Burt Lancaster & George Kennedy in Airport; Sun Ra & Ray Johnson in Space Is the Place

Publishers Weekly: "While the text is engrossing and written with verve, the photos are the real delight. Some are candid shots from the set, others promotional stills, and a few—enough, perhaps—are favorite scenes from favorite films (like M*A*S*H's version of the Last Supper [popup image]). As coffee-table books go, this is one of the year's most fun."

See more sample pages from Stewardess! (popup images):
Films of John Cassavetes and movies with fast cars.

The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane! is a lavishly illustrated and informative look at more than 400 films of the decade, not only acknowledged masterpieces like The Godfather and Taxi Driver, but cult faves like Kansas City Bomber...and even spectacular flops like Myra Breckinridge. Ron Hogan's commentary places the films in the context of a time when the counterculture became America's culture. With 310 color and black-and-white images, Stewardess! is the most comprehensive overview available of this fascinating era in American film.

On a (just barely) more serious note, for an interview with The Reeler, Ron describes the writing process for Stewardess!: "For six months, my TiVo was filled with nothing but '70s films. But actually I shouldn't say 'my TiVo,' because it's actually my wife's TiVo, so that led to some testy moments over the course of the research period. It's like, 'Can we get rid of some of these trashy movies?' ... It would get to points where there were like a dozen cheap horror films mixed in with, like, The French Connection."

Speaking with Cinematical, he offers some more details on the research and production stages, as well as listing some of his favorite '70s films—including one that didn't make it into the book! The Spook Who Sat by the Door (left) is "like Shaft meets The Amateur meets The Battle of Algiers," he says. "Remember all the hoopla about how The Warriors was going to cause massive gang violence? By all rights, this film should have started urban uprisings from coast to coast." And an IM chat with Cinecultist explains why he never pursued a career in criticism after leaving USC's film studies program: "We used to joke about that in grad school, actually, about how hard it would be if we seriously thought about trying to get film critic gigs, because those really do seem like positions that most critics leave only when they're taken out on a stretcher."

In fact, not only is Tony Scott reshooting Walter Hill's cult classic The Warriors, the creators of Grand Theft Auto have already turned it into a videogame—which will soon be followed by Electronic Arts's interactive version of The Godfather (images at right from the NY Times articles on both games).