Netflix’s Breakdown: 1975 Reveals How a Turbulent Year Forged Cinema’s Most Enduring Classics
Netflix is rewinding to the 70s with Breakdown: 1975, an upcoming documentary tracing how a turbulent era set the stage for modern classics like Taxi Driver and Network.
Netflix is rolling out a new documentary about the 70s rule-breakers who turned chaos into classics. If you love the scrappy, sharp-edged stuff from that era, this one looks like catnip.
It is called Breakdown: 1975, and it zeroes in on the year when American movies got meaner, braver, and a lot more interesting. It comes from Tremolo Productions and Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, the guy behind '20 Feet From Stardom', 'Won't You Be My Neighbor', and 'Piece by Piece'. The doc hits Netflix on December 19.
'In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art. This documentary explores how a turbulent era gave rise to iconic movies like Taxi Driver, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Network.'
That is Netflix's official pitch, and yeah, those examples are the right vibe. The team behind this one is solid too: Neville is producing alongside Lauren Belfer, with Caitrin Rogers as executive producer. Jodie Foster is on narration duties, which is a strong choice for this subject.
Who is talking in this thing
- Albert Brooks
- Bill Gates
- Ellen Burstyn
- Frank Rich
- James Risen
- James Wolcott
- Jefferson Cowie
- Joan Tewkesbury
- Josh Brolin
- Kurt Andersen
- Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
- Martin Scorsese
- Naomi Fry
- Oliver Stone
- Patton Oswalt
- Peter Bart
- Peter Biskind
- Rick Perlstein
- Sam Wasson
- Seth Rogen
- Dr. Todd Boyd
- Wesley Morris
It is an eclectic lineup mixing filmmakers, actors, critics, historians, and yes, that Bill Gates.
If you caught Apple TV's recent Martin Scorsese retrospective, you got a preview of the kind of messy, fascinating stories this period produced. Scorsese and Steven Spielberg remembered the studio nearly cutting the ending of 'Taxi Driver'. Scorsese says the fight got so intense he even bluffed about grabbing a gun to end the argument. The solution ended up being a simple stylistic tweak: he desaturated the blood-soaked finale so it looked more like a grim tabloid than a gorefest. Suddenly, the studio was fine with it. That is the kind of blunt, practical problem-solving that defined the era, and it fits right into what Breakdown: 1975 is trying to unpack.
Breakdown: 1975 lands on Netflix December 19. I am in. What 70s titles are you hoping get their moment in the spotlight?