Filmmakers like Joe Carnahan, who channeled Sidney Lumet in “Narc,” and David Gordon Green, whose jones for Terrence Malick nearly upended “All the Real Girls,” demonstrate talent.

His work transcends his influences, but this isn’t the case with the dozens of others waving the personal-vision banner and pining for New Hollywood. It’s one thing when a director like Wes Anderson, yet another 1970s fan, cops to his love for the era because his films are more than allusions and recycled style. There’s something troubling about the way that 1970s cinema has evolved from mere fandom to become its own genre, especially among younger cinephiles. (A longer version of “Decade” airs on IFC beginning Wednesday.) In June, the cult continued with the publication of “It Don’t Worry Me: The Revolutionary American Films of the Seventies,” an appreciation written by a British critic who was all of 2 when “Mean Streets” opened.

The next day, the rival Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of another, similarly reasoned documentary about this halcyon age called “A Decade Under the Influence” directed by Richard LaGravenese and the late Ted Demme. Last January, a documentary based on “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. As the subtitle of his book puts it: “How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood.” Not long before she died, Pauline Kael wrote that the 1970s were “when the movies seemed to be about things that mattered.” Peter Biskind says the same in his 1998 bestseller about New Hollywood, “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” In brief, Biskind argues that a group of young cinematic upstarts - turned on by the era’s social turmoil - sparked a revolution in Hollywood that rejuvenated the moribund industry. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze make films under its influence fan-boy Web sites extol its glories. In the last 10 years, 1970s cinema has become an unqualified cult. A smash hit, “Easy Rider” connected with the youth culture and helped pave the way for an extraordinary decade-long run of films - “Mean Streets,” “The Exorcist,” “The Last Detail,” “Badlands” and “American Graffiti” were all released in 1973 - the likes of which haven’t been seen since. Like their characters, Fonda and Hopper were after a big score.

The year was 1969 and the movie was “Easy Rider.” Spoken by Peter Fonda to Dennis Hopper with such inscrutable cool that audiences debated their meaning long after they’d left the theater, these three words sum up the broken dreams of a couple of bikers after a proverbially long and strange trip.

Easy riders raging bulls 2003