Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie Page #6

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for those kind of films, in these sort of lesser movie

theaters or in the drive-ins. Some of the producers

and directors who later became very prominent

in the '60s and '70s, like Roger Corman, for example, who would make very low-budget,

quick-production films and release them really quickly. -It's been said

I made the first biker film with "The Wild Angels,"

and actually it's true. It's the first film

about the Hells Angels. The film actually ended up

being the only American entry that year

at the Venice film Festival, and it was

the opening-night film. -The next big wave

of horror films was monster movies

throughout the '50s and '60s. And they would use

a lot of actors, some of whom later became

famous, like Jack Nicholson. And a lot

of very popular directors started in these low-budget,

Roger Corman features. -I financed the first films

of a number of directors. I was convinced

that they were good. Most of them had worked with me

as an assistant. I think the only one who hadn't

worked with me previously was Marty scorsese. Francis Coppola

was my assistant. Jonathan Demme. Ron Howard had starred

in a picture for me and went on to direct. Jim Cameron had been

head of special effects. -The filmmakers

who are considered the greats

of the last 30 or 40 years started in this kind of

low-budget fare, much of which went to drive-ins. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -The age of Bobby socks

and ice-cream sodas is gone. These people

no longer feel constrained by the social rules of the past. [ Rock music plays ] -The '60s --

changed completely around. -This generation

that had all this leisure time was also a generation

that was increasingly feared. -The movie-viewing experience

really changed in the '60s, and I don't think

it was just confined to movies. -I think, in general,

it affected pop culture. The way you felt

about the establishment really changed. -Yeah.

"Don't trust anybody over 30." There was a lot of unrest. Racial riots going on. You had -- in '63, you had

the Kennedy assassination. You had his brother killed. You had Martin Luther King shot. -It was a very confusing time. -Yeah. -Our world was pretty much... -It was turned upside down. -...over. Well, how we grew up, you know,

in the '50s, and that was so different. -One of the things was that's when the drug culture

started coming out. -And it made a change. You know, the type of people

that went to drive-in movies. -Yeah. -The first drive-in movie

that I really remember is "Midnight Cowboy." It was me

and my best little girlfriend, and we were 11 years old. And my father -- he said,

"Be sure to go to sleep. I want you to go to sleep in

the back of the station wagon." We're like, "okay," you know? And he left, and we watched

"Midnight Cowboy," and it was a big thing, because it was

an "X"-rated movie at the time. -You couldn't even call it

a hard "R." If you watch it today

by today's standards, it's almost laughable. -Filmmakers were really chaffing

up the censorship powers that be in Hollywood before about 1965. If films didn't have

a purity seal, mainstream theaters

would not show them. -By the mid-to-late 1960s, the hays code was replaced

by a ratings system. -"G" means "Suggested

for general audiences." "M" -- "Suggested

for mature audiences." "R" -- "Restricted. "Persons under 16 not admitted unless accompanied

by parent or adult guardian." "X" -- "Persons under 16

will not be admitted." -There was movies played. One was called "Blow-Up"

and "Taxi Driver." They're the type of movies

that made you think. -It was part of the youth counterculture

rebellion of the '60s which spilled over into mass entertainment

in the '70s. -People become disillusioned, so you see this reflected

in film. -It's true

that in the early '70s. Films began

to become a little edgier. They were more violent. They were using

rougher language. Nudity was starting

to come into it. -You see an increase

in more adult subjects. -You started to see a lot of the topical issues

involving drugs. "The Trip,"

which was about LSD -- Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern,

Dennis Hopper. Jack Nicholson wrote

the screenplay. -Definitely in the early '70s, you see an increase

in more graphic violence. "Targets," the first film which Peter Bogdanovich

directed, was shot at a drive-in. And while the horror film

was showing, there would be a sniper

at the top of the drive-in shooting the audience. It was a very good film. It got wonderful reviews and

really launched Peter's career. -We started to see significant

changes in sexual content. -More nudity. -Russ Meyer's "Supervixens," I mean, "The Pom Pom Girls," which somebody changed the title to "The Mop Pop Girls"

on the marquee. -More explicit representations

of sex, sex outside of marriage. -"Wicked Stewardesses,"

or whatever. "The Housewives,"

"The Women in Jail." -You had a lot

of exploitation movies. You had all these weird

kind of things coming out. -You also get a lot of the blaxploitation-type

movies. You see a lot of them

for several years in the '70s. So these were kind of a -- some were more high-budget

than others, but those were the kind of films that you could see

in a drive-in. A lot of the sort of campy

or cheesy horror/mystery/thriller-type

movies. "Let's Scare Jessica to Death,"

or these kind of films in which people are watching -- they're very tense,

and all of a sudden [gasps] You know, you could do that

in a drive-in very, very well. You also have this huge number of the sort of slasher

kind of movies. Really horror, grade "Z",

cheesy kind of movies. -There was one movie --

it was "Vanishing Point." This was the last

chase-car movie. -These kind of films are kind of

a natural fit with drive-ins and the younger generation. -"Enter the Dragon" -- really great

on the drive-in screen. -Audiences enjoyed them. They were not going

to be watching "Ben Hur," but nobody was expecting them

to be that. -While it's interesting

from a historical point of view, and if you're a film lover, certainly that's part

of a filmography. For business -- it was not

that great for business. -Once it got into the '70s, it started really shifting

onto the soft-porn movies. You know, sex on the screen. -A lot of drive-ins got forced

into running "X"-rated, which was part

of their downfall, and they did this because they couldn't get

halfway-decent movies. -It might be related

to the growth of pornography as more mainstream,

which happened in the 1970s. -And that really irritated

communities that lived

around drive-in theaters. -They didn't want

the wild teenagers and the loud music

and the 50-foot naked women and the whole thing that everybody associated

with drive-ins. -I think it did tend to show

more risqu kinds of films. -But they did what they had

to survive as a business. -And so that is one

of the reasons that community members

might be very skeptical about what kind of behavior

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