Chapter 20: Hollywood, 1965-1995
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. In the 1960s, Hollywood
a. still led the world in all aspects of film production, aesthetics, and technology.
b. was still technologically innovative but failed to keep up with foreign industries aesthetically.
c. adjusted quickly to the fact that its audience was becoming older and less well-educated.
d. saw the size of its audience increasing while ticket prices also increased.
e. operated much as it had in the 1940s and 1950s with similar results.
f. none of the above
2. Stylistically, Natural Born Killers
a. represents a dramatic difference from the techniques used in JFK.
b. is very subtle in its use of color and visual texture.
c. uses a wide variety of film stocks including super-8 and black-and-white.
d. contains long sequences of unedited takes punctuated by jump cuts.
e. consistently looks like a live TV show.
f. none of the above
3. Between 1986 and 1995, Oliver Stone produced
a. his weakest body of work though before and after those years he directed several classics of the
American cinema.
b. only three films, but all of them were considered important both critically and in terms of box
office.
c. no films, as he took an extended hiatus from filmmaking to concentrate on political activism.
d. enduring works of social criticism that also challenged the stylistic conventions of Hollywood.
e. only films that dealt directly with the political situation in the United States.
f. none of the above
4. The most fundamental change in filmmaking practice during the early to mid-1960s was
a. films becoming less expensive to produce as a result of technological innovation.
b. films becoming more expensive to produce due to monetary inflation.
c. films becoming less expensive to produce because of falling box-office receipts.
d. films becoming more expensive to produce because of Hollywood’s blockbuster strategy.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above
5. Of the following Hollywood spectacles produced during the 1960s, which did NOT lose money?
a. Dr. Dolittle d. The Sound of Music
b. Hello, Dolly! e. Both b and d were enormous hits.
c. Cleopatra f. All of the above lost money.
6. The relationship of the studios to the independent production companies that emerged in the 1960s was
a. none; the studios ignored the independents.
b. the studios aggressively tried to drive the independents out of business.
c. the studios distributed the films made by the independents.
d. the studios financed the films being made by the independents.
e. the studios began a program of buying all the independent production companies.
f. none of the above
7. In the 1970s, foreign films by directors like Fellini and Bergman
a. did not generally play in the United States.
b. were distributed by the major studios and played in first-run theaters.
c. only played in “art house” theaters, which experienced enormous growth during this time.
d. were actively blocked from major distribution in the United States by the studios.
e. both c and d
f. none of the above
8. Directors Arthur Penn, John Frankenheimer, and Sam Peckinpah all became movie directors
a. through their work in television.
b. through attending film school.
c. by starting out as screenwriters.
d. by working their way up through the ranks of the film business.
e. through theater directing.
f. all of the above
9. The most profound influence on the audiences of the late 1960s that set the stage for the New
American Cinema was
a. television.
b. an appreciation for the techniques of the French New Wave.
c. the beginnings of college courses in film studies.
d. a sense of permissiveness that led to the end of American film censorship.
e. Only a and d were important influences.
f. All of the above were profound influences.
10. The film that heralded the arrival of the New American Cinema was
a. The Wild Bunch. d. Easy Rider.
b. 2001: A Space Odyssey. e. Bonnie and Clyde.
c. Medium Cool. f. none of the above
11. Bonnie and Clyde
a. was not popular with audiences at the time of its initial release.
b. was highly praised by critics when it was initially released, leading to several awards for the film.
c. was a straightforward gangster film, true to the generic model and without real political
significance.
d. was supposed to have been directed by either Truffaut or Godard.
e. in the end, is a film with very conservative ideals.
f. all of the above
12. The American film that began the now standard action film technique of filming a scene with multiple
cameras with different-length lenses running at different speeds is
a. The Wild Bunch. d. Jaws.
b. The French Connection. e. Medium Cool.
c. Bonnie and Clyde. f. none of the above
13. The historical spectrum of events in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey spans
a. the entire twentieth century plus one year.
b. the dawn of man to the future.
c. the last two millennia.
d. from the late 1960s until 2001.
e. from 2001 to an undisclosed time in the future.
f. none of the above
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey
a. is more of an unconscious and emotional film experience than one reliant on narrative logic.
b. appears enigmatic but is actually very simple to interpret logically because the symbolism is so
clear.
c. ends with the audience never knowing what happened to the astronaut.
d. was a major commercial disappointment when it was released.
e. contains no dialogue.
f. none of the above
15. The film for which the front projection photographic effect was perfected was
a. Star Wars. d. The Wild Bunch.
b. Jaws. e. The Last Starfighter.
c. Bonnie and Clyde. f. none of the above
16. Thematically, The Wild Bunch is about
a. romantic rebels fighting the military-industrial complex.
b. an America divided against itself by the war in Vietnam.
c. America’s mercenary presence in Vietnam.
d. the mythical relationship between humanity and technology.
e. the emergence of an alternative youth culture in American society.
f. none of the above
17. All of the following are films directed by Stanley Kubrick EXCEPT
a. Barry Lyndon.
b. Eyes Wide Shut.
c. The Shining.
d. Medium Cool.
e. Full Metal Jacket.
f. All of the above are films by Stanley Kubrick.
18. The Wild Bunch
a. shows the gang getting away at the end of the film.
b. begins and ends with spectacular massacre scenes.
c. was embraced by critics of the time for its realism.
d. shows the gang refusing to work with any authority figures.
e. suggests far more violence than it actually shows.
f. none of the above
19. The massacre scenes in The Wild Bunch
a. were filmed in long shot-long take to enhance their realism.
b. show no actual blood, instead focusing on the movements of the actors through the shots.
c. feature slow motion and kinetic montage.
d. are brief and relatively tame by contemporary standards.
e. are careful not to depict any civilian casualties but limit the bloodshed to outlaws and soldiers.
f. none of the above
20. The violence in The Wild Bunch
a. is not depicted in a realistic fashion.
b. is not nearly as graphic as that of previous films; the scenes just last longer.
c. has no real thematic purpose beyond shocking the audience.
d. was considered aesthetically appropriate by the critics of the 1960s.
e. introduced the conventions for the depiction of violence that would influence films from the 1970s
until now.
f. none of the above
21. The film about an alienated journalist that was shot against the backdrop of the actual 1968
Democratic National Convention by director/cinematographer Haskell Wexler was
a. Midnight Cowboy. d. Night Moves.
b. Easy Rider. e. Medium Cool.
c. Seconds. f. none of the above
22. The youth culture film that was produced for $375,000 and earned over $50 million at the box office,
thus encouraging Hollywood to embrace the youth market, was
a. Medium Cool. d. Easy Rider.
b. Bonnie and Clyde. e. The Wild Bunch.
c. The Graduate. f. none of the above
23. The youth-cult explosion of the late 1960s
a. lasted well into the 1970s.
b. had no long-term impact on the aesthetics of the American cinema.
c. was extremely brief, lasting just a few years.
d. produced dozens of distinguished films.
e. was led by directors like Penn and Peckinpah who would go on to do far greater work in the 1970s
and 1980s.
f. none of the above
24. Gimme Shelter and Mad Dogs & Englishmen are both examples of
a. hyper-violent youth culture films of the 1960s.
b. rock documentaries.
c. Arthur Penn films after Bonnie and Clyde.
d. Sam Peckinpah films after The Wild Bunch.
e. “Kidpix.”
f. none of the above
25. Stanley Kubrick’s films after 2001: A Space Odyssey
a. were no longer popular with critics or the movie-going public.
b. were never as historically significant as 2001: A Space Odyssey.
c. were made with increasing rapidity toward the end of his career.
d. are few, as Kubrick only made two films after 2001: A Space Odyssey.
e. achieved far greater success at the box office even if they were not popular with critics.
f. none of the above
26. In Hollywood during the 1970s
a. film budgets increased dramatically.
b. the American film industry continued the decline begun in the 1960s.
c. the film industry began producing more and more films as the decade went on.
d. marketing costs rose to amount to roughly half a film’s budget.
e. the industry was able to avoid the production of big-budget flops.
f. none of the above
27. The Hollywood studios in the mid-1970s
a. all produced around twenty features a year in a variety of genres.
b. had a tiered system of production with most films having low budgets and a few having big
budgets.
c. had all their production capital invested in five or six films annually.
d. began to rein in budgetary inflation by producing smaller films.
e. learned to spread the financial risk of production by making more films.
f. none of the above
28. The financial changes in the film industry during the 1970s resulted in
a. a leveling off of production costs.
b. a decrease in marketing budgets for films.
c. the production of a higher number of films than in the previous two decades.
d. more cost-efficient production that required lower rentals to break even.
e. the major studios discouraging independent production through refusing to distribute
independently produced films.
f. none of the above
29. The financial structure of the American film industry in the late 1970s
a. encouraged the production of many medium– to low-budget films by the studios.
b. encouraged experimentation as filmmakers competed for a dwindling number of films.
c. favored directors, writers, and stars who were seeing enormous salary increases.
d. brought many new directors into the industry.
e. was such that a single flop could threaten a studio’s financial solvency.
f. none of the above
30. Which of the following pairings of a major Hollywood studio with the conglomerate that purchased it
in the 1960s or 1970s is correct?
a. Universal and Transamerica d. Paramount and Transamerica
b. Warner Brothers and MCA e. 20th Century-Fox and Gulf & Western
c. MGM and Kinney Services f. none of the above
31. Which of the major studios was part of the “Leisure Time” division of Gulf & Western along with
publishing companies and sports franchises?
a. MGM
b. Paramount
c. Warner Brothers
d. Universal
e. 20th Century-Fox
f. All of the above were sold in the 1960s and 1970s.
32. The central reason the major conglomerates bought Hollywood studios in the 1970s and ’80s was
a. they had a large asset base that could be sold off for profit.
b. they realized that the studios back catalog of films would be very valuable on home video.
c. they had the highest rate of return on investment of any other major industry.
d. they added an element of prestige to the conglomerate’s holdings.
e. they were swindled by Hollywood into believing the studios were far more valuable than they
actually were.
f. none of the above
33. The movie studio that was bought by financier Kirk Kerkorian in order to sell off their real estate
holdings, which he reinvested in resort hotels, was
a. Paramount. d. 20th Century-Fox.
b. Columbia. e. MGM.
c. Warner Brothers. f. none of the above
34. In Hollywood economics, “rentals” refers to the
a. amount of money a film takes in at the box office.
b. percentage of the box-office receipts paid to the distributor.
c. percentage of the distribution fees paid to the producer.
d. amount of money retained by the exhibitor.
e. fees paid by the exhibitor to the producer.
f. none of the above
35. By 1985, the value of home video sales to the film industry was approximately
a. $1 million.
b. $50 million.
c. $500 million.
d. $1 billion.
e. $5 billion.
f. None of the above; there were no significant home video sales until after 1985.
36. The financial changes in the film industry during the 1970s resulted in the studios
a. making more films than at any time since the 1930s.
b. becoming financiers and distributors of films produced by others.
c. decreasing negative costs for the first time in decades.
d. backing away from aggressive marketing campaigns and decreasing distribution costs.
e. losing more money than at any time in their histories.
f. none of the above
37. Which of the following is NOT one of the new producer-distributor organizations that arose in the late
1970s and early 1980s because of changes in the industry?
a. Orion
b. Tri-Star
c. Kinney
d. Ladd Company
e. All of the above were new producer-distributor organizations.
f. None of the above were new producer-distributor organizations.
38. Which of the following filmmakers would NOT be considered one of the film-school generation of the
1970s?
a. Francis Ford Coppola
b. Martin Scorcese
c. Steven Speilberg
d. George Lucas
e. Brian De Palma
f. All of the above are film-school generation filmmakers.
39. Which of the following filmmakers did NOT receive training at a university graduate education
program?
a. Francis Ford Coppola
b. Martin Scorcese
c. Peter Bogdonavich
d. George Lucas
e. Brian De Palma
f. all of the above
40. The films of the film-school generation directors
a. have never been commercially successful.
b. often lack a sophisticated visual sensibility.
c. were spontaneous improvisations that often lacked clear narrative structure.
d. avoided technological innovations.
e. are sometimes so painstakingly calculated for effect as to lack spontaneity.
f. all of the above
41. More recently, the film-school generation directors have
a. lapsed into repetition and self-parody.
b. become remarkably consistent in terms of the box-office returns on their films.
c. have almost all retired from filmmaking.
d. all made the best films of their careers in artistic terms even though the films haven’t always
performed well at the box office.
e. all of the above
f. none of the above
42. Robert Altman’s films are known for their
a. minimalist dialogue. d. consistency of genre.
b. solemn tone and serious subjects. e. manipulative formal construction.
c. widescreen composition. f. none of the above
43. The Robert Altman film about a young man who attempts to fly in the Houston Astrodome is
a. The Long Goodbye. d. McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
b. Brewster McCloud. e. Quintet.
c. Images. f. none of the above
44. The technique of “flashing” as seen in Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller refers to
a. exposing the film stock to light before shooting it to give it a tinted, old-fashioned look.
b. the use of quick one- and two-frame cuts to subliminally affect audience perception.
c. an extremely fast camera movement that can be used as a transition between scenes.
d. a postproduction effect that creates a fade-to-white.
e. moving the narrative back and forth in time very rapidly.
f. none of the above
45. Robert Altman’s cinematic style includes
a. the use of overlapping dialogue.
b. the use of both wide-angle and telephoto lenses.
c. satirical humor.
d. a high density of visual information in the frame.
e. multiple intersecting plot lines.
f. all of the above
46. The Robert Altman film that uses the repeated dialogue “It’s OK with me” to comment on American
narcissism is
a. Thieves Like Us. d. Images.
b. California Split. e. The Long Goodbye.
c. Nashville. f. none of the above
47. All of the following are true of the Lion’s Gate sound system devised by Robert Altman EXCEPT
a. it gives each of the principle players in a scene his own microphone.
b. it is recorded on multiple, individually controllable tracks.
c. it uses wireless microphones.
d. it relies on Dolby noise reduction.
e. it was first used on California Split.
f. all of the above
48. All of the following are themes in Robert Altman’s Nashville EXCEPT
a. the close connection between media and politics.
b. the detrimental effects of the blind pursuit of success.
c. the violent exploitation built into the American economic system.
d. the strange relationship between audience and performer.
e. America’s propensity for forgetting the unpleasant past.
f. None of the above is a theme in Nashville.
49. Robert Altman’s Nashville
a. is far more plot-driven than Altman’s previous films.
b. is not about country-and-western music.
c. was first shown as an eight-hour miniseries on television.
d. earned ten million dollars, over four times its production costs but was still considered a failure by
Hollywood.
e. represented Altman’s move away from the use of overlapping sound.
f. none of the above
50. In the 1980s, Robert Altman
a. made films that lost touch with the mainstream audience.
b. continued to make films that were great popular successes but disliked by critics.
c. made films that were highly praised by critics but were commercial failures.
d. retired from filmmaking only to return in the 1990s.
e. made the films that are generally considered to be his classic works.
f. none of the above
51. The single largest financial disaster ever to hit a major Hollywood studio was the result of
a. Apocalypse Now. d. Waterworld.
b. Cleopatra. e. Heaven’s Gate.
c. Howard the Duck. f. none of the above
52. The lack of creativity in the Hollywood film industry in the 1980s can be attributed to
a. no interesting filmmakers emerging in the American cinema during this period.
b. the aging administrative structure of the studios, which had been in place since the studio era.
c. the demand by movie audiences for unimaginative films.
d. the fact that the studios were now being run by lawyers and accountants with no industry
backgrounds.
e. a sharp decline in movie budgets.
f. none of the above
53. The first “slasher” film, which grossed $50 million on a $400,000 investment and started an American
cinematic craze was
a. Friday the 13th. d. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
b. A Nightmare on Elm Street. e. The Evil Dead.
c. Halloween. f. none of the above
54. What percentage of American films produced in 1981 were “slasher” films?
a. 75 percent d. 25 percent
b. 60 percent e. 10 percent
c. 40 percent f. none of the above
55. The slasher film
a. had a strong influence on mainstream horror, science-fiction, and thrillers.
b. was a short-lived genre and is now produced in small numbers.
c. never had a significant impact on the mainstream box office.
d. could not be shown initially on home-video or cable.
e. produced no significant directors.
f. none of the above
56. All of the following were significant genres during the 1980s EXCEPT
a. the slasher film.
b. sword and sorcery.
c. adventure/fantasy.
d. science fiction.
e. the western.
f. All of the above were important genres in the 1980s.
57. In the 1980s, the target demographic for Hollywood films became
a. adults between the ages of 21 and 40. d. college-educated viewers.
b. women. e. male and female viewers of all ages.
c. young children. f. none of the above
58. The “teenpix” category of films
a. took advantage of the fact that young people wanted to see R-rated movies.
b. were never visually innovative or thought provoking.
c. emerged in the 1970s.
d. was, in its heyday, led by writer-director John Hughes.
e. all of the above
f. none of the above
59. In the 1970s, cinematographers emerged as auteurs in their own right as a result of
a. structural changes in the film industry that disempowered the director.
b. producers demanding more visual complexity in films than directors could deliver.
c. demands by the American Society of Cinematographers that directors of photography should have
as much control on films as directors.
d. new technological developments in lenses, lightweight cameras, and stabilizing camera mounts.
e. changes in the workings of motion picture laboratories.
f. all of the above
60. The most dramatic technological innovations in cinematography during the late 1970s had to do with
a. cameras. d. camera mounts.
b. film stocks. e. laboratory processes.
c. lenses. f. none of the above
61. In the late 1980s, American box-office receipts
a. were being steadily eroded by cable television and videocassettes.
b. were in the midst of a downward spiral caused by an ever-shrinking audience.
c. were at an all-time high.
d. rose substantially from the nadir of the previous decades but did not reach the levels of the studio
era.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
62. The effect of cable television and videocassettes on the American film industry is
a. devastating for exhibitors but good for distributors.
b. that more independent films are released than studio films.
c. a slight decline in production but a significant reduction in average film budgets.
d. that studios continue to release fewer and fewer films.
e. negligible; the industry continues to operate the same way it always has.
f. None of the above is true.
63. The effect of cable television and videocassettes on feature film production is
a. the incorporation of music-video style in feature films.
b. a move away from producing blockbuster films in 70mm and multitrack sound.
c. that experimentation is discouraged by the intense competition for distribution.
d. that the “slasher” film continues to represent about half the domestic output of the American
cinema.
e. negligible; the same types of films that have always been produced continue to be made in much
the same way.
f. none of the above
64. The film credited with bringing back the war film as a commercially viable Hollywood genre by
becoming one of the highest grossing American movies of all time is
a. Apocalypse Now. d. Full Metal Jacket.
b. Good Morning, Vietnam. e. Coming Home.
c. Gardens of Stone. f. none of the above
65. The war films of the 1980s
a. almost never dealt with the Vietnam war, instead focusing of World War II.
b. were almost always critical of the military.
c. were almost always pro-military.
d. were on the whole not commercially successful.
e. had no consistent ideological bias.
f. none of the above
66. The resurgence of film noir in the 1980s
a. was brief, though many films in the style were made in just a few years.
b. failed financially by 1985.
c. did not produce a distinguished body of films nor did it attract many major filmmakers.
d. continued into the 1990s and included work by many of the major directors.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
67. The independent production boom of the 1980s was primarily the result of
a. the breakdown of the major studios.
b. government tax incentives for investment in feature films.
c. videocassette distribution.
d. a proliferation of public and private funding sources emerging during this period.
e. the mass-market economies of the 1980s.
f. none of the above
68. The controversial political film that introduced Oliver Stone to mainstream film audiences was
a. Salvador. d. JFK.
b. Platoon. e. Wall Street.
c. Born on the Fourth of July. f. none of the above
69. Oliver Stone’s JFK
a. contains no true and accurate information about the JFK assassination.
b. attempts to rewrite history by combining true facts with constructed fiction.
c. had very little impact on the national debate about the Kennedy assassination.
d. was both a box-office failure and universally critically dismissed.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
70. Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers
a. is primarily a critique of media manipulation.
b. was shot entirely in 16mm to give it a documentary look.
c. has a wild visual style but a fairly conventional narrative structure.
d. contains long sequences of continuity editing punctuated by jump cuts.
e. is about government intervention into the lives of individuals.
f. none of the above