Martin Scorsese on the filmmakers who “created the beginning of the New Hollywood”
The 1960s was a radical decade for many reasons. Everything shifted during this transformative period, getting the ball rolling for subsequent political, social and cultural developments that have defined the years since. More than ever, there were protests and activism regarding women’s rights and Black Civil Rights, helping to welcome new laws and changing attitudes. The decade saw fresh values emerge, even if there was still a long way to go.
Naturally, when big social and political events and progressions take place, art follows suit. The industry was rapidly changing, with musicians, artists, writers and filmmakers continuing their experiments, wading fearlessly into more daring and challenging territory. For cinema, the easing of Hollywood’s censorial Hays Code, which was fully abolished in 1968, partly due to the success of scandalous movies like Blow-Up, helped to welcome a new era for the art form.
For decades, Hollywood had banned nudity, violence, profanity and anything else seen as sexually suggestive, offensive or taboo. Thus, mainstream filmmakers were limited in their approach to storytelling, which was also confined to sound stages and dictated by huge studios. Instead, indie and arthouse auteurs who disregarded the Hollywood rules, as well as foreign directors, were the ones who helped to spearhead change. From cheap exploitation movies designed to titillate to sexy French films like the Brigitte Bardot-starring And God Created Women, there were many titles made during the ‘50s and ‘60s which stood in opposition to Hollywood’s rigid rules.
By the time the Hays Code was abolished, Hollywood was able to show the kinds of images that were previously banned, and as a result, many filmmakers who were brought up in movements like the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism were ready to change the mainstream.
Titles like Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Harold and Maude, The Graduate and The Godfather helped to cement the period’s legacy as one of excitement and innovation, with these films challenging viewers through their use of nihilism, exploration of shocking themes, violence, sex and nudity. Martin Scorsese, the director of New Hollywood classics like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, is often considered one of the era’s most prominent figures.
He is an expert on the period, working alongside many of the most influential filmmakers of the second half of the 20th century. Thus, he is pretty well equipped to decide who truly incited the beginning of this revolutionary cinematic movement. Talking to Pop Entertainment, Scorsese explained, “I did a couple films with Roger [Corman] and was an editor in some of his films. Don’t forget the real guys who started out with him are people like Jack Nicholson, Peter Bogdanovich, Monty Helm, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. They created the beginning of the New Hollywood in the late ’60s, we came in late a little after them.”
These filmmakers and actors got their start working with Corman, a producer and director whose exploitation flicks challenged the status quo. Despite using a low budget, Corman was usually able to turn an impressive profit, and the success of his B-movies suggested that audiences wanted to watch works that were a little scandalous and strayed from the predictability of the mainstream. His counter-cultural films became cult classics, with titles like Little Shop of Horrors and House of Usher becoming incredibly popular.
“Roger always said, ‘I made 100 films, and not one film has been lost or died. I made money on every one of them,’” Scorsese added.
Corman also helped to distribute many foreign movies within the United States, allowing their influence to spread further. These foreign titles by the likes of Federico Fellini and François Truffaut were hugely inspirational to these young American filmmakers, and thanks to Corman, their availability in the United States impacted and shaped the work that would change Hollywood forever.
Corman gave so many future stars and acclaimed filmmakers a leg up, and these figures carried these valuable experiences of working on his B-movies into the New Hollywood era. For example, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda starred in the Jack Nicholson-penned and Corman-directed The Trip, which would inspire Easy Rider, written by Fonda and Hopper, which was also directed by the latter. It became one of the New Hollywood era’s most influential films.
