Hollywood is cowardly. In the past, studios would try to make bold new properties, in mid-budget films, knowing that most would not become huge successes, and some would flop, but that the hits among them would make up for it. It gave audiences variety — they never knew quite what to expect at the cinema that weekend — and it gave filmmakers the opportunity to take risks. Quentin Tarantino, and many other film buffs, view the 1980s as a particularly bleak decade, particularly in contrast to the bold, indie-movie craze of the 1970s; but compared with today, 1980s cinema was incredible.