Lindsey Hodges

Cinema of the 70’s

Professor Van Hanken

10-24-07

Final Paper Thesis/Bibliography

One of the best ways to see the political issues that any society is dealing with is to look at the art of said society. With that being said, the rise of the auteur filmmaker in the 1970’s provided an outlet, through film, for the views and voices of a younger generation to be heard. The 1970’s were a time of great turmoil in this country, with one of the major divisions in opinion between the masses being the war in Vietnam. With the resources and funds available to create stunning pictures of war, and the effects of war on people, film returned to a genre that had served it well. The likes of John Wayne had no place in the films of the auteur director. These were times when blind patriotism was not enough. The films: M*A*S*H*, The Deer Hunter, and Apocalypse Now, are very different in style, and viewpoint, concerning how war was portrayed on film. M*A*S*H* satirizes war, but still manages to cause a sense of loss in the viewer at the end of the film. The Deer Hunter expresses the extremes put on man during war. It, and Apocalypse Now, are different than M*A*S*H* in that they are not funny, or satires. Additionally, Apocalypse Now differs from The Deer Hunter in viewpoint, and from a stylistic standpoint. All three films are extremely successful, and clearly different from one another. However, if one looks at the way the film is shot, and what the director thought of both the film, and politics in general, the evolution of the views on the Vietnam War, and the effects war has on the human psyche can be traced through the 1970’s.
Works Cited
Hooker, Richard MASH. New York: Pocket, 1968

By contrasting the original book with the film, one can deduce: The level to which the screenwriter was willing to go with the script, the concept which the director envisioned, and how much it differs from the books overall message and themes.

Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Documentary. Dir. Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper. American Zoetrope. 1991

Looking at this documentary helps the understanding of what, during the shooting of the film, Coppola was thinking both privately and on the set of the film. The conclusions drawn from that knowledge would be useful in pinning down his ideas for the film.

The Deer Hunter. Screenplay by: Washburn, Deric. with: Cimino, Michael. Garfinkle, Louis. Redeker, Quinn K.


By looking at the screenwriters original words one can begin to draw conclusions as to how the director saw the film in his mind, and what, if any, other themes and thoughts he provoked in his vision of the film.