A contextual study of American New Wave Cinema
Throughout this
unit I studied the American new wave cinema movement from 1967 to 1979 where
America was facing many social issues that affected how films were produced and
the ideas that were conveyed within them. An example of a social issue that was
being conveyed at the time in cinema was the Vietnam War (1 Nov
1955 – 30 Apr 1975). Due to
its controversy within the American public this topic appears in a lot of new
wave cinema as a lot of independent directors used their movies to convey their
thoughts on the topic. “Over the course of
the 1960s the counter culture, youth activism, and civil rights movements
generated widespread rejection of standard Hollywood fare at the time. For
decades there had been standards, censorship, and deeply held beliefs about
what mainstream American film had to look like.” (Jordan 2018).
Another element of American new wave cinema is its tendency to fixate on character
action and scenes with intense thematic resonance where dialogue frequently
feels unnecessary, and gives way to scenes of violence or other typical
conventions of mainstream cinema. Throughout this essay I will be looking at my
chosen films and identifying where these elements are present with its effect
it has on cinema and its connection to the time it is set.
The
first film I looked at when studying this unit was Arthur Penns Bonnie and
Clyde (1967) and when researching this film I looked at what made this an
example of American new wave and how this differed from standard cinema at the
time, “The film showed blood
and gore explicitly and the audiences enjoyed each violent scene. However,
despite such strides in portraying the lives of violent criminals
realistically, the film uses the subtleties of the French New Wave liberally
and the connection between the two movements are palpable.” (Narelle 2017). An
element of New Wave Cinema that appears throughout this film is its over the
top use of violence (At least compared to the time of the release) with the
final scene of the film being an example of this in which both characters are
gunned down in clear view of the audience. In this scene a lot of quick cuts
are used in order to build pace before any violence actually happens, when the
gun fire actually begins the shots cut from Bonnie being shot and Clyde being
shot with both showing clear pain during the scene and blood being easily
visible from their wounds, this would have been very ground breaking for the
time as not much violence would be shown in cinema before hand. “If the New Wave was a case of the French
critics deconstructing the methods and iconography of American cinema in order
to fashion something new and exciting, 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde was arguably the
moment where these forward-thinking revisions truly found their way back to the
States. Despite its obvious European predecessors, Penn’s rural tale of
Depression-era carnage and courtship feels distinctly, passionately American,
and its influence can be felt not just in the bold era of home grown cinema
that followed but also in more recent purveyors of artful savagery.” (David
Pountain 2017).
Another
example of how Bonnie and Clyde subverted mainstream cinema and indulged new
wave cinema techniques was through the sexualisation of its characters. Before
this film nudity and sexual topics where not really included in mainstream
cinema. In the opening scene Bonnie is shown naked, this subverts standard
cinema at the time because this is our first introduction to the character and
it establishes the directors stance on standard values in Hollywood cinema,
with him not being afraid go against the norm, telling this to the audience
within the first few minutes of the film. Nudity is also used as a hidden
meaning throughout this film, “Here,
sexuality is used as a tool to express the sense of escapism achieved through
crime, and as a means in itself to perforate the mundane.”
(Joel S. Kempson 2015). This is apparent
through Bonnie’s attraction to Clyde in the first place because of the boredom
she shows before meeting him for example, in the opening scene where she is
shown banging on the bed in frustration with her normal life. “The opening gives a sense of Bonnies
imprisoned sensuality and certainly Bonnies abrupt movements indicate
frustration, a feeling of being trapped” (Robert Kolker 2000). Therefore the link between sexuality and
freedom in this film is portrayed through Bonnies character and how she has
more sex with Clyde and falls deeper in love with him, the more they go against
society and commit these crimes, thus linking back to my comment of sexuality
linking to escapism within this film as she is escaping from society and
reality the deeper she gets in this film. This is a strong element of new wave
cinema as not only is a high amount of sexuality present in this film (which
goes against mainstream Hollywood at the time) but it also contains deeper
social messages that new wave films like to incorporate.
Throughout
this unit, one of the films I have studied was Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”.
In this film Robert De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle is a Vietnam War veteran
who is struggling to adjust back into normal life. During the opening scene
Travis walks into the taxi rank enquiring about a job, Travis and the owner of
the business then get into a conversation throughout the interview. This is an
element of American New Wave Cinema through the unnecessary feel of this
dialogue as if the characters were having a conversation in real life. During
this conversation exposition about our protagonist is revealed such as his struggle
with insomnia and also his previous military record. In implementing this
information through casual dialogue it makes the exposition seem less forced
and instead let the passing of key plot points seem natural. The brief
mentioning of these two topics can link to the social contexts of the time when
soldiers where first coming home from Vietnam but were struggling to adjust
back to society while also battling mental health issues that were usually
taboo or just not recognised at the time such as the insomnia that he mentions
or other mental health issues such as PTSD that affected a lot of soldiers that
returned home after the war. Therefore in subtly mentioning these topics
Scorsese is commenting on the social issues that were troubling the time such
as the lack of help for returning soldiers and the ignorance of their mental
health through only having the characters mention these topics in passing
mention, rather than speaking about it in detail that maybe it should deserve.
This is an element of new wave cinema through Scorsese using his film to
comment on the social issues in a platform that will reach a lot of people.
In
another scene in Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle is talking to himself in a mirror;
this scene stands out more than others in the film due to the repetitive nature
of the shots and his conversation with himself. It is in this scene where the
audience gets another glimpse at Bickles psyche “The scene conveys many things: his anger at the world,
his reckless abandon, his sense of self-importance, and deep down, an anger at
himself he can’t consciously reveal. Soon enough, the self-esteem boasting
self-refrains begin to seem like the ravings of a madman, and then bitter,
brittle cries for help from someone who only conceptualizes help through the
masculine, violent male lens.” (The Long Take 2019), while in the
process incorporating new wave techniques such as the repetition of the shots,
this new wave technique is used here to link to Bickles mental state with the
text being from his perspective and this lapse in narrative could be an example
of how he is struggling to cope since the Vietnam war, as mentioned in my
previous paragraph. Therefore in this scene Scorsese uses the new wave
technique of repeating shots while also briefly breaking the continuity of the
film through the lapse of narrative, to help convey his messages of mental
health and the mistreatment of returning soldiers from Vietnam as Bickle in
this film is shown to be struggling to readjust back to normal life but is never
offered any help.
Another
film I studied throughout this unit was Apocalypse Now (Francis Coppola), which
is set during the Vietnam War. In the opening scene of the film, the
protagonist Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) talking about his struggle to adjust
back to normal life. In this scene the Captain is performing a dance routine we
see throughout the film from characters with questionable sanity such as the
natives in the third act. This can link to the characters mental state in this
scene, as this is set after the final act, with him mimicking those characters
actions. This can link to the real world in which soldiers who returned from
the war struggled to readjust with society with mental health issues such as
PTSD (as mentioned in my earlier paragraph on taxi driver), this was a big
talking point when it came towards American New Wave cinema as people like
these new wave directors believed these issues weren’t being spoken about in
society enough so used their films to speak out about the topic. Therefore
through dropping subtle hints about the protagonist’s mental health the
director is allowing the audience to see the affect that the war had on its
soldiers in a new wave style and by making the soldiers mental health a talking
point in cinema.
Another
example of how Apocalypse Now is an example of an American New Wave film is
through its use of subtle dialogue and inconsequential conversations. For
example throughout the first act the topic of surfing comes into play multiple
times, with characters talking about it during times it seems highly irrelevant
such as in the helicopter raid on the Vietnamese town. This is an example of
American New Wave Cinema through characters talking and having normal
conversations that doesn’t affect the plot in any way that is seen in other
American New Wave films and also in French New Wave too. This makes the
characters seem more human as they are talking in a matter that mimics the real
world and how people would speak in real life, with not every conversation requiring
purpose and in the films case not forwarding the plot in any way. Therefore in
incorporating this into the film, the director gives a sense of real life to
the film with these characters expressing themselves outside of the plot, this
new wave element of incorporating real life into the text helps the director
capture the severity of the film itself and how this happened to real people.
In
conclusion these films I have studied have all incorporated new wave techniques
that went against standard movie making techniques at the time, but they also
incorporated social messages into these techniques such as in taxi driver with
the repetition or the unnecessary dialogue in Apocalypse now, “American
New Wave films tend to fixate on character action and scenes with intense
thematic resonance. Dialogue frequently feels unnecessary, and gives way to
scenes of violence and high speed pursuits” (Jordan 2018). This helped challenge social issues at the
time through creating a platform for the people to speak in which before no one
really spoke out about issues such as the aftermath of the Vietnam War. "These
films were centred on complex themes with morally ambiguous messages,
reflecting the nonconforming generation disillusioned by Vietnam."
(Filmmakers Handbook, 2019).
Reference List
Arthur Penn (1967) Bonnie and Clyde
Arthur Penn (1967) Bonnie and Clyde
Martin Scorsese (1976) Taxi Driver
Francis Ford Coppola (1979) Apocalypse Now
Jordan, S., (2018) The New Perspectives in the American new wave [Online]
Francis Ford Coppola (1979) Apocalypse Now
Jordan, S., (2018) The New Perspectives in the American new wave [Online]
Available from:
Narelle., (2017) Bonnie
and Clyde – The French New Wave in Hollywood
[Online]
Available from:
https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/narelle001/bonnie-and-clyde-the-french-new-wave-in-hollywood/
David Pount., (2017) How Bonnie and Clyde brought the
French New Wave to Hollywood
[Online]
Available
from:
https://lwlies.com/articles/bonnie-and-clyde-french-new-wave-hollywood/
Joel
S. Kempson., (2015) Living with Evil: Crime and sexuality in Bonnie and Clyde
and Chinatown
[Online]
Available
from:
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1011/living-with-evil-crime-and-sexuality-in-bonnie-and-clyde-and-chinatown
Robert Kolker,. (2000) A cinema of loneliness
The
Long Take (2019) American New Wave: Taxi Driver
[Online]
Available
from:
Jordan, S., (2018) The New Perspectives in
the American new wave [Online]
Available from:
https://facets.org/blog/exclusive/lists/essentials/the-new-perspectives-in-the-american-new-wave/
Filmmakers Handbook (2019) [Online]
Available from:
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/the-filmmakers-handbook-what-is-the-new-hollywood-movement
