“Jason’s no Businessman … I Think He’s an Artist”

In 1969 a struggling Columbia Pictures, seeking to connect with a generation that the old studio hands little understood and seemed unable to reach, signed a contract with producers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner. The six-picture deal with their newly-formed production company, BBS, which traded low budgets in exchange for no studio interference over content, represented the New Hollywood dream: the opportunity to make movies that aspired to be both commercially viable and serious expressions of a more personal cinema. The BBS deal yielded some of the landmarks of the New Hollywood—films that likely would not otherwise have been possible to produce. This chapter considers the BBS phenomenon through a close reading of its films and their contribution to the New Hollywood.