Product Details

• Actors: Dede Allen, Peter Bart, Tony Bill, Karen Black, Peter Bogdanovich
• Directors: Kenneth Bowser
• Writers: Kenneth Bowser, Peter Biskind
• Producers: Kenneth Bowser, Andrew Cohen, Joe Cilibrasi, Josh Braun, Rachel Talbot
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Shout Factory Theatr
• DVD Release Date: May 11, 2004
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001MDQ9E
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,998 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This BBC production is a companion to Peter Biskind's 1998 book by the same name, an excellent dish on the 1970s American movie scene. It roughly follows the same path, tracing how maverick filmmakers revitalized Hollywood, from Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider to the triumphant quartet of Coppola/Lucas/Spielberg/Scorsese. Any fan will want to listen in as nearly 50 actors and artists remember the day. However, the star meter is on low wattage, with today's most successful directors only talked about, and seen in often bemusingly vintage clips. The better-produced, higher-star-wattage A Decade Under the Influence covers much of the same ground. An on-screen Biskind would have helped matters, but he is nowhere to be seen. Yet there are moments from the book that come to life, be it grainy home movies from Jennifer Salt and Margot Kidder's notorious beach house or Roman Polanski's emotional press conference after the murder of his wife Sharon Tate. The DVD boasts a second disc of extended interviews on numerous subjects, many of which were not covered in the 119-minute film. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

This 2-DVD set is Kenneth Bowser’s BBC-produced documentary of Peter Biskind’s controversial, best-selling book. It chronicles the evolution of a new breed of filmmaker who, in the late ’60s and ’70s, exploded old Hollywood, in the process redefining the very nature of movies. The results were edgy, impressionistic pictures—The Godfather, Easy Rider, Mean Streets, Midnight Cowboy, Rosemary’s Baby, Taxi Driver—by maverick, now-legendary directors: Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, Altman, Polanski, Peckinpah.

In bringing the celebrated book to the screen, director Bowser employed some adventurous filmmaking of his own. Narrated by William H. Macy, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features vintage clips of the directors who defined the movement; original interviews with such directors as Arthur Penn and John Milius, actors such as Peter Fonda and Richard Dreyfus and more.

• Over 1.5 additional hours of deleted and extended footage. • Narrated by critically acclaimed actor William H. Macy.

• Features vintage clips of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Warren Beatty, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, and others. • Bonus disc offers "mini-docs" featuring Dennis Hopper, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, Cybil Shepherd, Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Schrader, John Milius, Peter Bart and others. • Official Selection of Festival de Cannes 2003 and Deauville 2003 Festival du Cinema American.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent documentary, but not on the DVD, August 3, 2004

By	Brendan Lynch "DVD Collector" (Toronto, CANADA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to Turn Off., February 11, 2005

By	Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing documentary, April 27, 2004

By	David Mandau (Takoma Park, MD) - See all my reviews

First off, there's no way that a film adaptation can compare to the great book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. There's just so much detail and nuance in the book that can't be transalted to the silver screen. That said, this documentary is a valiant attempt to cover the period in which the new Hollywood (inspired largely by the French New Wave and the late-sixties counterculture in general) briefly rocked the boat before being absorbed by the moribund studio system that it revived.

Of particular interest are the complete interviews on the bonus disc. You get to here some of the main and supporting players give their take on that heady time. If you love Scorcese, Coppola, et al, this DVD is a must-see.