new hollywood

The generation that seized Hollywood after the studio system collapsed. Inspired by the French New Wave and European art cinema, directors like Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, and Friedkin made formally daring, morally ambiguous films within the studio infrastructure — antiheroes instead of heroes, open endings instead of resolution, location grit instead of backlot polish. The era produced some of American cinema's most celebrated works before the blockbuster model (which Spielberg and Lucas simultaneously helped create) gradually narrowed studio appetite for directorial risk.

Distinguish from

French New Wave was the intellectual parent, but New Hollywood operated within a commercial studio system and told genre stories — crime, war, horror — where the New Wave was essayistic and personal. The earlier Film Noir shares the cynicism and urban darkness but belongs to the classical studio era New Hollywood was reacting against.

Films here also carry Moral Ambiguity, Psychological Horror, Artistic Obsession, Identity Crisis, Organized Crime · Most represented: Brian De Palma, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese.