Search - A Decade Under the Influence on DVD

Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Adult Humor, Profanity Movie Release: 2003 DVD Release: 09/30/2003 Format: DVD Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 3 hrs 0 mins Studio: New Video Group Members Wishing: 8 Genres: Film, TV & Radio, Film & Television History

In the late '60s, American culture experienced a period of change as the youth movement challenged conventional attitudes about politics, sex, drugs, and gender issues, while the advancement of the Vietnam War found many citizens questioning the actions and wisdom of their government for the first time. As American attitudes continued to evolve, so did the American film industry; as costly big-budget blockbusters nearly brought the major studios to the brink of collapse, smaller and more personal films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces demonstrated there was a ready audience for bold and challenging entertainment. As the '60s faded into the 1970s, American cinema moved into an exciting period of creativity and stylistic innovation, which led to such landmark films as The Godfather, MASH, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, and new freedom for directors and screenwriters. Ironically, however, it was another pair of big-budget blockbusters directed by students of the new wave of filmmaking -- Jaws and Star Wars -- which brought the studios back to power and put an end to Hollywood's flirtation with offbeat creativity. A Decade Under the Influence is a documentary which explores the rise and fall of new American filmmaking in the 1970s, and features interviews with many of the key directors, screenwriters, and actors whose work typified the movement, including Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Roger Corman, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight, and Julie Christie. A Decade Under the Influence received its world premier at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and an expanded version of the film was later shown on the premium cable outlet The Independent Film Channel; the documentary was the final work of co-director Ted Demme, who died shortly before the film was completed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Martin Scorsese
Francis Ford Coppola
Robert Altman
Peter Bogdanovich
Ellen Burstyn
Steven Soderbergh - interviewer
Paul Thomas Anderson - interviewer

Ted Demme and Richard LaGravenese's documentary about the films and filmmakers of the 1970s, A Decade Under the Influence, comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original broadcast aspect ratio of the film, although all film clips used in the film are presented in their original theatrical aspect ratios. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. The best aspect of the film is the sheer number of people that sat down to be interviewed. The extras on the disc include outtakes from ten of the interviews that were not included in the film; these are all worthwhile. This is a solid disc from Docurama that should be of interest to any movie lover. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide