Dan Lalande – författare

This work offers a critical examination of 130 commercially-released film comedies of the 1970s. It considers the socio-political circumstances of each year of the decade, then critiques each film released that year with a focus on its effect on the film industry and the art of big screen comedy, as well as the emergence of talents whose work influenced (or was influenced by) the zeitgeist of the decade. Covering popular titles like M*A*S*H, Blazing Saddles, American Graffiti, The Bad News Bears, Smokey and the Bandit and many more, it argues that the 1970s may rightly be considered the last golden age of film comedy.

This book is a critical and historical look at the films, performances, and career arcs of six of the biggest male stars of the 1970s. In instant classics spanning the decade, audiences watched Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and Robert De Niro come of artistic age. Together, this dynamic generation advanced the craft of screen acting and redefined what it meant to be a man in the age of post-60s disillusionment, burgeoning feminism, and the narcissistic machoism of disco culture. The book, featuring 35 photographs, touches on other male stars of that time too, including Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, James Caan, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Richard Dreyfuss, and Bruce Lee.