Contextual study of American New Wave cinema from 1967-1976

Contextual study of American New Wave cinema from 1967-1976

For my contextual study I will be exploring three films from the American New Wave period of cinema; Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, and Taxi driver. The American New Wave, often known as New Hollywood, refers to the period of the late 1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of filmmakers from the US started to influence the types of films being produced, their production and marketing, and the way studios approached film making. The downfall of the old Hollywood studio film making system and the rise of television, the artistic quality of films and their profitable success was lessened. Although the films made during this period somewhat followed the classic norms of film making, they were known by the fact the narrative was often unconventional. European art films (particularly the French New Wave) and Japanese cinema were beginning to make an impact on American cinema during the 1960s, the time in which the Baby Boomer generation were coming of age, the demographic of the disaffected youth seemed to find meaning in films like Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup with its slanted narrative structure and full frontal female nudity.

During the 1960s, America’s youth challenged conventional lifestyles and institutions. They protested against the materialism, consumerism and desire for success that drove American society. They urged people to explore alternative ways of work and domesticity, as well as challenging traditions around sex and marriage. The youths argued that paths to deeper fulfilment, even those that involve illicit drugs, could be justified. They believed in a new America.

The 1960s were a momentous period in American history, the Vietnam War, the rise in the popularity of ‘Psychedelic drugs’ such as LSD. The youth had become known by the idea that they rejected the established social norms of their parents of the 50s. Majority of the youth feared that the nuclear arms race in conjunction with the Vietnam War could have led to a nuclear holocaust. During this decade, strains grew between generations concerning women’s rights, race, sexual liberties and the interpretation of the materialistic American Dream. Due to economic success the white middle class youth had more time to focus of social issues.

Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, 1967, is a biographical crime film showing the story of real life depression era gangster couple, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty). It follows their journey from them meeting outside Bonnie’s house all the way to their sad demise. Despite being set in the 1930s (depression era) it still reflects life of the young in 1960s America. Penn captures the immaturity of the two title-named characters, that go around robbing banks and killing people to cure their boredom; they’re going against the norms of society, in such a way that it relates to the youth of the 1960s that were disillusioned by the Vietnam war, disenchanted by the ruling elite, and much less likely to conform than their parents’ generation.

Bonnie and Clyde starts with a fade in from the opening titles to an extreme close up of a pair of red lips that zooms out and pans across to a close up shot of a naked Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) in the mirror. After admiring herself in the mirror she moves towards her bed and falls onto it, looking through the frame as though it was caging her in, a feeling that many youths of both the depression era and the 60s would have been feeling, both wanting to find an escape from the constraints put on them; Bonnie hitting on the frame only emphasizes the desire to break free and to do something rather than nothing that was the norm. This scene shows the process of Bonnie getting ready for the day in a realistic manner in that it shows the distractions and not doing everything straight away or cut together as a montage which is often done in big Hollywood films nowadays. One of the distractions is her looking out of the window just at the scenery in front of her which results in her notice Clyde (Warren Beatty) attempting to steal her mum’s car. During this interaction between the two title characters Bonnie is still naked this generates a genuine reaction from Clyde, a reaction relatable to majority young men when a woman is unexpectedly naked in front of them. The lighting in this scene isn’t done with a studio set up, its all done with natural lighting that gives the scene the sense of verisimilitude that runs throughout the whole of the American New Wave genre. The lighting of this scene helps display not only the genre of the film but due to the lack of artificial high key lighting it also draws attention to the economic state of the era (1930s) due of the Wall Street Crash in 1929.

Also from 1967, Mike Nichols’ The Graduate also complies with conventions of the American New Wave. The Graduate follows college, Ben Braddock, who has no idea what to do with his life now he’s finished in education, unlike his parents’ generation who were more likely to conform with society and follow in their parents footsteps career wise. A scene from this film that I believe demonstrates the conventions shared within the American New Wave genre is the scene in which they’re celebrating Ben’s 21^st birthday and his dad buys him the scuba gear. One of the ways this film separates itself from the mainstream Hollywood films is by having only Ben in focus most of the time he’s in a scene; it shows how he’s disconnected from the people and life around him. This technique can be seen when Ben is walking in the garden with the scuba suit on, this is shot from his point of view with the effect of hand held camera making feel as though the audience is Ben walking through life not really noticing the blurs of people living alongside him. The outline of the inside of the scuba mask, creating a vignette, is not something what would have be common in Hollywood cinema but is acceptable in the American New Wave Genre as its what make the genre what it is to break the rules set out by the way Hollywood films were produced.

Martin Scorsese’s 1976 Taxi Driver is another film that falls into the American New Wave Genre. Taxi Driver is a vigilante film with elements found in neo-noir and psychological thriller films. Scorsese was able to immortalize New York City in the 1970s and how it differs to New York today. The filthy state of the city is exaggerated this is, to a certain extent due to the film being from Travis’ skewed point of view, but also because during the summer of 1975 when Taxi Driver was filmed the trash collectors went of strike meaning litter was piling up in the streets and there were no funds to sort the issue. When running for presidency, Jimmy Carter had promised to make sure that New York did not have to file for bankruptcy. Scorsese made Taxi Driver a true representation of what Manhattan once was; Time Square was filled with prostitutes during the time of filming which was taken into note and made known in the film. A main issue during the Presidential campaign was moving beyond what had happened during the Vietnam War, which had ended in 1973; this being known makes it easy to imagine how an ex-marine in New York being disgusted by the filth in the city, finding out that the politicians who were supposed to be helping him are artificial. Martin Scorsese captured the reality well throughout Taxi Driver through the verisimilitude in his style of directing and filming. The final scene of Taxi Driver is an example scene to choose when talking about the American New Wave, as it shows that the big Hollywood studios and all the big fancy studio equipment and productions aren’t needed for a film to be good. The red tinge that runs throughout the final scene proves this; the final scene wasn’t filmed as planned causing the red tinge that is used in the final cut of the film as they ran out of time to re-film the scene correctly so the left it in. As American New Wave films didn’t have the budget of the Hollywood films so once they’d used up the budget that was it, there was no way they could re-do anything that wasn’t quite right, thus the final scene in Taxi Driver has the red tinge.

As a conclusion, the American New Wave was a major part in the development in modern western cinema, in the way the French New Wave influenced the American New Wave. For instance, nudity and sexual references are a lot more prominent in mainstream cinema, after the American New Wave period, because it is no longer seen as a taboo, this is due to the changes within society as well as the influence of the American New Wave. To the extent of a whole film franchise that is based around nudity and sexual references (American Pie, 8 films between 1999-2012). As well as the use of graphic violence, it has become more acceptable for there to be graphic violence in films in a way that wouldn’t have been accepted before the American New Wave era. The end scene of Taxi Driver with all the shootings and the blood, is an example of how because of the American New Wave ventured out into using such graphic violence that it became okay to use in mainstream films much like the Saw franchise, a franchise that relies solely on violence on gore to sell to an audience. Overall the influence the American New Wave has had on film is vast without it being common knowledge.