American New Wave Research

Shot Type Examples

American New Wave Research - Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (book)

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (book)

This paragraph from the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls will be useful to me when I come round to writing my essay on the American New Wave, as it tells the short story of how a scene form Taxi Driver came about. As Taxi Driver is one of the films I have chosen to look at as an example of a New Wave film I felt that this paragraph gave a insight to how New Wave films are based off real life situations rather than a fully fictional narrative like the films of Hollywood.

American New Wave - Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a 1976 American vigilante film with neo-noir and psychological thriller elements, directed by Martin Scorsese. Set in New York City following the Vietnam War.

The film is regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences alike as one of the greatest films of all time. The American Film Institute ranked Taxi Driver as the 52nd-greatest American film on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list. The film was considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the US Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994.

American New Wave - The Graduate

The Graduate is a key ground breaking film of the late 60s and helped to set in motion the new era of film making.



These paragraphs from MTV talk about some of the techniques that Mike Nichols used when making The Graduate.















This screenshot from the film (The Graduate) is an iconic scene as its not only memorable but it isn't a shot that is normally used. This screenshot will be helpful when writing my essay as it gives me starting point of a scene to discuss.

American New Wave Research - Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. 

Bonnie and Clyde is considered a landmark film, and is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, since it broke many cinematic taboos and was popular with the younger generation. For some members of the counterculture, the film was considered to be a "rallying cry." Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The film's ending also became iconic as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history".

1967 was the year that everything changed. As Peter Biskind puts it, two films “sent tremors through the industry”. One of those films was The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols from the Charles Webb novel, adapted by Buck Henry. The other was Bonnie and Clyde.

The 1960s was the era when Hollywood fell behind in every way possible: æsthetic, commercial and technological. Instead of setting trends, for the first time it was following them.

• legitimised violence against the establishment
• a movement film

Bonnie and Clyde influenced many films since its release including Taratino's Pulp Fiction