Post Classical Blog 4

Post classical film, according to Wikipedia, refers to a time period between the mid 1960’s and early 1980’s when a generation of young filmmakers came to America. The arrival of the young filmmakers influenced the types of films that were produced, the way they were marketed and the way studios approached filmmaking. Post classical film, or new Hollywood was also referred to as the Hollywood renaissance because of the fact that it was the filmmaking movement where several new ideas and styles changed the film industry.
After the war people started having a lot of babies, they were known as the baby boomers. The baby boomers started reaching movie going age in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This turned out to be a problem for Hollywood because the new age people were not interested in American films; they were more interested in Europe and Japan’s art films. Hollywood needed to get the attention of this age group so they hired young filmmakers and basically let them make the films they wanted to make with as little studio control as possible. It seems like American cinema was beginning to face a financial downfall because it’s youth were not interested in the films being made so this was their attempt to save themselves.
According to www.mvla.net this new generation of filmmakers were film school educated and young which meant that they knew what America’s youth was interested in and could get back the audience that Hollywood was losing. The new generation brought more art to the films and spiced them up with realism, rock music and sexuality. One of the most popular films of this time was Bonnie and Clyde because it was a hit with America’s youth due to the fact that it was funny, and it had violence and sex. Sex seemed to catch the interest of young people, the film Midnight Cowboy which was rated X received an academy award for best picture.
The “new age” however came to an end with the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and George Lucas’s Star Wars. When these movies were released they both were extremely successful and Hollywood realized that by selling toys, soundtracks and making sequels they could make much more money off of these types of films rather than by the films by the new era filmmakers.
I think that the new age film developed styles of films for young people and those types of films, although they are more graphic and sexual than ever, still attract the majority of young people and still are successful. Maybe the release of big blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars were more successful but I think that the new age brought about new styles of film that are more common and viewed by young people today as much as ever. Not every film that is released can be a blockbuster but the sexual comedy still attracts the teenager or young adult looking for a laugh.