I’ve had a book on my shelves for years, “the film year book 1983”, edited by al clark and printed by virgin books, that provides me with an invaluable snapshot of the formation of current hollywood, encompassing as it does the end of the brief reign of the auteur in hollywood. I was brought back to it by viewing francis ford coppola’s one from the heart, one of the more infamous flops coinciding with several other mammoth failures by the ‘70s artistes of american. The year book’s list of winners and losers is revealing:
The Winners:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Superman II
On Golden Pond
Porky’s
Arthur
Stripes
The Cannonball Run II
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Rocky III
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
The Losers:
One From The Heart
Reds
Ragtime
Blow Out
Honky Tonk Freeway
Dragonslayer
Blow Out
Reds
Condorman
Pennies From Heaven
Shoot The Moon
All The Marbles (almost a tie with Cannery Row and Whose Life Is It, Anyway?)
And heaven’s gate, falling just outside the time range of this list, but with a long article in the book on its making and fate, still sending shockwaves through hollywood.
Of course, you can’t generalise too much – raiders of the lost ark, star trek ii, superman ii, and e.T. Are superlative fantasy films, and rocky iii, and stripes are likable retro trash. And the likes of condorman, all the marbles (sorry, bob aldrich), and honky tonk freeway deserve their fates. But one can’t ignore the patterns in the list – fantasy, sex farce, and action were in, whilst dramas, neo-musicals, and auteurist visions were out. And for the most part that’s pretty well where we still are, although disney no longer tries to give adult appeal to its films with violence and nudity, as with dragonslayer, but with pseudo-satirical humour, and miramax would learn how to offer us the boutique faux art-house drama.
But the fact is, i think many film fans are more likely to revisit films on the losers list than the winners list. The likes of one from the heart, ragtime, heaven’s gate, blow out, and reds dwarf crap like the cannonball run ii, rocky iii, and porky’s, and a limp weepy like on golden pond. Perhaps what is most disturbing is observing how the critics of the period – our so–called cultural guardians – collaborated in the annihilation of individualism of hollywood. Far from defending the eccentric vision of the likes of coppola, cimino, and forman, the critics of the time made meals of their bones. Because – and this is a sad truth – whilst critics do often stand for what is fine and lost in cinema culture, they are also talented at leaping on the cultural bandwagon, and know never to tie themselves to a loser. Considering the criticisms levelled at the layered dramatics of many of those films for being distant and full of uninvolving characters, which is rubbish, it’s clear that critics, like audiences at large, were undergoing a kind of sugar withdrawal from the obviousness of hollywood tradition. It was the cinematic equivalent of reaganism.
