20 Reasons Why Growing Up in the 80s and Early 90s Was Best Time For Cinema

6. Filmmakers From the Sex, Drugs and Rock €˜n€™ roll Generation of Hollywood Still Going Strong

Anyone film fan familiar with Peter Biskind€™s book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls will know what the sex, drugs and rock €˜n€™ roll generation is referring to, others should go read it. In short, it talks of how the late €˜60s and early €˜70s ushered in a new generation of filmmakers. Filmmakers like Spielberg (whose already been discussed) and George Lucas and a number of others. While some may have had their €˜day€™ in the €˜70s, many were still going strong in the €˜80s and €˜90s and the film industry was largely all the better for it. One of the more obvious would be Martin Scorsese, who wasn€™t really interested in the often more family orientated fodder of the €˜80s and was ready to snap a generation out of their comfort zone by making the masterpiece Goodfellas in 1990 and an even-more-sadistic-than-the-original remake of Cape Fear in 1991, followed by Casino in 1995. Francis Ford Coppola on the other hand was done making some of the best films of all-time and in the €˜80s made the rough-around-the-edges 1983 double bill of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, introducing us to Mickey Rourke and Matt Dillon in the process. Robert Altman made The Player in 1992 and Short Cuts in 1993 while Dennis Hopper directed underrated cop thriller Colors in 1988 and William Friedkin made one of the all-time great car chase scenes in 1985€™s To Live and Die in L.A. Brian De Palma went on to make The Untouchables in 1987, the Tom Hanks starring, Bonfire of the Vanities in 1990 and Carlito€™s way in 1993 whilst on the acting front, Jack Nicholson saw in a new era with parts in 1987€™s The Witches of Eastwick and Broadcast News followed by memorable turns in 1989€™s Batman and 1992€™s A Few Good Men.
 
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David is a film critic, writer and blogger for WhatCulture and a few other sites including his own, www.yakfilm.com Follow him on twitter @yakfilm