Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525212
B O O K R E V I E W 54 C I N E M O N T A G E By Peter Tonguette W hile good movies are produced eve r y ye a r— a n d p a r t i c u l a r- ly good years for movies come a l o n g a t l e a s t e ve r y few ye a rs — t h e re a r e c e r t a i n d e c a d e s t h a t o u g h t t o b e remembered for the strength of their cin- ematic offerings. Consider the 1930s. This decade commenced with the first talkie to star Greta Garbo, continued with the introduction of the Universal Monster Movies and "Thin Man" series, survived the imposition of the Production Code, and THREE FOR THE ROAD A TRIO OF NEW BOOKS EXCAVATES SOME BIG MOVIES FROM THE 1980S concluded, in glorious form, with one of the industry's best-ever years: 1939, which saw the release of, among other certified classics, "Gone with the Wind," "The Wiz- ard of Oz," and "Stagecoach." In more recent times, the 1970s has emerged as the decade that seems, to many observers, most consequential: During those years, the New Hollywood directors, whose ranks included Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Wil- liam Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, were at the peak of their artistry and influence, and we are still living with the legacy of the best films they made: "The Godfather" and its first sequel, "The Last Picture Show," "Mean Streets," and so on. By contrast, the 1980s has generally had a far more mixed reputation. At the time, it must have been hard to see how the boffo box-office successes of that decade could possibly compare with the cinematic expressiveness of the years that preceded it. Yet Americans' weakness for nostalgia GANGSTA: Brian De Palma, right, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino on the "Scarface" set. P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T