What is the American New Wave?
The "New Hollywood" wave of cinema began in the 1960s and ended around the mid 1970s, it wasn't exactly a turning point in film it was a slow process of change influenced by the culture around us. Films such as "Bonnie and Clyde", "Easy Rider" and "Taxi Driver" reflect themes and messages which troubled the public in the 60s. Themes of drug abuse, depression and poverty can be seen throughout this new wave due to the economic and political climate of the time. The American-Vietnamese war had caused turmoil throughout the country which divided the country massively, the Hippy movement was on the rise as people found the war to be pointless and causing more pain than good in the world (Nowell-Smith).
During the 60s technological advancement meant that high definition colour films, wide formats and fidelity magnetic sound had become the new standard for film quality. As poverty had struck the nation due to economic crisis created by the war, cinema audiences' attendance had declined rapidly suggesting that many didn't posses the funds to watch movies or in other cases, moral was low and people didn't believe the glamorous traditional style of Hollywood cinema wasn't relatable and had began to bore an audience (Chapman). Televisions were more widely used in households in the 50s meaning that less people were going to cinemas and instead choosing to watch content shown to them on the TV. Production companies were moving on to television as it was a growing market which was sustainable for the future (Chapman).
Studio's had become out of touch with the younger generations and could no longer offer content which they engaged with; a new wave of young directors came into the spotlight which offered a more relatable approach to filmmaking which the young audience enjoyed, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and many others were all new directors on the rise which were heavily influenced by the works of John Ford's "The Searcher", this movie widely influenced culture of the time and inspired young filmmakers to start a rise of a new cinematic wave. However, not everyone had the same opinion of the film, Joseph McBride a famous film critic of the time went as far as saying "The Searcher is a cult movie for the new generation" (Kuperberg).
A social revolution was underway, the innocent sheep from the post-war period had disappeared, the Vietnam war fuelled public uncertainty and an era of anti-establishment was on the rise. Drugs, sex and hippies had become popular in society as people went against the government that didn't seem to care about their people's well being (Nowell-Smith). Race riots started breaking out all over the country as people fought injustice for an equal society. The Black Panthers emerged as the new revolutionary movement that fought for the rights of black communities (Kuperberg). Protests flared up throughout the nation, the government fought back but the public fearlessly resisted.
All the different things going on in the world had a large effect on cinema, the revolution in films was tied with politics and liberation, it allowed people to speak up and forward the ideologies the young generation firmly believed in. Film school graduates were breaking all the rules of Hollywood classicism, the director had most control over the production rather than the studio which lead to the creation of films which had more complex ideologies, it had moral ambiguity it spoke to a generation that didn't want to conform, that believe it was time for the "ruling elite" should fall (Kuperberg) . The films of this wave made the audience feel uncomfortable, they had more realism to them than traditional Hollywood films. In order to create this sense of realism, they shot on location more often rather than in a studio, the use of editing allowed them to create complex narratives for example in Bonnie and Clyde the use of editing allowed them to enhance the feeling of frustration, they used many jump cuts on the scene where the lovers die in order to match the fast pace of the sequence (Heckman). Everything was well thought out and very creative which engaged the audience. These movies abolished the Hays code which at the time applied strict guidelines to what could and what couldn't be shown on screen. Displays of gory violence, sex and displays of affection were banned as they didn't want to brainwash young audiences. The New Hollywood wave allowed morally questionable villains such as Bonnie and Clyde to become idols as at the time they represented the anti-conformists of society (Hitchman).
Sadly, all things that rise must fall; When Jaws was released in 1975 although it shared stylistic features and ideologies of the New Hollywood wave it was also what started the beginning of the end. Jaws was the first movie which was seen as a Blockbuster, it was distributed to many theatres all at the same time and mixed genres of thriller and drama in order to create one of the most highest grossing films until the release of Star Wars in 1977 (Heckman).
References
Hitchman, S., 2013. A History of American New Wave Cinema (Online)
Available at : http://www.newwavefilm.com/international/new-hollywood.shtml
Heckman, C., 2020. What is New Hollywood? The Revolution of 1960s and '70s Hollywood (Online)
Available at : https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-new-hollywood/
Chapman, J., 2003. Cinemas of The World (Book)
Nowell-Smith, G., 1996. The Oxford History of World Cinema (Book)
The Silver Screen Revolution. 2008. (Documentary) Directed by Clara and Robert Kuperberg
2015. New American Cinema. (Online)
Available at : https://cinemaoceania.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/new-american-cinema/#:~:text=Different%20from%20realism%2C%20New%20Hollywood,thematic%20elements%20and%20artistic%20values.
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