Customer Reviews

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I watched this doc obsessively on my local cable movies channel. Unfortunately, the version of the film on the DVD is rather different -- most noticably that most (if not all) of the soundtrack is missing. I actually bought this DVD interested to know what song was on while they talked about "Mean Streets" -- but the only licensed music on the entire DVD is Born To Be Wild and the Jaws theme. I'm very disappointed on this regard.

But, don't get me wrong here -- this is a documentary worth seeing (and perhaps owning if you are a film buff rather than music buff). There is some excellent archival footage and home movies from the participants, and the animated transitions of movie posters and stills are very well done. The content is most likely not a surprise as everyone knows the majority of the films discussed (and the mammoth financial or artistic results). It's the backstory and the who did what with whom to allow these films to be made or released that provides interest.

Back to the DVD... one happy addition is that there is a full second disc of interviews. Very dry, but there is some interesting extra information / story tidbits and an interview with the author of the book which probably would have been welcome in the film (but wouldn't have fit it's structure perhaps).

I would recommend this DVD for film buffs and baby-boomers in general... any chance the "Original Soundtrack" might be released separately? Or perhaps the 97 minute "as seen on tv" edition as a DVD instead of this 118 minute version?

This was one of the better documentaries that I've seen this year. It has some excellent interviews with the likes of John Milius and Dennis Hopper. It really wasn't about the sixties or seventies as much as it was about the age of directorial freedom in film. Before I saw it, I knew very little about Sam Peckinpah or Martin Scorcese. They are/were fascinating people as well as artists. The same can be said about George Lucas. "Easy Riders..." explains quite well the reasons why he went into semi-retirement after "Star Wars." For any film buff, you'll be rewarded greatly by letting this play for two hours.

"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is an orgy for movie lovers. How can anyone who loves film not be in heaven at the constant parade of landmark films and key industry figures that charges across the screen in this fast-paced documentary? If you've read the book, the movie will feel cursory, and one will find himself wishing for more detail, more insider stories. There are curious omissions here, and wonders if Bowser structured his content based on who he could get to agree to interviews. Altman is hardly mentioned, Scorsese (who shows up everywhere talking about movies) is not interviewed, and Kubrick isn't mentioned at all (save for one shot of the "2001" poster). Still, what's there is great, and if you're like me, you'll be left with a twinge of sadness that such a rich time in film artistry seems to be gone forever.

Grade: A-

"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is based on Peter Biskind's book of the same name which explored the rise and the fall of the director's era in Hollywood during the 1970s. The film actually starts in 1966, when the film industry was suffering low ticket sales under an obsolete studio system. The old studio bosses no longer understood their young audiences who frequented drive-ins and art house theaters. While the Nouvelle Vague raged in Europe, American movies weren't making money. A group of young filmmakers emerged, the first generation of directors to self-consciously view film as an art form: Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Warren Beatty, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Schrader, Robert Altman, Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Roger Corman, Roman Polanski. Through still photographs, film clips, interviews, and narration by William H. Macy, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" traces these filmmakers' rise to power in the 1970s under the wings of inspired producers like Robert Evans, Bert Schneider, and Peter Bart, through the Age of the Auteur, and to the eventual decline in directors' power in the late 1970s due to the rise of the special effects film and the consequences of the directors' own excesses.

Hollywood of the 1970s is certainly an interesting subject, populated with interesting characters. But "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is so plodding that it seems twice as long as it actually is. I'm fascinated by film history, but there was a point when I didn't think I'd make it through this film. And that was only half an hour into it. "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" covers a lot of ground, but it's really an overview of the changing Hollywood power structure 1966-1980 and the films that resulted. Nothing is discussed in much detail. It would have been a better film had it covered less territory in more depth. As it is, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" comes off as cursory, but long. There are a lot of interviews, but some of the most prominently featured personalities are: Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Bart, Paul Schrader, and Richard Dreyfuss. "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" isn't a bad film, but for a two-hour film that seems like four, it says very little.

As a subject, the explosion of creativity in 1970's cinema is absolutely bursting with possibility. And since most of the principal players are not only still alive but still working, there should be a fantastic documentary to be made about the period...but "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is not that documentary, I'm sorry to say.

There are some major figures from the era involved here (Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Schrader, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Dennis Hopper, Karen Black), but simply not enough to sustain a 2-hour film. Among the missing are Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Robert Evans, Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Jane Fonda...oh, God, the list goes on. We're presented with a vague background, the collapse of the studio system and the rise of the counter-culture and European cinema, but we see precious little of it onscreen. The participants are filmed against a black background, they talk, we see a short film clip, and back to the black talking. Considering the astonishing originality of the period being discussed you'd think some of it would leak into the documentary. No go.

To be sure, what's here is decent and interesting, but this decade deserves a real, hands-on exploration. How about somebody who was THERE getting on the job? Surely Dennis Hopper could put together a spectacular piece of cinematic art on the Seventies...and who'd turn down the man who directed "Easy Rider", freeing Hollywood from the dust of old men and launching the second Golden Age of American movies? C'mon, Dennis, let's go! While we're young!

~This documentry is an exellent pice of work like the book of the same title which i read while i was at college. The movie discusses the old movie system and how it was brought in to the 20th century, by a few directors such as Scorsese, Coppola, Peckinpah, Beaty, Penn and Denis Hopper. It shows how the directors like penn were influenced by french directors like Trafut etc. but what makes the film so good to watch is the interviews from the directors themselves. I would have liked a little more~~ information on Sam Peckinpah & John Cassevttes that would have given the movie 5 stars in my opinion.~

This doc leads to a really enjoyable, entertaining and informative evening. You get a really clear look between the lines as to what was going on during this renaissance of the movie business. Great memories of great nights at the flix.

If you are a fan of Scorcese, Hopper etc etc you will not be able to stop watching this documentary . . . It brings the movies of the 1970's right back into your life and reminds us that there were and for some part still are wonderful movies out there. This doc will quickly send you to Amazon or Netflix to watch and rewatch these fabulously directed movies.

I agree with many of the reviews that EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS is a fascinating overview of American filmmaking of the 1970s. I would add to the other reviews that:

1. The reason the music was changed from the broadcast version to the DVD is simply that music rights are different for DVDs, and the producers of the DVD could not afford rights for the original music. Plain and simple.

2. The pacing is NOT slow. It's a well edited documentary and moves along well. I hadn't planned to watch it in one sitting, but I couldn't turn it off.

3. The reason that so many key figures of the time are not interviewed (Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, Coppola, Altman, Allen, Evans, etc.) I'm sure is that they would not consent to an interview (when is the last time you saw a Woody Allen interview?), or they were not available, or asked for too much money. I'm happy at the wide range of people they did interview.

4. This is a BBC production, and the Brits are much more candid in the way they deal with topics that the American networks (save sometimes PBS) won't touch. This is particularly evident in the discussion of heavy drug use in the era covered here. That much of the 70s film movement was cocaine-driven is discussed matter-of-factly in a way you just don't see on American TV documentaries. Also, some bad production decisions by some people who are interviewed (I'm thinking Peter Bart), are not glossed over. American documentaries on movie history seem mostly to promote certain films. This is warts-and-all.

5. This is a good film not only for people who have lived through the 1970s but for younger ones to understand the roots of today's film industry. Bert Schneider, for example, who I only vaguely knew about, is covered here. (Online bios of Schneider are surprisingly sketchy, even about his age. For a fascinating look at him today, search YouTube--wow.)

As a glorification, and explanation, of the wonderful 70's Hollywood industry, it's a great little documentary. Plenty of clips from films, interviews with major players, and a decent time line of the indies that left some indelible cultural marks on the country. Sadly the people glorifying this era don't quite understand that almost ALL these efforts were merely the decaying underflesh of an industry abandoned to delinquents bent on an experimental rampage.

Anyone remember the early seventies films? The companies? Movies were crashing hard and fast, few between made a splash, and what we now know as a blockbuster didn't exist. MGM was rolling up the awning and selling off the red carpet due to the absolutely paltry turn out of money making films. And why was that? Films were lame most of the time. The memorable films of that era generally apply to those who lived through the time with fond memories or juvenile hipsters today.

Q: But what DID save the movie industry? A: STAR WARS.

Though films like Godfather, Annie Hall, and Chinatown were well visited, they didn't make the industry over and revive a business from near collapse. Jaws was the first sign of a true block buster, but was really just a well made horror film. Star Wars, though, was a family entertainment using every bit of design and technology available to put a fresh spin of archetypal classic story. And what a success it was. Despite the film industry not recognizing the reasons of success of that film for years to come, it began a flood of revitalizing public interest in Hollywood due to the upbeat entertainment being the remedy for the awful hell hole the 70's was.

Nerds saved Hollywood. And you can hear the anger and resentment in one celebrity on this documentary as she describes how disturbing it was for her that these two geeks succeeded where the 'cool people' who deserved success weren't recognized.

A great window into the excesses of a generation brought to life in low budget, generally wide release film of the time. And if you are smart enough this is a primer on the arrogance and stupidity of cliques within the Hollywood film community bent on self gratification rather then international escapist product.