If you’ve read many of my movie reviews on here you’ve probably seen me use the phrase ‘ New Hollywood,‘ meaning a period and style of filmmaking that existed from roughly 1969 to 1980 and typified a change in how American mainstream cinema was made - or so was the intention.Įasy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind (subtitled How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood) has become, since it was first published in 1998, the seminal chronicle of that era taking an in depth look at what drove the New Hollywood movement and charting its troubled rise and spectacular fall in what certainly feels like exhaustive detail.Īcross 500 pages Biskind, after setting the scene with the counter culture of the 1960s that spearheaded the movement with the likes of Warren Beaty and Arthur Penn’s Bonnie And Clyde, divides the decade roughly by year focussing on a major film and director for each year starting with Dennis Hopper and Easy Rider in 1969 and culminating in 1979-80 with Martin Scorsese and Raging Bull – providing the book with its title.

Easy riders raging bulls film