1971: The Year Hollywood Went Independent

Following the success of Easy Rider in the late 1960s, Hollywood was searching for the next big thing and gave the greenlight to outsiders, mavericks and cultural renegades: 1971 marked their zenith.

Films like Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop (Universal), Alan J Pakula’s Klute (Warner Bros.), Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (Sony), Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs Miller (Warner Bros.) and Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (Sony), all released in 1971, reveal a parallel Hollywood universe of personal, complex, nuanced and countercultural cinema.

Presented by Cinema Rediscovered and Park Circus as part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour, a Watershed project with support from BFI awarding funds from The National Lottery and MUBI.