New Hollywood
20 Episodes
It was the era of movie brats, titanic ambition, and risk-taking creative gambles—the moment when a new generation of upstart filmmakers took over the Hollywood studios and forever changed the possibilities of American cinema. Liberated from the censorship of the Production Code and bankrolled by executives eager to reach an increasingly counterculture-minded youth market, hotshot auteurs like Arthur Penn (BONNIE AND CLYDE), Robert Altman (MASH, CALIFORNIA SPLIT), Terrence Malick (DAYS OF HEAVEN), and Francis Ford Coppola (APOCALYPSE NOW) brought a bracing new naturalism to the screen in the 1960s and ’70s, pushing the boundaries of sex, violence, and social commentary while shattering stylistic conventions with bold formal experimentation. As studio filmmaking has become increasingly dominated by franchises and blockbusters, these era-defining films stand as beacons of artistic vision and radical independence.
-
01:02Episode 1
New Hollywood Teaser
Episode 1
-
15:15Episode 2
Spotlight on New Hollywood
Episode 2
The following introduction by Mark Harris, author of “Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood,” was recorded in 2024
-
1:34:03Episode 3
Days of Heaven
Episode 3
Directed by Terrence Malick • 1978 • United States
Starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam ShepardOne-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting films of the twentieth century, and his glorious period tragedy DAYS OF HEAVEN, featuring Oscar-...
-
2:06:39Episode 4
The Last Picture Show
Episode 4
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich • 1971 • United States
Starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill ShepherdTHE LAST PICTURE SHOW is one of the key films of the American cinema renaissance of the seventies. Set during the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a mov...
-
2:04:40Episode 5
Dog Day Afternoon
Episode 5
Directed by Sidney Lumet • 1975 • United States
Starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles DurningOn a sweltering August day, novice criminals Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank in order to pay for Sonny’s lover’s gender confirmation surgery—a situation that qu...
-
Seconds
Episode 6
Directed by John Frankenheimer • 1966 • United States
Starring Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John RandolphRock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. SECONDS, directed by John Frankenheimer, concerns a middle-aged banker who, dissatisfi...
-
MASH
Episode 7
Directed by Robert Altman • 1970 • United States
Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom SkerrittRobert Altman’s distinctive genius first announced itself with this innovative, smash-hit black comedy in which a pair of irreverent surgeons (Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould) at a mobile...
-
Klute
Episode 8
Directed by Alan J. Pakula • 1971 • United States
Starring Jane Fonda, Donald SutherlandWith her Oscar-winning turn in KLUTE, Jane Fonda reinvented herself as a new kind of movie star. Bringing nervy audacity and counterculture style to the role of Bree Daniels—a call girl and aspiring actor wh...
-
3:16:06Episode 9
Apocalypse Now Redux
Episode 9
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola • 2001 • United States
Starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Harrison FordA work of overwhelming, visionary power, Francis Ford Coppola’s hallucinatory Vietnam War epic stands as one of the twentieth century’s most monumental works of art. Ordered to “terminate ...
-
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Episode 10
Directed by Eleanor Coppola, Fax Bahr, and George Hickenlooper • 1991 • United States
“We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.” In 1976, director Francis Ford Coppola arrived in the Philippines to...
-
1:46:05Episode 11
The Graduate
Episode 11
Directed by Mike Nichols • 1967 • United States
Starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine RossOne of the most beloved American films of all time, THE GRADUATE earned Mike Nichols a best director Oscar, brought the music of Simon & Garfunkel to a wider audience, and introduced the world ...
-
1:50:49Episode 12
Bonnie and Clyde
Episode 12
Directed by Arthur Penn • 1967 • United States
Starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene HackmanThe film that forever changed Hollywood filmmaking, Arthur Penn’s New Hollywood landmark injected a jolt of fresh energy into the studio system with its kinetic style and frank depiction of sex and ...
-
1:39:57Episode 13
Watermelon Man
Episode 13
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles • 1970 • United States
Starring Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard CaineMelvin Van Peebles puts a spin on Franz Kafka’s THE METAMORPHOSIS in this provocative racial satire. Bigoted white insurance salesman Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) has it made: he’s ...
-
1:48:29Episode 14
California Split
Episode 14
Directed by Robert Altman • 1974 • United States
Starring George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann PrentissRobert Altman’s distinctive brand of loose-limbed naturalism reached sublime heights with this freewheeling buddy comedy. Elliott Gould and George Segal make for one of the most delightfully offbe...
-
1:38:37Episode 15
Five Easy Pieces
Episode 15
Directed by Bob Rafelson • 1970 • United States
Starring Jack Nicholson, Karen BlackFollowing Jack Nicholson’s breakout supporting turn in EASY RIDER, director Bob Rafelson devised a powerful leading role for the new star in the searing character study FIVE EASY PIECES. Nicholson plays the now ...
-
1:44:03Episode 16
The Last Detail
Episode 16
Directed by Hal Ashby • 1973 • United States
Starring Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis YoungJack Nicholson is at his very best in this acclaimed tragicomedy written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby. Two hard-boiled Navy petty officers, Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Otis Young), ar...
-
1:46:30Episode 17
Mikey and Nicky
Episode 17
Directed by Elaine May • 1976 • United States
Starring Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Ned BeattyElaine May crafted a gangster film like no other in the nocturnal odyssey MIKEY AND NICKY, capitalizing on the chemistry between frequent collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk by casting them to...
-
1:53:56Episode 18
Taxi Driver
Episode 18
Directed by Martin Scorsese • 1976 • United States
Starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert BrooksScripted by Paul Schrader and directed by Martin Scorsese, TAXI DRIVER is a powerful study of a dangerously fractured psyche, as well as a vividly grimy portrait of New York City in the 1970s....
-
1:53:29Episode 19
Midnight Cowboy
Episode 19
Directed by John Schlesinger • 1969 • United States
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia MilesOne of the British New Wave’s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New York in the late 1960s to make MIDNIGHT COWBOY, a picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in cris...