A Decade Under the Influence

Review by James Anthony

Click here for DVD details at a glance

When you look back on the 1970s it is, at times, with utter horror. The hairstyles, the shirts, trousers and (errrkkkkkk) … the platform shoes. They were hideous.

But while fashion sense died, radical film-making emerged with a theatre-full of young directors who would certainly make their marks on not only film screens, but also on society's attitudes.

Those directors include such greats as Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Corman, Milos Forman, William Friedkin and Martin Scorcese.

They produced classics like Easy Rider, Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy and each looked at America in a different way. The class and scope of The Godfather took cinema to fantastic new heights, and how about The Exorcist, Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Rocky and one of this fellow's all-time favourites The Sting.

In A Decade Under the Influence, film-makers Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme look at the 1970s film industry and through a series of exceptional interviews with famous directors revisit how and why they created what they did.

It is not a movie, rather a documentary celebration of a period of cinema where counter culture gained a voice and young directors threw out the rulebook and began to experiment freely.

If you are into movies then this is highly recommended viewing.

Conclusion: Movie 85% Extras 30%

Continued: DVD details at a glance >