A Decade Under the Influence

How did Hollywood make so many great, challenging, offbeat films in the 1970s? A Decade Under the Influence lists the reasons--or rather, lets the people who did the filmmaking list the reasons. The decade-shaping interviewees include Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Francis Coppola, et al. The film's argument has actually been conventional wisdom for at least 10 years, but it's well-supported by an abundance of clips, which should inspire even hardcore film buffs to seek out rarities such as Thunderbolt and Lightfoot or The King of Marvin Gardens. One might observe that the scarcity of women directors or black filmmakers suggests that the decade was not entirely golden, and the memories may be burnished a bit by nostalgia. But there's no question that the big studios were far more adventurous back then, and this briskly moving survey gives a lively Film 101 lecture in exactly why. --Robert Horton

Movie Details

Cast: Robert Altman, John G. Avildsen, Warren Beatty, Linda Blair, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Boyle, Marshall Brickman, Ellen Burstyn, John Calley, Jim Carter, John Cassavetes, Julie Christie, Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Corman, Bruce Dern, Clint Eastwood, Louise Fletcher, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Milos Forman, William Friedkin, Pam Grier, Goldie Hawn, Monte Hellman, Jimi Hendrix, Dennis Hopper, Mick Jagger, Robert F. Kennedy, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Martin Luther King, Piper Laurie, Sidney Lumet, Paul Mazursky, Marshall McLuhan, Mike Medavoy, Richard Nixon, Polly Platt, Sydney Pollack, Ronald Reagan, Robert Redford, Dick Rodstein, Jerry Schatzberg, Roy Scheider, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Sissy Spacek, Robert Towne, Jon Voight
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 138 min / 152 min (DVD)
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.33:1

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DVD Features:

Dolby Digital Stereo - English

Interview Footage

Scene Access

Interactive Menus

Biographies

International rating:

Australia: M

DVD International release dates:
North America: Sep 30, 03