Moving Pictures

New Hollywood

THE BELCOURT THEATRE’S NEW 1973 SERIES ZOOMSIN ON A GREAT YEAR AT THE MOVIES

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

American cinema of the late-1960s and 1970s gives audiences some of the best films ever made, and the New Hollywood years as a whole represent the greatest era at the movies.

From Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to Heaven’s Gate (1980), the “film school generation” translated youth culture aesthetics to the big screen with unprecedented creative license following the fall of the Hollywood studio system after the rise of popular television programming. Filmmakers like Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Lumet, and Martin Scorsese brought auteurial stylistics to gritty stories about anti-heroes, deploying imaginative visuals, sounds and music while bucking traditional narrative structures, genre conventions and subject matter. The Belcourt’s new 1973 series focuses on one particularly great year in American movies, but also features a few international selections that are worthy of inclusion.

Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets is a must-see cornerstone of New Hollywood. This is the movie that announced Scorsese as a poet of crime cinema, established Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel as two of the great actors of their generation, and brought audiences a vision of Italian-Catholic New York City that echoes through the director’s filmography in movies as diverse as the boxing masterpiece, Raging Bull ; the musical, New York, New York ; and the documentary, Italianamerican

The Harder They Come is a Jamaican production that helped win reggae music an international audience and made its star Jimmy Cliff a global sensation. Perry Henzell’s film about an up-and-coming reggae singer turned drug dealer reminds me of Mean Streets with its grimy depictions of Kingston, Jamaica, and its focus on the grind of small-time crime. This movie is one part musical and one part revenge fantasy. Come for the incredibly groovy soundtrack. Stay for the climactic shootout.

Hal Ashby’s off-kilter filmography reads like a New Hollywood greatest hits list. Between 1971 and 1979 the director’s remarkably prolific run included quirky classics like Harold and Maude ; Bound for Glory ; Coming Home and Being There . Ashby’s 1973 film, The Last Detail came out the year the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam, but this movie about a couple of Navy lifers escorting a young 18-yearold seaman to a prison in Maine isn’t about the conflict or the anti-war culture it inspired. The Last Detail is a road movie featuring a small ensemble of notable actors. Ashby blasted-away at the war with the searing Coming Home , but here the director and legendary screenwriter Robert Towne blasts away at authority in general in the form of the stultifying bureaucracy of the Navy which sentences an 18-year-old to eight years behind bars for stealing $40, and which requires good men to do bad things in the name of obeying orders. Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and a baby-faced Randy Quaid all shine here, and watch out for a tiny cameo from Gilda Radner in her first screen role.

Bruce Lee’s breakthrough film Enter the Dragon was the first martial arts action movie produced by a Hollywood studio. Bruce Lee famously passed away before Dragon ’s debut and smash success, and for all of this film’s humor, visuals and unforgettable fight sequences, it will always be a bittersweet reminder of what Lee might have been able to accomplish as an established star and filmmaker. Enter the Dragon finds Lee attending a martial arts tournament on a remote island owned by an infamous narcotics dealer named Han who is connected to the death of Lee’s sister. Han’s secret fortress gives-off the cheesiest James Bond vibes, but Bruce Lee is electric every time he moves, and the iconic stand-off in a roomful of mirrors deserves its place on the big screen.

The Belcourt Theatre’s 1973 series runs from May 19-June 8. Go to www.belcourt.org for dates, times and tickets, including discount passes for the whole 18-film program

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.