The 1970s were a Golden Age for American film-making, with the emergence of such talents as Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, De Palma and Altman. Ryan Gilbey now looks afresh at the remarkable movies of this era, and their gifted makers. Today these directors are sometimes lambasted as sell-outs or burn-outs, but their best films of the Seventies - from American Graffiti to The Conversation, Nashville to Carrie, Badlands to Taxi Driver - still feel as urgent and innovative as they did on first release, and still inspire young film-makers at a time when movies are once more depressingly formulaic. These directors cultivated a fascinating eclecticism, driven by creative hunger and insatiable imagination. But what in the American scene were they reacting against, and just as crucially, what were they celebrating (or pillaging from other sources)? Gilbey also considers directors who established a body of work in the Seventies (Woody Allen), who blossomed as the decade progressed (David Lynch, Jonathan Demme), or who were prominent figures without being prolific (Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick).
He takes each film and assesses its place in history while also scrutinising it as if for the very first time - as if it were coming to a cinema near you this Friday ...