Seventies Retro (article) by Frances Lynn on AuthorsDen

The Seventies have never been more nostalgic. Baby boomers, i.e. relics in their fifties and sixties don’t like to be reminded how old they are. But, ironically they are unable to resist looking back on the Seventies with fond nostalgia. Luckily for them, there is currently a big revival of that extraordinary decade. It’s not surprising as the Seventies were not only totally revolutionary politically - i.e. the advancement of civil rights, gay and women's liberation, the Watergate scandal and the end of the Vietnam war to name a few. But, also the fluctuant times were reflected in the Arts, especially fashion and Music. Glam rock was followed by the revolutionary punk movement and also disco. Fortunately for nostalgic Seventies aficionados, their favourite decade has never gone away and is currently enjoying a bigger come back than the Sixties even. I started writing “Frantic” in the early Seventies and captured the essence of what I experienced in those hedonistic times. Wild times, fuelled by 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' were the norm amongst kids in the inner cities. But, I would never have predicted that the recent publication of my novel "Frantic" about the nostalgic Seventies, would coincide with the present nostalgia boom. I would never have guessed that the novel I started writing at the beginning of that decade would turn out to be so topical! It's not only literature about the Seventies which has suddenly become fashionable, but also music and the manufactured Sex Pistols which instigated punk rock. It's amazing how the Arts of that period have all been regurgitated at the beginning of the twenty first century. Especially, the '70's explosive, Hollywood Movie Industry, which churned out masses of commercial, individually themed movies, created by youthful, auteur styled directors like Martin Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas to name just a few. Also '70's horror films paved the way for pale imitations for years to come. The intellectual David Cronenberg, George Romero, John Carpenter and the Italian Maestro – Dario Argento were gods of the genre, and haven’t been untoppled to this day in the popularity stakes. Thanks to popular TV re-runs on Network and cable television, DVDs and movie downloads on the internet, Seventies movies haven’t been banished to languish in the archives. Francis Coppola’s “The Godfather” movies (1 & 2) are still globally showing, likewise Spielberg’s cinematic masterpieces, like “Jaws”, “ET,” “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’ etc. George Lucas’s initial “Star Wars” movies were so innovative, that to this day, jaded cinema buffs don’t believe that modern film-makers can ever repeat that exciting folklore magic. Not only were the actual movies larger than life, but so were the legendary movie stars who appeared in them. Actors like Al Pacino Robert de Niro executed the Method, and actor Warren Beatty, who had the power, made and acted in "Shampoo", the superficial Seventies movie with a heart about hairdressing in Beverly Hills. Not only did the Seventies produce a new wave of successful Hollywood movies, but decades later, nostalgic cinematic offerings like Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous”, revivalist music, art and literature all help to keep the Seventies resurrected for a very long time to come. Copyright: Frances Lynn 2006
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