I recently watched the interview with Friedkin in the DVD extras for
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Sorcerer
Edward_de_Vere — 9 years ago(October 12, 2016 08:05 AM)
I recently watched the interview with Friedkin in the DVD extras for
Bug
, and one of the questions he was asked was why he thinks
Sorcerer
did so poorly with audiences after its release, given the success of
The French Connection
and
The Exorcist
.
His response was that the late 70's marked a sea change in what audiences were expecting for big budget studio films. In the late 60's through mid-70's, dark themes, slow pacing, and character studies were what people wanted. With the success of
Star Wars
, audiences increasingly wanted major studio films to be fast paced, escapist fluff, paving the way for an increasingly youth-market oriented entertainment industry in the 80's and beyond.
That basically mirrors my views of why the era of substantive big budget major studio films mostly came to an end in the late 70's. -
Sonatine97 — 9 years ago(October 21, 2016 05:47 AM)
I would agree with you.
I think the rot set in for such films shortly after the release of the mega-blockbuster "Jaws" in 1975/6, and then of course "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters " a year later.
The early 70s contained many terrific gritty dramas such as "The Last Detail", "French Connection", "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Godfather" et al. All of the dark, character-drive, slow-paced and exceptionally deep & involving. But I would by the time "Jaws" and "Star Wars" came out people wanted a complete sea-change for their film entertainment.
It's just unfortunate in terms of timing, that "Wages of Fear" was released at precisely the wrong time: 2 or 3 years earlier and it would have been a huge success (although of course whether it would have still starred Roy "Jaws" Scheider, is moot)
When is old news gonna be old news?
Arnold Vinick (The West Wing) -
Edward_de_Vere — 9 years ago(October 26, 2016 01:48 PM)
The early 70s contained many terrific gritty dramas such as "The Last Detail", "French Connection", "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Godfather" et al. All of the dark, character-drive, slow-paced and exceptionally deep & involving. But I would by the time "Jaws" and "Star Wars" came out people wanted a complete sea-change for their film entertainment.
Jaws
had character depth and substance, in sharp constrast to most "popcorn flicks". It was enough of a character drama to allow the lead actors (especially Shaw) to really shine. There were no similar opportunities for great acting or character depth in
Star Wars
.
It's just unfortunate in terms of timing, that "Wages of Fear" was released at precisely the wrong time: 2 or 3 years earlier and it would have been a huge success
I think the timing issue also explains why Martin Scorsese's
The King of Comedy
didn't do very well at the box office. In many ways it's thematically a follow up to
Taxi Driver
, which was made at a time when audiences sought out these types of films. In contrast, audiences mostly wanted fun fluff by the late 70's and early 80's.