Dirty Real: Exile on Hollywood and Vine with the Gin Mill Cowboys

This is the tale of how Hollywood, inspired by the success of Easy Rider, sold a cycle of films as the new dirty real. Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, Kris Kristofferson and Sam Peckinpah, among others, drew on a nostalgia for the gutter and donned bohemian personae, pulling on soiled shirts and scuffed boots, to better counter the glamour and phoniness of Tinseltown. With great care for the historical record and displaying a refined critical acuity, Peter Stanfield captures that pivotal moment when Hollywood tried to sell a begrimed vision of itself to the world.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Dirt for Dirt's Own Sake 1 The Hired Hand: Circling Back to the End Again 2 The Last Movie: Dennis Hopper's Three-Ring Circus 3 The Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces and Payday: Cowboy Rhythm on KTRN 4 The Shooting, Ride in the Whirlwind and Two-Lane Blacktop: Who's Monte Hellman, You Ask? 5 Cisco Pike: Kris Kristofferson Has Got a Great Future behind Him 6 Dirty Little Billy: Scuffling on Madison Ave 7 McCabe and Mrs Miller: Pipe Dreams - Lows and Highs 8 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: Angels Descend and Graves Open Conclusion: Bring Me the Head Select Filmography References Select Bibliography Photo Acknowledgements Index

About the Author :
Peter Stanfield is Emeritus Professor of Film at the University of Kent. His publications include A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk and Pin-Ups 1972: Third Generation Rock 'n' Roll, both published by Reaktion.

Review :
Stanfield’s takes are entertaining, erudite without being abstruse, and often amusingly contrarian. They have the feel of an academic version of Quentin Tarantino riffing on the hidden themes of his favorite obscure movies, pausing from time to time to sample from critical opinion and toss in some behind-the-scenes gossip . . . Stanfield is splendid in his exegeses. Peter Stanfield’s engaging and well-researched Dirty Real takes a specific look at a number of westerns and road movies that were often modern-day westerns in disguise. . . That relatively brief window in which Hollywood attempted to make “underground” pictures for mainstream audiences is well evoked by Stanfield, and in today’s Marvel Universe world, seems further away than ever. . . his insightful stories of their origins only serve to make you want to watch them again. Stanfield . . . delivers a discerning deep dive into counterculture films of the late 1960s and early ’70s. According to Stanfield, such actors as Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson played down the glamour that had previously characterized Hollywood stars in favor of grittier personas that reflected an emerging understanding that movies were no longer “means of escape but a means of approaching a problem”. Astute analysis of key films of the era reveal how they tackled topical issues . . . It’s a sharp study of the contradictions of post–flower power cinema. This wide-ranging, entertaining study focuses on several key films from the early Seventies, including Two-Lane Blacktop, Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie and Sam Peckinpah’s Bob Dylan-starring Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, that typified this new concern with authenticity, realism and the outsider. Stanfield brings fresh eyes to a chunk of late 1960s/early1970s New Hollywood . . . films by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah and others, tracing their origin stories while deconstructing myths that these renegade “cowboy filmmakers” were anti-establishment; their backgrounds prove otherwise. Author Peter Stanfield in ten chapters meticulously explores themes related to Hollywood, the film industry, and the cultural shifts in American cinema beginning in 1966 that were peculiarly focused on anti-heroes, counter-culture, and the myths surrounding cult films and actors of that era . . . A great excursion into what most film buffs would call the best period of American auteur cinema. Stanfield is a perceptive and graceful writer; he imparts knowledge to the reader while never sounding like he is lecturing . . . Stanfield’s expertise and depth of knowledge make it feel like this is something we’re seeing for the first time. In a challenging cultural rhapsody about the gritty authenticity characterizing films following the hippie era of the 1960s, Stanfield posits that the 1970s presented problem-based rather than escapist entertainment vehicles. So full of information, so culturally astute and so beautifully written. A terrific new film book on a niche subject: Dirty Real, Peter Stanfield's account of how a bunch of mostly middle-class (or rich) guys embraced hippie cowboy “authenticity” and reinvented American cinema . . . Stanfield works his way through the 60s and 70s concentrating on key works, such as Easy Rider, Dirty Little Billy, Cisco Pike, and films somewhat in opposition (like The Last Picture Show). Purely at a prose level it’s a groove and a gas to read. A few years ago, Peter Stanfield slayed me with his book A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk – now he’s switched over to early ‘70s American cinema: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, Kris Kristofferson, Sam Peckinpah + Five Easy Pieces, Two-Lane Blacktop, Last Picture Show, Pat Garrett, The Last Movie. The author seems a bit more cynical than me on these actors/movies but he admires and KNOWS the topic and I learned a lot. If you loved books like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and the book about Midnight Cowboy, you’ll love this too!