The Film School Generation

Training Ground: The Rise of Film Schools  Hollywood looked favorably upon film students as directors.  They were uncritical of the industry, eager to succeed in it, and appreciative of its history.  They could also be paid less than older, more experienced directors.  Film gradually became a feature of a contemporary liberal arts education.  In 1967, 200 schools and 1500 film courses were offered. Eleven years later, 1,000 schools and 10,000 film courses were offered.

Exploitation on a Grand Scale  Even though many of the New Film School Generation films were low-budget subjects, Hollywood gave them the big-budget treatment.  These films were often low-budget genre pictures in disguise.  Starting with Jaws, the major studios adopted the distribution patterns developed in the exploitation market. (mostly ad campaigns)  That film was released in 464 theaters at the same time – Ads were on both the radio and the TV for the film, too.  Today, the first two Harry Potter films (2001,2002) opened on more than 3600 screens, as did Spider-Man. Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003), Scorpion King (2002), and Monsters Inc. (2001) played on more than 3400 screens.

A Return to Innocence  New Hollywood stories returned to an innocent and imaginative plot that didn’t need to be super realistic  Raiders of the Lost Ark returned to the innocent action serials of the 1930s and 1940s and restored moral clarity to the screen; confusing morality of Vietnam and returned to clear-cut villainy of Nazis.  Jaws was set in an innocent resort town.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind encouraged us to regress to the status of children- play with our food, indulge in whims and obsessions, and engage in a childlike state of wonder.  Star Wars was set in a universe far, far away and long, long ago.

Jaws  1975  Steven Spielberg  When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.

Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark  1981  Spielburg  Archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.

The Godfather  1972  Francis Ford Coppola  The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.