Hard to Like Protagonists From 1970s Cinema
The 70s brought us a stunning array of great directorial talent - Scorcese, Altman; Coppola, Friedkin, Bogdonavitch, and Peckinpah; artists at the height of their powers who’d been influenced by cinema from the French New Wave, Italian Neo-realists, Bergman, Kurosawa, and Fassbinder; as well as American iconoclasts like Samuel Fuller and Nicholas Ray. With the studios, run by aging executives, in a state of flux, and younger writers, directors, and creative producers seizing the reigns, suddenly a slew of films with edgy, daring subject matter got financed that never would’ve never been made in the past.
As a result of this creative explosion, we got Easy Rider (1969) and Midnight Cowboy (1969), films which paved the way for the emergence of lead characters like Travis Bickle in Scorcese’s Taxi Driver (1976); Sonny Wortzik from Sydney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975); and Randall McMurphy in Milos Foreman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) - misfits who drew us into their altered reality. Mavericks like Hal Ashby, John Cassavettes, James Toback, and Paul Mazursky are examples of period directors with outsider perspectives, a rebellious viewpoint manifested in the stories they chose to tell, and personified by the characters populating these stories. The following list contains examples of lead characters who were not at all like the ready-made, like-able “heroes” of the past. Each and every one of them has serious flaws - they are, in turn, depressed, violent, angry, resentful, promiscuous, unfaithful, selfish, egotistical, addicted, profane, loud, jealous, disaffected, disillusioned, and defiant. These characters demonstrate ugly human characteristics most traditionally assigned to movie villains, but are instead assigned the role the protagonist, and thus the anti-hero was born. There had been some examples, in the past, of true anti-heroes in film noir and in Westerns (John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards from The Searcherscomes to mind), but the 70s brought about a proliferation of these roles, in major films, being played by some of the biggest names of the decade - Jack Nicholson; George Segal; James Caan. No longer did the “bad” guy have to get it in the end; no longer did the “bad” character have to learn his lesson, or at least not in the same overt way. In many cases, these characters are hard to like, but conversely we often identify with them anyway, because of their flaws, because of their very fallibility and humanness.
It’s no mistake probably that only one of the characters on this list appeared in a film made after 1976. The success of Jaws (1975), and later, Star Wars (1977) helped bring about the idea of the tent-pole/block-buster/summer popcorn movie - big budget “event” films that had the potential to garner huge profits for the studios and remove some of the guess work from the green-light process. This move toward “high concept,” combined with some runaway egos and excesses, as well as several colossal box office failures, like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980), to help re-align the Hollywood power structure and snuff out the greatest stretch of film-making ever seen here, and perhaps anywhere else. Thirty years-plus down the line the industry still hasn’t recovered creatively.
Five Easy Pieces(1970) Directed by Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson is Robert Eroica Dupea, a womanizing, hard-living oil rigger, who comes from a wealthy, musically inclined family.
Wanda (1971) Directed by Barbara Loden. Loden, wife of famed director Elia Kazan, wrote, directed, and starred as the title character, Wanda Goronski, a wife and mother who leaves her family to embark on a cross-country trip with a criminal.
The Heartbreak Kid(1972). Directed by Elaine May. Charles Grodin starred as Lenny Cantow, who falls in love with another woman while on his honeymoon.
Play it as it Lays (1972) Directed by Frank Perry. Tuesday Wells is the beautiful, but depressed and dissatisfied model/actress Maria Wyeth Long
Blume in Love(1973). Directed by Paul Mazursky. George Segal plays bad behaving Stephen Blume, desperate to get his wife back. Segal played a series of these type of characters in films like Loving (1970) Born to Win (1971); and California Split (1974).
The Last Detail (1973) Directed by Hal Ashby. Jack Nicholson is tough as nails navy man Billy “Bad Ass” Buddunsky.
The Gambler(1974) Directed by Karl Reisz. Based on the James Toback script, James Caan plays Axel Freed, a college English professor with a serious addiction.
A Woman Under the Influence (1974) Directed by John Cassavetes. The indie director’s real life wife Gena Rowlands is alcoholic Mabel Longhetti.
Shampoo(1975) Directed by Hal Ashby. Warren Beatty co-write the script, produced, and played lead George Roundy, the stud hairdresser with all the women but very few solutions for the turmoil in his life.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Directed by John Cassavetes. Long time Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo Vitelli, a strip club owner with a serious gambling debt.
Fingers(1978) Directed by James Toback. Harvey Keitel plays pianist/criminal Jimmy Fingers in Toback’s directorial debut.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
… well done. I particularly liked your commentary on 70’s lead charachters ” misfits that drew us into their altered reality”
May 28th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Thanks Travis. I happen to be a huge fan of misfits in general, and perhaps in no period in film history were they given better play. It’s easy to think of other films not noted here - late sixties efforts like Cool Hand Luke and the Graduate… and also, The French Connection; The Long Goodbye; The Conversation; Carnal Knowledge; King of Marvin Gardens; Klute; Harold and Maude, and many others, with characters who stand outside the mainstream. In many cases they practically beg you not to like them. It should be noted that some credit must be given to the actors who came of age post Brando who didn’t have traditional movie star looks - in a previous time they would have been relegated to character actor status, but the stars aligned and guys like Duvall; Hackman; Hoffman; Pacino; Deniro; Nicholson; Dern; Segal; Gould; and Sutherland joined the Newmans and Redfords of the world… While there have been plenty of quality American independents featuring quirky/outsider characters in the past thirty some odd years, somehow it often feels like these films try a little too hard to paint their oddball portraits.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I particulary enjoyed Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. The previous comment by Travis reminded me of this violent misanthrope from 1976. “Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.”
June 1st, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Well, I can’t speak to Travis’ similarity with the Bickle character, but certainly Scorcese/Deniro/Schrader et al did a fantastic job of painting a pretty scary portrait. Bickle is such a recognizable personality type - an angry, frustrated, and tragically limited individual stewing in his own juices, but raging at the inequities of life… he’s the kind of guy who’s a conspiracy theorist, a misogynistic, xenophobic Fox news watcher who’s dying to rage against the machine, but with no clear understanding as to why he feels the way he does. This was back when both Deniro and Scorcese were at the top of their game. Incredible cinematography with bleeding colors - lots of great performances - Jody Foster; Albert Brooks, Peter Boyle, et al. A violent, dizzying classic arising out of the very dark depths of Paul Schrader’s mind .
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:45 am
Hi Cinemaguy,
TB was a man of great vision, guts, and singular focus. He was quite a fellow; he knew how to impress a young lady out on a date, he could put pen to paper and articulate his deepest thoughts, he was a man of tremendous will and discipline and he had a true American work ethic sometimes working up to 18 hours a day in the cab. I can’t help but recall the scene where in order to help hone his body into the perfect fighting machine he holds his fist out over an open flame above his stove (if only todays athletes had his discipline they wouldn’t need to resort to steroids ). I appreciate the comparison to TB but I am unworthy.
I would have to say that my number one favorite protagonist from the 70’s however is not TB but it is the Howard Beale charachter played by Peter Finch in the movie Network. I believe Network is truly one of the best movies ever made as well as prophetic. The foresight that this film exhibits is best displayed in the boardroom scene when Howard is scolded for interfering with the primal forces of nature.
I am not certain if Howard Beale is a true antihero though because to me he is just a hero. He is a man who like RFK spoke out and “when he saw wrong tried to right it” and just like RFK he met his demise ultimately as a result of speaking truth to power.
Thanks,
Trav
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Travis - Tb was most definitely dedicated, and yes, he was “quite a fellow”, indeed. Definitely one of the most interesting dates in cinematic history — somewhat similar to the one in The Graduate, only more uncomfortable… Thanks for mentioning Network.. satire is a tricky thing, but written by Paddy Chayefsky (Marty; Hospital), and directed by Sydney Lumet (who too often gets overlooked) the film, although a little “speechy,” is like Dr. Strangelove in it’s restrained frenzy. Chayefsky was most definitely a prophet of sorts when it came to the media and our society in general, clearly envisioning the direction TV was taking. Great cast too - Dunaway, Beatty, Holden, Finch, Duvall… the Faye Dunaway charcacter Diana Christensen was particularly interesting. Even in 1976 there were very few roles in mainstream films showing women as independent, sexually liberated professionals.