FILM SCHOOL GENERATION

                           

As I’ve watched the film about the directors, I gained a lot of knowledge about it. This segment explores the financial and cultural forces that made their success possible; the influence of classical Hollywood genres, new technology, and the French New Wave on their work; and their continuing evolution as idiosyncratic film makers with commercial clout. 

The American Cinema series takes a look at recent filmmakers who were also film buffs and went to film schools to learn their trade. The film also shows what this episode basically does is look at the "new" type of filmmakers that were taking over the early 70s and each one are able to discuss their first movies, how they got their break and go onto discuss some of their bigger pictures. Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Milius, Teri Garr, Brian DePalma, David Brown and author Linda Myles are all interviewed. Spielberg probably gets the most attention as he talks about shooting 8mm films as a child, getting to work at Universal on TV projects and then of course breaking big with JAWS. Lucas talks about feeling that he only had one shot in Hollywood and discusses how the studios just didn't think his films were going to connect with an audience. Even Scorsese talks about thinking that no one would see MEAN STREETS and he discusses what he thought were going to be a disastrous preview at Warner. Another running theme deals with the foreign influence that all of these filmmakers had. Each talk about the foreign directors that influenced them and we hear how DePalma wanted to be the next Godard but instead went towards Hitchcock. So I guess they are classified those who are thinking of people. Because, they think what people wants and they make fiml that people can relate.

                                 

                           These are the directors:  Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Coppola, Paul Schrader, John Milius, Brian De Palma, Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Martin Brest, George Miller, Martha Coolidge, Joel Coen, and Edward Zwick all studied film in college and/or graduate school. From commercial blockbusters such as Star Wars (Lucas), Jaws (Spielberg), and The Godfather saga (Coppola) to smaller, quirkier films such as The Comfort of Strangers (Schrader), Strange Days (Bigelow), and Barton Fink (Coen), these films reflect the tastes and worldviews of the individuals who directed them, but they also reveal the imprimatur of an educational system that teaches students how to write, direct, and criticize motion pictures.