February 1: Introduction

February 8:

February 22:

March 8:

March 22:

April 5:

April 26:

The Films of the Seventies
COMS 496M/550ee

Professor Jeffrey Chown
Watson 215, 815-753-6989
Email: jchown@niu.edu
Office hours: Tues., Weds., Thurs., 11-12
Web Board

COURSE OBJECTIVE:
The fundamental premise of this course is that popular motion pictures are reflection of cultural values and societal mores, even as they are also an active agent in shaping those values and mores. Therefore, to examine the films of a particular culture—in this case Seventies America—is to understand better both that particular historical moment as well as how film operates in our culture. So in pursuing that goal, we will take a wide survey of American popular culture films from the decade of roughly 1969 to 1981. We will read about these films with particular interest in the artistic individuals responsible for this body of film. We will frame our understanding of Hollywood cultural product against the key political and historical events of the decade.

COURSE TEXT:
Biskind, Peter, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Cook, David A., Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970-1979
Videotapes available for rental at local outlets

COURSE SCHEDULE:

SEE IN CLASS: Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage (1999, Charles Kiselyak), excerpts
From You're a Big Boy Now (1967, Francis Coppola)


READ: Cook pp. Xv-65, Biskind Introduction, Chapter one and two.
SEE OUT OF CLASS: Easy Rider (1969, Dennis Hopper)
SEE IN CLASS: Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)


READ: Cook pp. 67-157, Biskind Chapter three and four
SEE OUT OF CLASS: MASH (Robert Altman, 1970, Robert Altman)
SEE IN CLASS: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)


READ: Cook pp. 159-257, Biskind Chapter five and six
SEE OUT OF CLASS: The Godfather (1971, Francis Coppola)
SEE IN CLASS: The Conversation (1974, Francis Coppola)


READ: Cook pp. 259-336, Biskind Chapter seven, eight, and nine
SEE OUT OF CLASS: Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
SEE IN CLASS: The Last Picture Show (1971, Peter Bogdanovich)


READ: Cook pp. 337-396, Biskind Chapter ten, eleven, and twelve
SEE OUT OF CLASS: The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
SEE IN CLASS: Shampoo (1975, Hal Ashby)


READ: Cook pp. 397-478, Biskind Chapter thirteen and fourteen
SEE OUT OF CLASS: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977. Steven Spielberg)
SEE IN CLASS: Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)

Graduate Student Presentations:
1. Watergate as reflected in film.
2. Pre-1980 attempts at representing the Vietnam War
3. Disco and film: Was Saturday Night Fever unique or part of a movement?
4. Nixon and Film
5. Reflections of the Woman’s Movement in Hollywood film
6. Conspiracy Films, origins and generic considerations.
7. Disaster films, what was particular to this decade?
8. Blaxploitation films, rise and fall.
9. What was 70s-ish about Rocky/Stallone?
10. Rock Music and Seventies Film
11. Sexuality and Seventies Film/Censorship/Rise of Porn
12. Comedy: What was uniquely funny about the decade?
13. Drug Usage and its depiction in Seventies Film
14. A Psychological Diagnosis of 70s Horror Films
15. The Seventies Western
16. Generic Satire: Woody Allen and Mel Brooks
Undergraduate Grading Requirements

QUIZ TOTAL: 35% There will be six quizzes on the readings. Your total will be composed from your five best scores and curved against the class.

FINAL EXAM: 25% This comes in the last class meeting and will cover all lecture and discussion material, graduate student treatises posted on web board, as well as all films viewed. Essay exam.

TERM PAPER: 25% Research paper on a Seventies genre, auteur, or social issue. Eight pages plus bibliography and endnotes. Cite at least five sources of commentary. Thesis statement due: March 8, paper due: April 5th.

JOURNAL ENTRIES: 15% Six one to one and a half page entries on films viewed out
Of class. Entries should always ponder the question of "How does this film reflect
What I know about Seventies' culture?
Graduate Student Grading Requirements

QUIZ TOTAL: 30% same as above
FINAL EXAM: 20% Same as above
ORAL PRESENTATION AND WRITTEN TREATISE: 25% You will give one 10-12
minute oral presentation with supporting audio visual material on a topic chosen from
above. You will write a four page treatise on the subject for posting on the web board
and as part of the readings for the Final Exam.
TERM PAPER: 25% Ten to 12 pages, same as above.
WEB BOARD: http://www.engl.niu.edu:88/~70sfilm/login