In the 1960s, the film industry was divided between films appealing to families and those appealing to teenagers and young adults in the Baby Boomer generation. Films like musicals and war movies drove the adult market, while films about rebellion, sex, and non-conformist heroes drove the youth market. By the end of the decade, the tastes of counter-culture youth had come to dominate the screen with films about anti-war, flawed characters, and sexual issues.

1. milies (most with teenage children) and the Baby Boomers
(teens and college-age young people). The film industry and the
changes to it are deeply divided in this schism. On the one
hand, musicals (Sound of Music), World War II war films (The
Great Escape) and historical epics (Dr. Zhivago) drove the adult
market. Rebellion, sex and individual-minded heroes drove the
youth market (Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate.) By
the end of the decade, the tastes of the counter-culture youth
had won. Anti-war film (Catch-22), flawed characters as heroes
(The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) and sexual issues (Midnight
Cowboy, Butterfield 8, Valley of the Dolls) dominated the
screen.
Question 1: What are some of the benefits of the Boomer
generation's rebellion and changes to Hollywood in the 1960s?
Question 2: What are some of the drawbacks of having film
dominated by the demands of an audience that was under the
age of 25?
Directions:
Using word processing software to save and submit your work,
please answer the following short answer questions. All
responses to questions should be one to two paragraphs,
composed of five to seven sentences, in length.
Your responses should include examples from the reading
assignments.
1. Trace the development of the early documentary film
career of Jean Rouch. What were his objectives as an
ethnographic filmmaker during the 1950s? What formal
techniques did he use to express these objectives?
2. How did Direct Cinema succeed in transforming

2. documentary filmmaking during the late 1950s and early
1960s? Why did American documentary makers adopt this
style, and in what ways did this choice influence their films? In
what ways were their films also influenced by technological
developments?
3. Compare and contrast two of the most prominent trends in
avant-garde filmmaking from the 1940s to the 1960s: the
experimental narrative and the lyrical film. How did both
trends make use of abstract imagery and structure, and for what
purposes?
4. What were the notable (and notorious) qualities that
characterized the American underground film of the 1960s?
5. Analyze the important social, economic, and industrial
factors leading up to the emergence of the New Hollywood in
the early 1970s. What were the causes of the industry-wide
recession of 1969 to 1970? What new audiences did the Majors
subsequently attempt to target?
6. How did European art cinema conventions influence the
filmmakers of the New Hollywood? In what ways did art
cinema narrational and stylistic techniques infuse new life into
standard Hollywood genres?
7. Trace the evolution of the Hollywood studio system's
economic recovery in the middle and late 1970s. What were the
important blockbusters of the period?
8. Compare and contrast the approaches of Steven Spielberg
and Martin Scorsese to studio filmmaking. In what ways did
each director "revise" genres from the classical Hollywood era?
How did the personal style of each director reflect or deviate
from the norms of classical Hollywood filmmaking?