Netflix’s documentary, Breakdown: 1975, directed and produced by Morgan Neville, delves into a transformative year in American history, marked by political turmoil and cultural upheaval. Set against the backdrop of America’s 199th year, the film explores how the nation’s landscape was forever altered. Featuring a star-studded lineup, including Martin Scorsese, Seth Rogen, Josh Brolin, Ellen Burstyn, and Oliver Stone, the documentary also includes insights from writers and critics like Wesley Morris and Rick Perlstein, with narration by Jodie Foster. Despite its impressive roster, some viewers might find the film’s style more conversational than deeply analytical. As comedian Patton Oswalt quips, “1975 was the closest America came to saying, ‘Hey, I got flaws, too.’ And for a brief moment, cinema and pop culture were able to look at that. But it was too much, and we turned away.”

Overview: In Breakdown: 1975, a decaying Hollywood Sign serves as a metaphor for the crumbling American dream of the era. Jodie Foster’s voiceover poignantly captures the zeitgeist: “Crime was up, tensions were higher, paranoia was rampant. So what the [expletive] was going on?” The documentary highlights a new wave of filmmakers who emerged ready to challenge the old Hollywood norms. As Martin Scorsese reflects on this period, known as New Hollywood, he notes, “Everything was wiped away. We were creating a new world.”

During this pivotal decade, directors like Scorsese with Taxi Driver, a young Steven Spielberg with Jaws, and Robert Altman with Nashville crafted films that not only broke new ground in filmmaking but also mirrored the societal changes of the time. Actors like Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and Warren Beatty became icons of this era, portraying characters that captured the country’s raw emotions. In Breakdown, the tumultuous American life of the mid-70s is vividly depicted through a relentless stream of film clips and performances, reflecting the public’s urge to make sense of widespread anger and discord.

Although conspiracy theories might seem prevalent today, the mid-1970s were rife with them, spurred on by events like Watergate. The film All the President’s Men, featuring Redford and Hoffman, exposed the deep-seated corruption of the political landscape. Breakdown seamlessly weaves together themes of governmental distrust, economic crises, and the emergence of New Hollywood voices. Seth Rogen comments on the grim message of Chinatown, noting that “The bad guys tend to win.” The era also saw the rise of disaster films such as Towering Inferno, capturing the public’s imagination. The documentary touches on the “Me” Generation, the dawn of the computer age, women’s liberation, Blaxploitation films, and the cultural fog over Vietnam, all depicted through a cinematic kaleidoscope.

Recommended Viewing: For those inspired by the iconic films featured in Breakdown: 1975, consider exploring these timeless classics: The Conversation (available on Prime Video), Chinatown (Paramount+), Dog Day Afternoon (Hulu), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Apple TV), Rollerball (Tubi), and Jaws (Prime Video).

And meanwhile, Breakdown filmmaker Morgan Neville is everywhere in the streaming world. In 2024,the 20 Feet from Stardom director made a documentary in Lego about Pharrell Williams, and his film about Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles 1970s era hits Prime Video in early 2026.

Structurally, we also recommend checking out 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, a 2021 Apple TV docuseries that exhaustively dives into the stories of John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, and more.

Performance Worth Watching: The clips, they’re flying at you furiously. The choice picks and clever editing in Breakdown create an almost manic rate of information release. Every time you think, “Wait, I want to hear more about that,” it’s on to the next segment. A very impressive style, if a bit wanting. 

Memorable Dialogue: Among the many famous faces and commentators in Breakdown, an archival quote from US Senator Frank Church might be the most chilling, as applied to our time. “If a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny. And there would be no way to fight back.” 

Our Take: As narrator of Breakdown: 1975, Jodie Foster is on hand to provide connecting moments between the documentary’s voluminous stream of film footage and its selection of name-brand talking heads. But is it weird to anyone else that some of the movies being discussed as touchstones of that year were released plus-or-minus a year or two around it? Or that Foster will drop a salient quote – “The era was post-everything and pre-nothing” – but move on to the next segment without attribution, beyond a vague “as one author theorized?” The film clips featured in Breakdown are all great, and often incisively matched to the commentary overlay. Its look and feel is super dialed-in, including the doc’s use of graphics and juxtaposition, like when it shows Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle watching TV in Taxi Driver as the audio we hear – that it is imagined Bickle hears – is Peter Finch, as Howard Beale in Network, screaming his legendary mantra. “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

There’s a slight problem with that slick setup, though. Both Taxi Driver and Network were released in 1976.   

It’s quiet, unexplained assumptions like this that make us declare Breakdown: 1975 a hangout documentary. Its imagery grabs you, its crafty continuity keeps you, the talking celebs are there with you, and part of its subtext – in our era of tech bros, CEOs, LLMs, and megacorp consolidation, the New Hollywood films’ auterish and bold individuality is never, ever coming back – will stay with you. But in the end, Breakdown feels like a gloss. Watchable, recognizable, full of podcast guest prompt nuggets, and ultimately kinda shallow. A Netflixian survey of film and cultural history.

Our Call: Stream It. Very thoughtful if not always interested in depth, Breakdown: 1975 should certainly inspire a further dig into the films it features, which defined a powerful era in Hollywood and America. 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.