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| DIRECTED BY |
| Kenneth Bowser |
| STARRING |
| Peter Bogdanovich |
| Roger Corman |
| Richard Dreyfuss |
| Dennis Hopper |
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For a film geek, it�s fascinating enough to see these filmmakers who�re held in such a highly revered, almost ethereal regard today as the young fledglings that they were back in the late 60s and early 70s. Kenneth Bowser based this documentary (inspired by Peter Biskind�s novel) upon interviews from people who began that period of the �New Hollywood� � energetically cutting between stories by people such as Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Schrader, John Milius, etc.
Bowser chose an appropriate style for his documentary � it travels at a fast pace, which may be annoying for some to watch but the pace effectively captures the energy that was obviously so ever-present during the cinematic time period that this documentary explores. Sometimes Bowser gets a little off track when he begins to focus too heavily on one particular thing because there�s just so much more that he could have covered, but what he has assembled is compelling nonetheless.
There�s really no doubt that practically all of these seminal filmmakers did abuse drugs during their rise to fame, and perhaps that�s proven a little too convincingly here. Personally, I couldn�t care less whether or not Scorsese �toked it up� while making those important films of his back then. What�s really interesting to hear about is how close �Mean Streets� came to not getting distributed, with many studio executives initially brushing it off as a sloppy picture that just doesn�t work. And how brazen Peter Bogdanovich was to studio execs when trying to finance �The Last Picture Show,� telling them to buy the book themselves. And how adamant Dennis Hopper was about making �The Last Movie� his way and his way only. And the number of exchanges that the �Bonnie and Clyde� script went through before finally getting made. And even how John Schlesinger�s homosexual paranoia almost caused him to back out of �Midnight Cowboy.�
Even if you�re not a Star Wars fan, you�ll surely get a kick out of hearing about the rejections and adversity that George Lucas had to go endure before finally creating �Star Wars.� It�s hilarious to hear about Brian de Palma sarcastically asking Lucas what �all this �Force� crap is about,� for instance. And the old videotaped footage showing certain filmmakers such as Francis Coppola conversing about movies as they struggle to make their own is probably the most entertaining material in this documentary; those scenes are reason enough to check it out.
