Gonna need a bigger budget

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

(2003)

OK, students who claim to love film, your assignment is to watch (either in a 3-hour chunk, or 1 hour at a time, courtesy of the IFC Channel, as I did over the past 3 weeks), A Decade Under the Influence, then this.

Frankly, I don't know what possessed me to imagine that there would be little overlap between these two takes on American film at the moment when the studio system went pfffffft!, but hey, guess what: there's little overlap between these two takes, etc.

Decade is more dedicated to the art; Riders hits much harder on the sex and drugs and other excesses (split-screen Polly Platt-Cybill Shepherd catfight, anyone? Marty boning Liza?? Seriously?!? Dennis Hopper [no predication required]? And can I just say that I've fallen in love w/ Margot Kidder all over again? Oh, and that I've just put You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again in my Amazon Shopping Cart?

Anyway, if you can watch these documentaries and not wonder why it has been so long since you've watched Harold and Maude or Mean Streets, then what are you even doing at this blog?