Bestseller The most important development in
American culture of the last two decades is the
emergence of independent cinema as a viable alternative
to Hollywood. Indeed, while Hollywood's studios devote
much of their time and energy to churning out
big-budget, star-studded event movies, a renegade
independent cinema that challenges mainstream fare
continues to flourish with strong critical support and
loyal audiences. Cinema of Outsiders is the first and
only comprehensive chronicle of contemporary independent
movies from the late 1970s up to the present. From the
hip, audacious early works of maverick David Lynch, Jim
Jarmusch, and Spike Lee, to the contemporary
Oscar-winning success of indie dynamos, such as the Coen
brothers (Fargo), Quentin Tarentino (Pulp Fiction), and
Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade), Levy describes in a
lucid and accessible manner the innovation and diversity
of American indies in theme, sensibility, and style.
Documenting the socio-economic, political and artistic
forces that led to the rise of American independent
film, Cinema of Outsiders depicts the pivotal role of
indie guru Robert Redford and his Sundance Film Festival
in creating a showcase for indies, the function of film
schools in supplying talent, and the continuous tension
between indies and Hollywood as two distinct industries
with their own structure, finance, talent and audience.
Levy describes the major cycles in the indie film
movement: regional cinema, the New York school of film,
African-American, Asian American, gay and lesbian, and
movies made by women. Based on exhaustive research of
over 1,000 movies made between 1977 and 1999, Levy
evaluates some 200 quintessential indies, including
Choose Me, Stranger Than Paradise, Blood Simple, Blue
Velvet, Desperately Seeking Susan, Slacker, Poison,
Reservoir Dogs, Gas Food Lodging, Menace II Society,
Clerks, In the Company of Men, Chasing Amy, The Apostle,
The Opposite of Sex, and Happiness. Cinema of Outsiders
reveals the artistic and political impact of bold and
provocative independent movies in displaying the cinema
of "outsiders"-the cinema of the "other America."
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