This was a new Golden Age of American cinema. Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were among its heroes. With each success the filmmakers were allowed more creative control. However this newfound freedom gave birth to an explosion of excess, ego, soaring budgets and a seemingly endless supply of drugs; and the filmmakers' mutual support and encouragement degenerated into intense competition and bitter rivalries.

As well as clips from the era's iconic films, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features exclusive interviews with key players including Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda and Cybill Shepherd. This is a unique portrait of an iconoclastic period of movie history.