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A Decade Under the Influence

Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Julie Christie, Polly Platt, Peter Bogdanovich

Directed by Richard LaGravenese, Ted Demme
Rolling Stone: star rating
5 3
Community: star rating
5 3 0
April 25, 2003

Here's a fireball documentary about the 1970s, when filmmakers were stoked by sex, drugs, rock and, oh, yeah, social conscience. Directors Richard LaGravenese and the late Ted Demme interview the likes of Scorsese, Coppola and Altman and show great clips, from M*A*S*H to Apocalypse Now. As Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver, points out, "The film business was a decadent, decaying, emptied whorehouse, and it had to be assaulted." Still does.

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