Auteur cinema and the ‘film generation’ in 1970s Hollywood,” by David A. Cook

The article begins with a brief explanation of Auteur theory and talks briefly about how Auteur theory was seemingly built around directors like Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. It then goes into how films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Graduate (1968) and their inspiration from Cahiers du cinema along with box office success created a new era of film that focused on youth culture. Film changed forever when filmmakers were familiar with the concept of being the auteur and had grown up around film and television. The article also briefly talks about Orson Welle not writing his own films but never really goes into the subject. The article primarily focuses on how mainstream studios essentially tried to profit off of this revolution in cinema by copying formulas used in movies like The Graduate to appeal to the youth demographic. Then the article largely seems to forget about this point for several pages and focuses on several directors: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Brian De Palma, John Milius, and Paul Schrader.

The article makes various points about each director, be it Coppola falling victim to mainstream Hollywood and largely losing his label as an auteur or George Lucas's status as an auteur even though he has only directed three films. Then all of the sudden the article takes a turn back to one of its original points about films becoming too commercial. How artistic vision is lost in trying to fit to MPAA standards and how thanks to films like Star Wars merchandising has become more important than the film itself to studios. The article even goes as far to say videos ruin artistic vision for a disjointed seemingly random, angry conclusion about how art and auterism is seemingly lost. The article is much too disjointed in mood and whatever point it seems to want to prove, it ultimately fails.

Cook, David. "The 'Film Generation' in 1970s Hollywood". The New American Cinema. Ed. Jon Lewis. Durham and London. Duke University Press. 1998