The Hollywood Revolution: 1965 – 1975
In-Person – Monday 3:10 pm – 4:50 pm
Sept. 16, 23, 30, Oct. 7, 14, 21
We cover the huge shift in Hollywood filmmaking during its stormiest decade, 1965 – 1975. Roughly, this includes the shift from ‘The Sound of Music’ to ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and ‘Easy Rider.’
- Week 1: How the Sound of Music’s huge financial success almost destroyed Hollywood, when it launched a wave of expensive musical flops
- Week 2: The first black superstar, Sidney Poitier, who became the top box office star of 1967
- Week 3: The creation of the first movie rating system in 1968 makes much more mature filmmaking possible with the R and X ratings.
- Week 4: The low budget blockbuster Easy Rider destroys the existing studio model in 1969
- Week 5: The changing of the guard in 1970 – Midnight Cowboy wins best picture Oscar despite its X rating, and John Wayne finally earns a best actor Oscar just as his style of movie ceases to exist
- Week 6: The 1970’s and the rise of fiercely independent directors like Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and George Lucas
Joe Meyers earned his BA from Penn State, with a major in journalism and minor in film. He is currently Director of Programming for the Focus on French Cinema Film Festival in Connecticut and is co-host of the Spotify podcast ‘Now a Major Motion Picture!’ Meyers has written about movies, theater and books for more than 30 years for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and other publications. In the 1970’s, Meyers ran the first (and only) art house on the Delmarva Peninsula—the Lewes Cinema. In 2012, the Mystery Writers of America awarded Meyers the Ellery Queen Award for his writing on crime fiction.