The 1990s: The Greatest Decade Of Independent Film

A classic in the making.

In my previous post, I wrote about why I thought Pulp Fiction is a monumental piece of cinematic history. I said it came out during a decade where independent film exploded, and became a much bigger deal than it ever was before.

There were independent films from the '80s like The Terminator and Blood Simple that showcased a rise in independent film, but I think the '90s was the decade where independent film really took off. In 1990, Richard Linklater wrote, directed, and starred in Slacker, which is one of the first movies that was made on a "Micro Budget" which got a lot of attention. It was seen by Kevin Smith, who realized that it was possible for people to make their own films, even if they don't have that much money. He wrote and directed Clerks, which is another famous independent film.

Darren Aronofsky made Pi, a film so disturbing, intelligent, and raw, that you couldn't imagine the film with a bigger budget. The gritty cinematography and pulse-pounding music couldn't be imitated in a Hollywood movie because of how good their resources are. Darren Aronofsky went on to direct Requiem For A Dream, which I think is his best film to date.

One of those rare films where the lack of replay value is the best thing about it.

Of course, there's no way I could make a post about independent film without mentioning Robert Rodriguez, who made El Mariachi when he was only 24 years old. El Mariachi is a film that rarely feels amateur, despite having a budget of only $7,000. The irony is, if Robert Rodriguez didn't have to pay for celluloid, processing and telecine costs, the budget would have been only $600. He took the resources he already had, and utilized them incredibly well, which is why it was so impressive. Of course, he was lucky that he got to film in Mexico, which doesn't seem to have strict laws for filming action scenes out in the open. You could never make a low-budget action film like that in the busy streets of New York. Still, apart from some weak acting from the main antagonist at the end of the film, I thought it was incredibly well made.

Christopher Nolan is another director who got his big break from writing and directing a micro budget film, called Following. It didn't have crazy set-pieces like El Mariachi, but it had an engaging story that showcased Nolan's skills in writing and directing. It proves that audiences care more about good storytelling than anything else. It's interesting because Nolan said the British film industry never really helped him out; It was a struggle to get any funding for his projects prior to making Following (which is expected, considering the cost of making a film). He self-funded his own film, and then he directed with much bigger budgets over the years.

After seeing this movie, you knew Christopher Nolan was gonna take over Hollywood.

His subsequent films were getting more and more expensive than his earlier work, and now he's one of the most powerful filmmakers working in Hollywood today. He's one of the few modern directors who can direct big-budget original films (without IP) and still make tons of money at the box office. He cares about good storytelling more than anything else, and while he's gotten a lot sloppier with exposition, he always tries to tell a great story. The big budgets he has access to hasn't gone over his head; he actually tries to make at least one incredible set-piece for every film he makes.

But I digress. I know independent films have existed way before the '90s. Stanley Kubrick and Roger Corman are pioneers in independent cinema. Still, there weren't a lot of prominent movies released that were made outside the studio system before the '90s. Independent films didn't even have A-list actors back then (they would have had A-list actors before they became A-list, but not after). Pulp Fiction was the first independent film with A-list actors like John Travolta and Bruce Willis. Nowadays, it's like every single actor who's currently popular stars in at least one independent film.

Most of my favorite directors made their first features in the '90s. Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and the names I've already mentioned. The films they made were unconventional, outside the studio system, and incredible. There were great directorial debuts in the '00s like Amores Perros and Donnie Darko, but the best directorial debuts definitely came from the '90s and before then.

Too cool for film school.

Thanks to the technological advancements of digital cameras and video editing software, filmmaking has become a lot more consumer friendly. Modern mobile phones have better cameras than the best DV cameras of the '00s, which is incredible. This is great because filmmakers making micro-budget films can shoot more coverage without worrying about the cost of film, and they can have a good image quality if they're shooting on a really good camera.

Independent filmmaking aside, the '90s was just a fantastic decade in general. David Fincher has never directed an independent film, yet he's one of the best directors working in Hollywood. He's never directed a disappointing film, which is saying a lot, considering he directed Se7en and Fight Club.

There were specific years in the '90s where so many great films came out, 1999 in particular. The films that came out in 1999 were so incredible, that I'll have to talk about it in my next post. That year, there were independent and studio films which were so incredible, that it's shocking how all those films came out in only one year.