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Chapter 9
The 1970s: Cynicism, Paranoia, War, and Anticapitalism
The purpose of this chapter is to identify the relationship between the social and
political trends of the 1970s and the political films of the period. As America went from
Nixon and Cambodia to Ford, Carter, and a prolonged hostage crisis in Iran, concluding
with a genuine Hollywood actor in the White House, cynicism, paranoia, and corporate
illegality were key to the political critique offered by many of the films of the so-called
“me decade.” Meanwhile the industry saw further erosion of the big studios, the
ascendance of independent filmmakers, and the beginnings of blockbuster cinema.
Objectives for Chapter 9:
1. Describe the political climate of the decade as the United States pivoted from the
conformity and anti-Communist paranoia of the 50s as well as the heightened
political engagement and social movements of the 60s to the self-absorption of the
“me decade.”
2. Chart the political shift from the scandal-ridden Nixon in the early 70s to the
Washington outsider Carter, a one-termer, in the mid-70s to the Hollywood actor,
former union leader and former Governor of California, Ronald Reagan in 1980.
3. Describe the declining fortunes of the industry, the changing face of the audience,
and the place of the numerous political films made in this period within these shifts.
4. Describe and analyze the role of Robert Redford as director and actor of some of the
decade’s sharpest political films, from The Candidate to All the President’s Men and
more.
5. Track how the nature of political-process films changed to deeper paranoia and
pessimism about the effect any individual can have on “the system.”
6. Delineate how political films of the decade—many of them political thrillers—also
intensely feature the media: All the President’s Men, China Syndrome, The Parallax
View, et al.
7. Identify the professional rehabilitation of some of the blacklisting era’s biggest
victims and their cause’s triumph in movies like The Way We Were, The Front, and,
implicitly, Julia.
8. Connect the disillusionment expressed in a number of films, including Nashville
and Shampoo.
9. Outline the arrival of war films directly about Vietnam.
10. As public political disillusionment deepened, Hollywood turned from war films to
ever more stingingly political films addressing class and gender issues, and even the
studio system transformed yet again.
Discussion Questions for Chapter 9:
1. How did changes in the industry show up in the political content of the movies?
2. If Hollywood made heroes of those it had vilified during the Red Scare, what does it
seem to say about itself during that period? How does it let itself off the hook in
these films meant to honor those who did not cooperate?
3. Why is the first film about the blacklisting era a romance and not a political thriller?
4. Why is this the “me decade” and how do the movies of this time period exemplify
that description?
5. How are the changing presidencies addressed explicitly and implicitly in the
political films of this period?
6. What kinds of cultural anxieties seem to have replaced the anti-Communist fever of
the 1950s and the countercultural movements of the 1960s?
7. How did the career of Robert Redford shape and get shaped by the industry and
cultural events of the decade?
Paper Assignment:
1. Research the political personae of two leading Hollywood women of the 70s: how do
the careers and films of Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda compare and contrast in
this period?
