In instant classics spanning the 1970s, audiences watched Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and Robert De Niro come of artistic age. Together, this dynamic group advanced the craft of screen acting and redefined what it meant to be a man in the age of post-'60s disillusionment, burgeoning feminism, and the narcissistic machoism of disco culture.

The book, featuring 35 photographs, is a critical and historical look at the films, performances, and career arcs of six of the biggest male stars of the 1970s. Studying them in the context of the times, it also touches on several of their contemporaries including Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, James Caan, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Richard Dreyfuss, and Bruce Lee.