The 1970s was a decade of social upheaval that challenged the foundations of American culture: the killing of students at Kent State and Jackson State universities, the riots at Attica state prison, the Munich Olympic tragedy, Watergate, the Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, the end of American involvement in Vietnam, the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, and the taking of American hostages in Iran.

The director-driven movies of the 1970s reflected this turmoil, experimenting with narrative structures, offering a gallery of scruffy anti-heroes, and revising traditional genre conventions. American Cinema of the 1970s examines the range of films that marked the decade, including Chinatown, Jaws, Rocky, Getting Straight, Love Story, Shaft, Dirty Harry, The Godfather, Deliverance, Enter the Dragon, The Exorcist, The Conversation, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Apocalypse Now.

About the author

Lester D. Friedman is the Senior Scholar-in-Residence in the Media and Society Programme at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His books include Citizen Spielberg, Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media, Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism.

Contents

Timeline: The 1970s
1. Introduction: Movies and the 1970s, Lester D. Friedman, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
2. 1970: Movies and the Movement, Mimi White, Northwestern University
3. 1971: Movies and the Exploitation of Excess, Mia Mask, Vassar College
4. 1972: Movies and Confession, Michael DeAngelis, De Paul University
5. 1973: Movies and the Legacies of War, Frances Gateward, University of Illinois
6. 1974: Movies and Political Trauma, David Cook, Emory University
7. 1975: Movies and Conflicting Ideologies, Glenn Man, University of Hawaii at Manoa
8. 1976: Movies and Bicentennial Contradictions, Frank Tomasulo, Florida State
9. 1977: Movies and a Nation in Transformation, Paula Massood, Brookjlyn College, CUNY
10. 1978: Movies and the New Hollywood Divide, Charles Maland, University of Tennessee
11. 1979: Movies and Post-Vietnam War Adjustments, Peter Lev, Towson University
Select Academy Awards, 1970-1979
Bibliography