Hollywood in the 1960s: A Schizoid Decade
The Apartment (1960) portrays bankrupt American culture & corporate disillusionment under the guise of a love story.
Early 1960-1965: Camelot Era
The era began as one of complacency (extension of 1950s) and of romantic idealism, best typified perhaps by the romantic film of the hit play CAMELOT and the youthful Pres. John F. Kennedy and his glamorous wife. Hollywood movies also emphasized glamour, but at expense of practically everything else.
‛Bigger Is Better’ might well have served as the credo of the industry. Due to continued competition from television, production was cut-back to fewer, but more lavish and expensive films due to stars demanding larger salaries and a percentage of the profits.
Emphasis on BLOCKBUSTER SPECTACLES modeled after successful Ben Hur, but often bombs like Cleopatra (1.2 escalated to $40 million) –w. wisdom of ‛big’ luring audiences.
Watch: Ben-Hur (the Chariot Race)
Watch: Lawrence of Arabia (flame transition)
Watch: West Side Story (Tonight number)
Watch: Cleopatra (Cleopatra enters Rome)
The result of this was the eventual collapse of the studios as independent entities and their gradual takeover by huge commercial conglomerates. Many of these conglomerates had tie-in companies in related industries like publishing, TV production, and the music industry. Hence, a movie could be packaged as a multi-industry product, w. publishing rights going to one subsidiary, soundtrack recordings to another, and so on, (i.e. synergy).
Also to afford such efforts, International co-production also flourished such as the British/American Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia. Thus British invasion was at its height, though financed by American capital.
Transitional films
1966: Seconds is essentially a character study of a middle-aged man, lonely and alienated, who gets a chance to start his life again as someone else. He screws up his second existence even worse than his first. The film deals with the idea that the “American Success story” is perhaps a trap which only leads to disillusionment.
Watch: Seconds scene
Breakdown of Marriage/Family:
1966: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Mike Nichols’ first film was an adaptation of a famous Edward Albee drama about a drunken evening with a middle-aged college professor, his shrewish wife, and their two guests, a young academic couple. All four principals were nominated for acting Oscars, and two won–Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis. A box office success, the film was praised by critics for its fine ensemble acting and its artistic integrity. Because of the literary prestige of Albee’s Broadway play, the movie version is surprisingly faithful, including most of its strong language and sexual frankness. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman broke several long-standing production code taboos w. his remarkably professional script, which preserved most of Albee’s biting dialogue intact. It was the beginning of the end of the Production Code, which was abolished in 1968. Movies were thereafter rated according to audience age and maturity levels.
Watch: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Dance Scene
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf clip – CC
1966: The Chase.
Directed by Arthur Penn prior to his breakthrough film Bonnie and Clyde, this film envisions nothing less than the breakdown of American society. According to film critic Robin Wood, a breakdown of ideological confidence in institutions
- and so the American culture–pervades films made during the Vietnam era
THE GOVERNMENT – Lack of confidence in the government-supported War–especially by draft age youth led to
- Opposition to the Patriarchal Order (I.E. ‘the Establishment!’)
- The ability of fathers to effectively/morally/logically lead.
- This in turn creates an increasing lack of faith in the myth of the wife/mother as man’s supporter/inspiration/redeemer and an increase in the understanding that the patriarchal family is an institution for the oppression of women.
- Thus, the sanctity of marriage and the Church comes into question, resulting in a change in attitudes towards sex.
- Generation Gap’ – of teens towards conformity & ‘empty values’ (think REBEL w/o Cause!) The rising generation of young people—especially young men of draft age who may be required to fight and die for a war their fathers began—began to criticize their parents’ seeming obsession with conformity and the ‘empty’ pursuit of expensive “status symbols” such as mink coats, expensive cars, expensive pools, etc. This disparity between the generations became known as the “generation gap.”
As a result of these foundations being questioned—AND NO NEW BELIEF SYSTEM TO REPLACE THEM– a tension and paranoia results, inciting fears for the future well-being of the country, and so, the individual citizen.
VIOLENCE is the next result of the fear and frustration of men–In particular–who do not divert their energies into communal work due to an inability to find any worthy institution.
Overall progress is no longer sought through learning, but is reduced to efforts at status-seeking and hypocrisy.
The further intriguing element is that while such a state of affairs was frequently portrayed, seldom if ever was an alternative suggested in what Wood refers to as “protests without resolution” films. (Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, 17).
Watch: Climax of The Chase