this exploration of a unique decade in u cinema begin with the fall of one ailing and out of touch empire and culminates with the unstoppable rise of another and equally associate with escapism and box office receipt . meet the new bos and same a the old bos . or and a peter fonda observe in easy rider and we blow it . in between and from bonnie and clyde to star war and the young turk ( some under the guerrilla tutelage of roger corman ) be creep under the wire to produce some of the great artwork of the 20th century . while the story be already familiar from peter biskind easy rider and rag bull director demme and lagravenese be less concerned with muckrake than in provide a platform for the filmmaker and star themselves . everyone from martin scorsese to francis ford coppola and julie christie be interview and a roster of well edit clip place the decade in a socio cultural and economic context . if their response be self congratulatory ( to say the least ) and theyre also highly quotable and funny and revealing and make this something of a cinephile wet dream . director william friedkin reveals how the original the exorcist poster be to feature a little girl hand hold a bloodied crucifix and the legend for god sake and help her and before he complain . former warner bros. head john calley recall that when he first saw robert de niro in mean street he assume scorsese have secure a psychopath day release for the shoot . happily and a certain amount of hard perspective have creep into the mix and a might be hop from a politically motivated and consciousness expand generation while hopper stress there a lot of real crap in there too . julie christie observe that 1970s u cinema be not a good time for woman . but if demme responds with a spoonful of sop to woman movie brief clip of alice doesn not live here anymore and they shoot horse and don not they and klute be soon drag back to the usual male wall pissing contest . the shift from tough and socially conscious film make to no risk crowd pleaser like jaw for nam weary and fantasy craving audience be also document and though a little rushed . but kudos too and for the inclusion of less sung and but equally relevant film like panic in needle park and joe . we weren not handsome and muse bruce dern on his contemporary . but we be f interesting .