A Decade Under The Influence

It's hard not to get excited about seventies cinema after watching this documentary and I want to say before my on-the-other-hand paragragh that I think the seventies is a fascinating period of film making. I love the seventies. I probably watch more seventies cinema than any other decade
On the other hand, I think it is the most overated decade of cinema and I think most of the films of the seventies aren't quite as good as their reputation. I hate to be a grump, but all the rhapsodizing over them makes them just a little less fun. (Except of course for The Godfather, Jaws and The In-laws, which deserve probably more praise then they get.)
What I find most obnoxious about that decade is the theory that finally the "artists" were able to truly reigned supreme, before that it was just a bunch of mass market studio guys. What about The Marx Brothers, or Alfred Hitchcock, or Ernst Lubitsch, or Billy Wilder, or Charlie Chaplin or Fred Astaire or Preston Sturges or Howard Hawkes? I would argue that they are just as good of artists (perhaps better) as the seventies filmmakers, the only difference is the artists under the studio system are a little less self important and their movies are just a little more fun.

Don't get me wrong. I love seventies film. Just not the idolatry that goes with it.