Are revolutionaries in reality conservatives?

Young George Lucas

The classic “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood” by Peter Biskind is a fascinating read. It brings close the characters and personalities of the key players of one of the best decades in film making anywhere. Interestingly there is very little about the essence of their contribution to the film making craft, besides emphasizing their understanding and connection with the zeitgaist. Maybe that’s what makes or breaks the film. Still, we learn more about the shortcomings of Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese and others as humans than about the reasons why their film were so revolutionary.

The phrase “saved Hollywood” seems to have a double, ironic meaning. Many of the characters point out that it is Lucas and Spielberg who changed the film industry into its present, blockbuster, comic book based mode.

In this light the Lucas’ remark "Popcorn pictures have always ruled. Why do people go see them? Why is the public so stupid? That's not my fault.” sounds particularly chilly. I’ve read the book carefully but didn’t register this particular sentence. Maybe it was a denial on my part. Only later I found it on the amazon page for the book.