New Hollywood - American New Wave Cinema of the 1970s

Considered the "Last Golden Age of American Cinema,” or “The American New Wave,”the 1970s brought some of the most momentous films and filmmakers of all time.  Influenced by Asian cinema and European film movements like The French New Wave of the late 50’s and early 60s.   The films of "New Hollywood” - Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977) ushered in an era of the most commercially successful period in Hollywood’s history, and a generation of auteurs and “film school brats” who changed the world of filmmaking as well as American culture forever.  Filmmaker and film historian Greg Blank breaks down the influences and relationships of these film directors, the important films of the era, and clips from the documentaries A Decade Under The Influence (2003) & Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003).