He recently got on the phone to discuss the lasting impact of the era known as New Hollywood as well as the ongoing repercussions from “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” His eighth tome, “The Eve of Destruction: The Rise of Culture in an Era of Political Polarization,” is due next year. “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” – which covers the making of such seminal films as “Taxi Driver,” “The Last Picture Show,” “The French Connection,” “Shampoo,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Chinatown,” “Jaws” and “Star Wars” - has never been out of print, and the author still gets residuals from its sales. I thought every book would be like that.”

I did a huge amount of press on the morning TV shows.

“I remember being in Times Square when it came out, and there was a huge billboard lit up promoting the book. By comparison, the reaction to “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” was more a Tinseltown tidal wave. It became a must-read for the industry–if only to check the index for a mention.īiskind had written two previous volumes, including a collection of “Godfather“ trivia, but, “they didn’t make much of a splash,“ he told me. Written by Peter Biskind (an executive editor at now-defunct “Premiere” magazine and contributing editor at “Vanity Fair”), the juicy warts-and-all account pulled back the curtain on a wild-and-woolly decade whose repercussions are still felt today. It is still considered the bible of the golden age of ‘70s that nurtured such directing talents as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, Peter Bogdanovich, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, Hal Ashby and Warren Beatty –even 15 years after its paperback edition was published. Few film history books proved that as well as “Easy Rider, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. “I thought I couldn’t do anything wrong.”Įxcess – fueled by fame, fortune and self-serving, often-destructive behavior - often goes hand in hand with success, especially in the movie biz. Eventually Marlon Brando did sign on. “The success … went to my head like a rush of perfume,” Coppola recalled.

He was enraged that he couldn’t convince major stars such as Steve McQueen and Al Pacino to be his headliner. Right after Francis Ford Coppola turned a Mafia family’s travails into grand opera with 1972’s “The Godfather,” which went on to win 1972’s best-picture Oscar, he topped himself in 1974 with “The Godfather, Part II,” which became the first sequel to ever win the award. Later on, while preparing to film 1979’s “Apocalypse Now,” he tossed those Oscars out the window, shattering all but one.

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