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The seventies are a decade often remembered with a smirk – disco music, leisure suits, shag rugs, and the self-absorbed “Me Generation” trying to “find itself” – a decade that is often seen as the “hangover” of the sixties. Yet the seventies were more than just a time of tackiness. Still licking its wounds from the unrest of the sixties, America had to face defeat in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, a severe recession, rising crime rates and the humiliation of the Iran Hostage Crisis. This turbulent period has even been called a “decade of nightmares” by historian Philip Jenkins.
The effects of these traumas were also reflected in many films of that decade, which presented a disillusioned view of the present, a pessimistic view of the future and a nostalgic look at the past. In this course we will begin by examining the main political and cultural events of the seventies in order to place this decade in the context of the twentieth century. Then we will look at various American films to see how cinematic visions of past, present and future reflected Americans’ attitudes in that decade. Movies will include Taxi Driver, Three Days of the Condor, American Graffiti, Paper Moon, Soylent Green and Logan’s Run. Through our examination of history and film, it will become apparent that the seventies were a watershed in which America shifted from the rebelliousness of the sixties to a conservatism pervading the country even today. |
