Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

A nice little chronicle of that magic moment, from the late ’60s to the late ’70s, between the collapse of the old studio system and the rise of the new order, when everybody was able to try just about anything. The ’60s were littered with mega-flops, studios were on the brink of bankruptcy, back lots were sold off and re-developed, sound stages gathered dust. Then the “indies” showed the studios how it could be done, mainly by appealing to the youth market. Hard to remember now, but they didn’t used to be very important, except at the drive-ins. Now, of course, that’s the only market that matters. And, when you think about it, what studios largely produce these days are $100,000,000 B-movies, suitable for the drive-in crowd. Once Jaws and Star Wars, which are B-movies, opened, it was all over. That, and the fact that cocaine led so many of the new crowd into creative catastrophe. But for one brief shining moment that was known as Malibu, you could find them all at Michael and Julia Phillips’ beach house, movie nerds talking movies.