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

by Peter Stanfield

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.

Genres: Film

344 pages, Hardcover

Published July 22, 2024

About the author

Peter Stanfield is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury and the author of Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know of Peter Stanfield's book on music culture, which, in fact, his book on The Who is the best book on that band, but also a great book on music culture. His understanding of Mod culture is vast, smart, and exceptional, so I was surprised to read that his other passion is films, especially Western films. Standfield wrote a book about 1930s Westerns, and in a karma way, it makes sense that his next book on Westerns would be about the 1970s. And I'm using the word "Westerns" in a very broad manner because Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" and "The Last Movie" are very much Western. The book "Dirty Real" is an essential book to check into, especially if one sets oneself on fire for the magnificence of the 1970s era of American narrative filmmaking.

[Peyton]

Cool read, nice to read and revisit some movies I hadn’t seen in awhile and reminders to check out a few I still haven’t seen. This era was certainly a vibe.