A Wave of Their Own: How Jewish Filmmakers Invented the New Hollywood

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The Jewish New Wave in American film of the 1960s and 1970s is old news as far as actors (Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Richard Dreyfuss, et al.) are concerned. What has been almost totally neglected is the even more overarching if not definitive contribution of Jewish directors to the formation of the New Hollywood (1967–1980) writ large. This article explores the main factors behind this remarkable influence and examines in greater detail some of the primary figures behind it: Arthur Penn, Mike Nichols, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, and Woody Allen. These filmmakers’ work not only played a seminal role in the emergence of the New Hollywood but, the article argues, Jewish elements—some explicit, others subtextual—are clearly discernible as well.