Dish of the Day

Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

How Quentin Tarantino’s “One of the Worst Decades in Hollywood…” Was Actually One of Its Greatest Part 1: An Introduction

Peter Boyle as Joe in Joe (1970)

In our film related chat room (readers are welcome to join here) a topic that continually arises for discussion is Quentin Tarantino’s general disfavour of films produced during certain decades. He mentioned the ‘80s as well as current cinema for its overall lacklustre results. The most contentious responses I’ve observed from our members is toward the filmmaker’s disregard for films released in the ‘50s. During several interviews, one with Bill Maher (“One of the worst decades in Hollywood was the fifties”), the other with Joe Rogan (“The 80s and the 50s were the worst times for movies ever”) the famous director seems to have laid most of the blame for these time periods’ overall lack of important artistic achievements on reasons having to do with censorship: more or less governmentally brought to bear in the ‘50s and self-imposed in the ‘80s. As for contemporary films, a strong sense of political correctness or making sure no one could possibly be offended by anything is, for him, the main culprit.

Barbara Loden as Wanda in Wanda (1970)

Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)

In regards to the ‘80s and filmmakers often wanting their characters to be likeable, I can see his point. In the late ‘60s, films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Easy Rider (1969), and The Wild Bunch (1969) (continuing into the ‘70s) ignited a fearless voracity to uncover and explore the dark side of life and its marginalised people in America which permeated the U.S. cinematic scene. It didn’t matter that the characters were not good-natured, their often untenable situations self-created. These storytellers wanted to reflect upon and examine those often repressed instincts we knew to be true but, to some extent, were previously ignored by us and avoided by Hollywood. Those films centring around such undesirables, their dire circumstances and potential repercussions as, say, Joe Curran in Joe (1970), Wanda in Wanda (1970), Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976), or Howard Beale in Network (1976), practically assaulted our movie going sensibility. We were not meant to leave the theatre feeling good, just feeling… and the more stunned into doing so, the better. This is not to say that all, or even most, of this decade’s output achieved lasting immortality… that’s not the point. The late ‘60s and ‘70s were times for experimental innovation, something unique to that period in cinema history where the trailblazing efforts did not always equate with achievement. For those of us cinema lovers there during this period, however, the thought of witnessing a film that did hit that high watermark in this relatively uncharted cinematic terrain, was tremendously exciting.

Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network (1976)

In the ‘80s, however, a self-conscious attitude along with a sense of pre-conceived, easy to assimilate outside adversities began to encroach our cinematic landscape and as the famous director noted, everything became more palatable. Instead of exploring society’s failures along with the unappealing feelings that went with them, most Hollywood storytellers of the ‘80s shied away from such less attractive subjects or at least neutered them into insignificance. A kind of manipulative and pre-conceived narrative construction began to take hold, perhaps as a concerted effort to make audiences feel better when all was said and done.

(For Part 2 click here.)

All responses are not only welcomed but encouraged in the comments section below.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

A.G.