There's no period in the history of cinema so brimming with unbridled and varied creativity, leading to some of the most exciting movies ever made, than New Hollywood. Kicking off with the still-challenging Bonnie And Clyde, the era saw mainstream cinema take on an independent ethos, with a host of up-and-coming filmmakers offering up movies that simply wouldn't have been made in the previous, studio-dominated decades. Think of any seventies classic and you can bet it came out of this school of filmmakers. Quite what ended the era is up for debate in some corners, but most agree it came from within. Some would argue it was Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, a flop so cataclysmic is challenged the very idea of auteur theory, but to do that ignores the direction the whole movie industry took after the end of the New Wave. George Lucas was really just a minor player in events before his space fantasy, best buddy Francis Ford Coppola better embodying the movement's ideals, which meant when his unique brand of filmmaking became the big hit, the rest felt incredibly different. The controversial topics and thematically nuanced films couldn't hold a business candle to the beast of the hero's journey and thus studios stopped bankrolling them in favour of the more effects heavy films. It's probably the most damning issue with Star Wars, at least from Lucas' perspective. Although what does he care? He wanted to be a race-car driver.
