Heroes of the New Hollywood: Hoffman, Hackman, Nicholson, Pacino, Duvall, and De Niro in the ’70s

Lalande (The Drop Dead Funny ’70s) explores the early careers of Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Duvall, arguing that the six actors—and the iconic performances that made them stars—defined U.S. cinema in the 1970s and represented an all-too-brief period of true filmmaking artistry. Citing Marlon Brando as the shared idol of the actors, Lalande discusses how Brando’s Method-shaped embodiment of angst-ridden antiheroes inspired the creation of characters like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Randle P. McMurphy and Dog Day Afternoon’s Sonny Wortzik: rebels raging fruitlessly against an unjust system. Lalande argues persuasively that the actors tapped into the zeitgeist of a disgruntled nation struggling with corruption and disillusionment, upending traditional Hollywood narratives of good versus evil in favor of ambivalence and realism. Similarly, Lalande finds in the actors’ struggles (among them, absent fathers, substance abuse, and failed relationships) the source of the tumultuous energy that fueled their performances.