Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ’n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

Crisis in Perception · Sep 22, 2026 · 41m

Hollywood’s director-driven revolution of the 1970s is often remembered as a triumph of artistic rebellion. Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls reveals a more complicated institutional story.

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world.

Using Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ’n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind as our lens, this Deep Dive investigates why New Hollywood emerged when it did—and why its extraordinary period of filmmaker autonomy proved temporary.

The old studio model was already destabilized by…