Five Easy Pieces (1970), and Terrence Malick’s Bad-
lands(1973). While continuity editing remained the
norm, there was an increased use of such tech-
niques as jump cuts, split screens, slow and fast
motion, simulated “grainy” documentary footage,
and a mixture of color and black-and-white footage.
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey(1968) used
very long takes and an absence of editing that calls
attention to itself to introduce us to outer space,
where time shifts in unfamiliar ways.
Cinematography also adapted as more films were
shot on location rather than soundstages and the old
Hollywood ideal of visual perfection gave way to a
depiction of recognizable actuality. A new generation
of cinematographers—including Néstor Almendros,
John Alonzo, Conrad Hall, Geoffrey Unsworth,
Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, and Vilmos Zsigmond,
to name but a few—brought a familiarity with Euro-
pean techniques in framing, lighting, camera move-
ment, shot duration, and, especially, an experimental
approach to color. Under the particular influence of
such directors as Coppola and Lucas, there was also
major experimentation with sound design, multi-
channel sound recording and reproduction, includ-
ing the Dolby Digital system, and the replacement of
orchestral-type scores with popular music, the
sounds and lyrics of which often more directly
underscore a movie’s action. Finally, in terms of act-
ing, there was a seismic shift from the highly
groomed stars of the studio system to a large influx
of new actors and a definite reliance on naturalistic
acting styles.
In addition to these new directions in the narra-
tive film, there were important advances in the
documentary film—notably in Direct Cinema,
essentially an American adaptation of cinéma vérité
(by such filmmakers as Robert Drew, Albert and
David Maysles, and Don Alan Pennebaker)—and inThe Wild Bunch: blood bath and beyond^16 The New
American Cinema ushered in a wave of movies as famous for
good stories and superb filmmaking as they were for sex and
violence. Director Sam Peckinpah, nicknamed “Bloody Sam,”
is noted for a string of graphically violent movies, including
The Wild Bunch(1969), Straw Dogs(1971), and Bring Me the
Head of Alfredo Garcia(1974). His brand of stylized violence
reflects the influence of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde
(1967) and in turn influenced many Hong Kong action movies
as well as a host of American directors whose films include
violent action—Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Francis
Ford Coppola. At the conclusion of The Wild Bunch, the
American gang of the title attempts to claim one of its men
from Mapache, a Mexican rebel leader; when Mapache kills
the man, this provokes one of the bloodiest battles in movie
history. In an impressively choreographed gunfight between
the rebel army and the gang members, most are killed,
including the gang’s leader, Pike (William Holden), who,
manning a vicious machine gun, is struck by a gun fired by a
boy and dies in blood-drenched action.(^16) “Blood Bath and Beyond” is the title of A. O. Scott’s review in
the New York Timesof Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1,
(October 10, 2003).
1965––1995: THE NEW AMERICAN CINEMA 475