New Hollywood, as a gritty urban drama centered on a seeming {{Antihero}}, but eventually transitions into a inspirational underdog tale. The rapturous response from critics, audiences, and ultimately Hollywood itself (with its MediaNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture) showed that there was still a market for old-fashioned crowd-pleasing. Then ''Franchise/StarWars'', a SpaceOpera that was about as far removed from realism as could be, made at considerable risk (described by Creator/RogerCorman, TheMentor of the group, as a BMovie during production), became an immensely profitable smash hit. Directors at the time like Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/JohnMilius, and in 2015, Quotes/GeorgeLucas himself, noted that its success taught new investors [[RightForTheWrongReasons the wrong lessons]], causing many to believe that the success of the film lay in its ability to [[MerchandiseDriven spin off merchandise]] rather than its own merits as a film.

The New Hollywood era, also known as the American New Wave, the Hollywood Renaissance, and the auteur period, is when the [[TheSixties Swinging '60s]] arrived in Hollywood. Lasting from approximately 1965 to 1983 (though different sources give different estimates, with one such example being pictured above), it was marked by the rise of a new generation of young, film-school-educated, countercultural filmmakers -- directors, actors and writers alike -- whom Hollywood felt could speak to the new generation of young people in ways that their older stars could not. By this point in time, Hollywood was desperate to hold onto any remaining scrap of relevance in an era that saw its dominance of American pop culture pulverized by the trifecta of television grabbing its mass audience, foreign cinema by masters like Creator/AkiraKurosawa, Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni, Creator/IngmarBergman, and Creator/FrancoisTruffaut eroding its critical respectability, and independent films such as those produced by Creator/JohnCassavetes and Creator/RogerCorman sucking up young talent. Driven by a combination of both [[MoneyDearBoy mercantile interests]] (keeping pace with the changing tastes of the moviegoing public) and genuine enthusiasm to depict stories and elements never before seen in American cinema, the studios opened the doors like never before. Aspiring filmmakers who had graduated from film school and made one or two movies could now shop their big ideas to the studios and receive total AuteurLicense of the kind that Creator/OrsonWelles had received for ''Film/CitizenKane''. The result was a decade or so of bold experimentation, perhaps the greatest creative explosion in mainstream American cinema.

While the exact starting point of this era is a matter of contention, with Website/{{Wikipedia}} repeatedly shifting the starting point on its [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hollywood#List_of_selected_important_and_notable_films list]] back and forth (the earliest entry on the list as of this writing is 1965's ''Film/MickeyOne''), ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' and ''Film/EasyRider'', released in 1967 and 1969 respectively, are cited by the widest variety of sources as the first New Hollywood films. They were made by big studios (Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/ColumbiaPictures, respectively) and featured several of their hot young stars, and yet they had violence, sexuality, and a dark tone that owed more to European cinema than anything homegrown. However, these films were, in many ways, the culmination of a larger trend in American cinema, stemming from the collapse of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode. The Code had already lost its primary reason for being around in 1952/1953 when the US Supreme Court declared film (and to an extent entertainment) to be a protected art form under the First Amendment (and even its authority to allow the release of films thanks to the 1948 landmark Paramount Decision), but by the late '50s, such filmmakers as Creator/OttoPreminger, Creator/BillyWilder, Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/StanleyKubrick, Creator/DouglasSirk, and Creator/JohnCassavetes, and even foreign filmmakers such as Creator/AlfredHitchcock and Creator/SergioLeone, were already breaking down the Code and putting in challenging content, most of which were critically hailed. At first, the main enforcer of the Code, the Hays Office, had tried to demand the censorship of those films, but their attempts backfired and made the Code look even more ridiculous. Then the Hays Office tried to save face by claiming those films were "special exceptions" such as ''Film/ThePawnbroker'' (with its short scene of plot-relevant nudity) and ''Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'' (with its equally plot-relevant harsh language). However, no-one was buying it and soon, opinion of the Code changed and the general public ([[EpicFail as well as the Catholic and Protestant Churches, who were the main backers of the Code]]) stopped supporting it. During this time, the big studios, who's support of the Code had also ended, started disturbing those films as well as similar films without the Hays Office's seal of approval (which they could do thanks to the Paramount Decision. For more about it, read UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem) in direct defiance, thus further reducing the Code's authority. Then, in 1965, the Supreme Court banned any censorship and/or banning of any films in America with the landmark Freedman v. Maryland decision, finally putting the antiquated censorship code out of its misery. Finally in 1966, major studio Creator/{{MGM}} produced and released Michelangelo Antonioni's ''Film/{{Blowup}}'', which featured explicit nudity, as a final act of defiance against the Code and the Hays Office (who had refused to give their seal of approval prior to Freedman v. Maryland) and it became a critical and box office smash hit. Thus, the Hays Office, as well as the Protestant Film Office (who had also championed the Code), closed their doors soon after.

1977 was the year when the shift from New Hollywood to UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood kicked into high gear, with two films made on modest budgets with no "big stars" in particular heralding the transition. ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', which debuted at the end of 1976 and dominated the box office throughout early 1977, starts out very New Hollywood, as a gritty urban drama centered on a seeming {{Antihero}}, but eventually transitions into a inspirational underdog tale. The rapturous response from critics, audiences, and ultimately Hollywood itself (with its UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture) showed that there was still a market for old-fashioned crowd-pleasing. Then ''Franchise/StarWars'', a SpaceOpera that was about as far removed from realism as could be, made at considerable risk (described by Creator/RogerCorman, TheMentor of the group, as a BMovie during production), became an immensely profitable smash hit. Directors at the time like Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/JohnMilius, and in 2015, Quotes/GeorgeLucas himself, noted that its success taught new investors [[RightForTheWrongReasons the wrong lessons]], causing many to believe that the success of the film lay in its ability to [[MerchandiseDriven spin off merchandise]] rather than its own merits as a film.

With high-profile bombs discrediting the auteurs, Hollywood turned away from their sorts of adult films and towards making films for the whole family, which led [[FollowTheLeader to several imitations]] and the drying up of funds for many of those filmmakers, ironically erasing the context which led to ''Franchise/StarWars'' being made in the first place. Directors like Creator/WoodyAllen argued that, despite the occasional flop, by and large these films made a profit and were {{misblamed}} for changes the industry was going through anyway. Scorsese has described the period as being, more accurately, the space between [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood the old]] and the new, where the next generation of blockbusters were once again in control of the situation, and the UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood was underway. Somewhat tellingly, the New Hollywood ethos still persisted for a brief period of time during the early days of the Blockbuster Age, with Creator/FrancisFordCoppola's 1983 film ''Literature/RumbleFish'' being more or less the last film of the former era, and the idea that directors deserved just as much say in the artistic product as-- if not more than-- studio executives would become a mainstay well into the Blockbuster Age.

The output of the era, like that of the Golden Age, is often put through the NostalgiaFilter, with some saying that the 1970s was the last truly classic decade for American cinema ([[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/17/entertainment/ca-dargis17 expect]] CriticalBacklash and FlameWar for those who disagree). At the end of the day, the lessons learned from New Hollywood, both good and bad, would be put to use by the studios-- and their new corporate owners-- to start UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood, the true new Hollywood establishment.

* PopStarComposer: The movies followed the golden age of rock music and UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion and made much of actual songs to score the films, often for montage sequences and often as SuspiciouslyAproposMusic. ''Film/EasyRider'' more or less paved the way for other films to follow (such as Creator/RobertAltman's ''Film/McCabeAndMrsMiller'' which is entirely scored by three Music/LeonardCohen songs) and ''Mean Streets''.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: This was the first decade where color cinema became the norm (TheSixties being a period of transition) and where use of black-and-white became an "artistic choice". Notable examples include ''Film/TheLastPictureShow'', ''Paper Moon'', ''Film/TheHoneymoonKillers'', ''Film/{{Lenny}}'', ''Film/{{Manhattan}}'', ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', ''Film/RagingBull''.

** TheMusical: Audiences had a tougher time accepting the revisionism of classic musicals, and indeed attempts to do so, such as ''At Long Last Love'' and ''Film/NewYorkNewYork'' became proverbial flops by the end of the decade. The fact that this was an era where rock music started being used as accompaniment in many films, also contributed to the decline of the traditional musical. ''Film/{{Cabaret}}'' notably made all the songs [[MusicalWorldHypothesis in-universe performances]] and the dissonance between the singing and the horror of Nazi Germany was used to illustrate the characters denying what's really going on around them. The other possible exception is ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''; "possible" because it is at least as much a GenreMashup as a deconstruction, it was a stage musical that used rock at least as much as traditional show tunes, and it only found its audience as a midnight-screening CultClassic.
** RomanticComedy: Films by Creator/WoodyAllen, especially ''Film/AnnieHall'', but also Creator/SydneyPollack's ''The Way We Were'' showed how difficult relationships were, and what love meant in a time of no-fault divorce and blended marriages.

** George Lucas is the linchpin of the New Hollywood era, being one or two degrees away from Coppola (starting as his apprentice and co-producing many movies together), Spielberg (collaborating on ''Franchise/IndianaJones''), Scorsese (via Marcia Lucas who edited ''Film/TaxiDriver''), De Palma (who suggested a modification for the title crawl of ''Star Wars''), Milius (collaborator on the first drafts for ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' which was originally going to be his project), Schrader (producing ''Mishima''). When Creator/MartinScorsese was nominated for Best Director on ''Film/TheDeparted'', Lucas presented along with Coppola and Spielberg (which was itself a [[InterfaceSpoiler tell on who was going to win]]), and it turned into an impromptu roast on [[AwardSnub Lucas still not winning any oscars]] among their generation.

** Of course in certain ways, the Academy redefined the "new normal" with sentimental portrayals of mental illness (''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest''), RealIsBrown working-class dramas like ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' and kitchen-sink melodrama like ''Kramer versus Kramer'' becoming [[MeetTheNewBoss templates for oscar bait for the next four decades]].
* OutlawCouple: A very popular trope, made and codified by ''Bonnie and Clyde''. Low-budget takes include ''The Honeymoon Killers'' (a very seedy low-budget look at it) and ''Wanda'' (by Barbara Loden). Other notable examples include, ''Film/{{Badlands}}'' (by Terrence Malick) and ''Film/ThievesLikeUs'' (by Creator/RobertAltman), and Creator/StevenSpielberg's first feature, ''Film/TheSugarlandExpress''

** It was called "New Hollywood" but a few old-timers were still around making films. For instance, Creator/BillyWilder made ''Fedora'' and ''Film/{{Avanti}}'', Creator/OttoPreminger made his final films in the same decade, as did Creator/GeorgeCukor. Creator/AlfredHitchcock is especially notable for being the rare classic director who actually tried to update with the end of censorship (evident in the greater sex and violence of ''Film/{{Frenzy|1972}}'' and the more diverse international cast of ''Film/{{Topaz}}'' while ''Film/FamilyPlot'' (his last film) uses three actors from Creator/RobertAltman's ProductionPosse). Likewise, Creator/EliaKazan's final films, ''The Arrangment'' and ''The Visitors'' featured Creator/FayeDunaway and Creator/JamesWoods, and the former film had a frenetic and experimental editing style that was all the rage, while ''The Last Tycoon'' had Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/AnjelicaHuston and Creator/JackNicholson. Creator/JohnHuston who found a second career as an actor in this era (for ''Chinatown'') actually directed some of his most acclaimed films in TheSeventies (including ''Wise Blood'' and ''The Man Who Would Be King'').
** Likewise, Creator/RobertMitchum still appeared in a few notable films in the era (''Film/TheYakuza, The Friends of Eddie Coyne'') (and he would continue to act till TheNineties), Creator/JohnWayne and Creator/JamesStewart made their final film appearances, Creator/WilliamHolden appeared in ''Film/{{Network}}'' and in ''Film/TheWildBunch'' (alongside other classic western character actors). Creator/SterlingHayden likewise capped off his career by appearing in ''Film/TheGodfather'', ''Film/TheLongGoodbye'' and the American-Italian production ''Film/{{Novecento}}''.

* RoadMovie: Another genre really invented in this era, owing mostly to the new technology and lowered costs of productions that made it easier to shoot on location as well as in cars and moving vehicles. ''Film/EasyRider'' was the TropeMaker and TropeCodifier and the other films include ''Film/TheRainPeople'' (by Coppola), ''Film/TwoLaneBlacktop'' (Monte Hellman), ''Slither'' (Philip Rieff). This genre also overlapped with the OutlawCouple genre (''Bonnie and Clyde, The Sugarland Express''), and horror (''Film/{{Duel}}'') and even science-fiction (the Richard Dreyfuss section of ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'').

Furthermore, towards the end of the '70s, the New Hollywood film-makers who had originally burst on the scene to make low-budget adult alternatives to TheSixties EpicMovie started making films with bigger budgets and moving towards riskier ventures. In the case of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', the risk paid off; the film won several awards and was a box-office success despite its notoriously TroubledProduction, chronicled by several tabloids and gossip mongers, leading many to predict a ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}''-sized catastrophe in the making. Formerly, Hollywood film-makers would court this publicity, but the mood had shifted by this point. While earlier, such artistic fastidiousness was praised as an example of uncompromising artistic commitment, the story that was now spun was that of [[PrimaDonnaDirector over-reaching]] and [[ProtectionFromEditors spoiled film-makers]] who were abusing their privileges. Michael Cimino's notorious 1980 flop ''Film/HeavensGate'' became the rallying point for this mentality. At the end of it all, Creator/UnitedArtists (the studio behind ''Heaven's Gate'') had gone bankrupt and had been sold to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], and TheEighties was a time when directors, even economical ones, struggled to make ambitious films in a market directed driven towards family fare.