The Sixties

Soviet Nuclear Explosion, 1949

The Sixties
New sexual permissiveness Drug use Anti-establishment tone Dont trust anyone over 30
John Lennon & Yoko Onos Bed In for Peace, 1969

The Sixties
Kennedy assassination, 1963

The Zapruder Film, frame 238 The Zapruder Film Stabilized

The Sixties
Martin Luther King assassination, 1968

The Sixties
Robert F. Kennedy assassination, 1968

The Sixties
Vietnam War and the shift in sensibility War where the U.S. had no interests and fighting for a corrupt regime

Anti-war Protestors

The Sixties
Civil Rights Protests Voting Rights Act, 1965

The Sixties
Violent polarization of society While many protest movements started peacefully, assassination & violence at protests radicalized them
Kent State, 1970

The Sixties
Movements became radicalized
Black Panthers Abbie Hoffman & the Yippies Columbia riots, 1968 City College takeover by Black & Hispanic activists resulted in open admissions, 1969

The Sixties
Rock and Roll went from this

Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley

The Sixties
To this

The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin

The Sixties
Music helped drive protests and politics Eventually, so did cinema

The Sixties
Woodstock, 1969 500,000 attended The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens, Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, and the list goes on

The Sixties
The day the music died - Altamont, 1969

The Sixties
But in the early 60s, studios were still behind the curve Continued to make large-scale, widescreen epics

The Sixties
Some were very successful

West Side Story & The Sound of Music

The Sixties
Some were not

Dr. Dolittle & Cleopatra

The Sixties
Cleopatra
Nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox Cost $44 million or $270 million in todays dollars Grossed $23 million at the box office Story behind the film is much more interesting than the film itself The end of the Sword and Sandal picture

The Sixties
Elizabeth Taylor became the first actor to be paid a million dollars

The Sixties
Meanwhile, in came the French New Wave
Jean-Luc Godard Franois Truffaut

Godards Bande part, 1964 & Breathless, 1960

The Sixties

Truffauts Jules et Jim, 1962 & The 400 Blows, 1959

The Sixties
Italian Cinema after Neo-realism Spare plots & dialogue Mood & feelings Sometimes political

Viscontis The Damned, 1969

The Sixties
Federico Fellini Michelangelo Antonioni Pier Paolo Pasolini Luchino Visconti
La Dolce Vita, 1959 Red Desert, 1964 Accattone, 1961 The Leopard, 1963

The End of the Code

Revising the Production Code
With foreign films came PCA problems Otto Premingers The Moon is Blue was denied approval, United Artists opted out of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) temporarily - would theaters book the film?

The End of the Code

Yes & Preminger did it again with The Man With the Golden Arm More films were being released without a certificate of approval such as Psycho & Some Like It Hot Due to the success of these two films, the code was revised - you could say hell & damn! Tea and Sympathy modified Baby Doll was allowed to pass as a favor to HUAC friendly Kazan

The End of the Code

Censorship & the Courts
The Miracle Case Found blasphemous (a woman thinks she ids the Virgin Mary) but decision was overturned by examining First Amendment principles Ban on nudity ended in 1957 with The Garden of Eden & set the precedent for nudie cuties

The End of the Code

PCA reluctantly granted approval to films with adult themes such as gender, homosexuality & sex if some cuts were made & the film was labeled mature Sidney Lumets The Pawnbroker was granted an exception (bare breasts) because of the subject matter (the effects of the Holocaust) More & more films were being released without approval or labeled For Mature Audiences thus beginning the reign of the Motion Picture Association of America and the rating system in 1968

The Sixties
Politics began to seep in to film
Cold War nuclear proliferation Bay of Pigs, 1961

Sidney Lumets Fail Safe & Stanley Kubricks Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964

The Sixties
Easy Rider, 1969, dir. Peter Fonda
About America - myths, hypocrisies and strengths Success surprised everyone Made for $375,000 Biker film No stars Contemporary music Opened the industry up to young filmmakers

The Sixties
Sidney Lumet
Twelve Angry Men Fail Safe The Pawnbroker

John Frankenheimer
Seven Days in May The Manchurian Candidate Seconds

Stanley Kubrick
Lolita Dr. Strangelove 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Sixties
John Cassavetes
Actor who acted to finance films Father of independent film Cinma Vrit
Shadows Faces Husbands

Sam Peckinpah
Revisionist Westerns Bad guys against guys even worse Extreme violence in slow motion
The Wild Bunch Ride the High Country

The Sixties
The Graduate, 1967
Dir. Mike Nichols Screenplay Buck Henry & Calder Willingham Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross & Buck Henry

The Sixties
The highest-grossing motion picture of 1967 Nominated for seven Academy Awards The American Film Institute ranked it at number seven in its list of the greatest films of the century Features one of the most recognizable soundtracks in movie history

The Sixties
Helped launch the careers of actor Dustin Hoffman, screenwriter Buck Henry and director Mike Nichols Has been credited with the assassination of the romantic comedy While it never shows the counter-culture of the 60s, authority is always questioned & conforming is not such a good thing

The Sixties

Select Filmography
Charlie Wilson's War (2007) Closer (2004) Angels in America (2003) Wit (2001) What Planet Are You From? (2000) Primary Colors (1998) The Birdcage (1996) Regarding Henry (1991) Postcards from the Edge (1990) Working Girl (1988) Biloxi Blues (1988) Heartburn (1986) Silkwood (1983) The Day of the Dolphin (1973) Carnal Knowledge (1971) Catch-22 (1970) Teach Me! (1968) The Graduate (1967) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Sixties
Mike Nichols
Dropped out of Univ. of Chicago to study acting with Lee Strasberg & The Actors Studio Returned to Chicago to work with The Compass where he began working with Elaine May & rode the boom in satirical comedy & improvisation Broadway directing debut - Barefoot in the Park First film - Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Second film - The Graduate (Oscar) Tony for Barefoot, Emmy for Wit & Grammy for comedy albums

Mike Nichols & Elaine May Comedy

The Sixties
Casting drama
Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Burt Ward (!) Doris Day & Patricia Neal

By casting Dustin Hoffman, Nichols is credited with changing the notion of a leading man

The Sixties
Dustin Hoffman, 1937 Oscars for Rainman Kramer vs. Kramer Midnight Cowboy, Straw Dogs, Papillon, Lenny, All the Presidents Men, Marathon Man, Tootsie, Hook, Wag the Dog, Meet the Fockers, I Huckabees, Finding Neverland, Dick Tracy, The Simpsons and the list goes on

The Sixties
Anne Bancroft, 1931-2005
The Miracle Worker, 1962 (Oscar) Accomplished stage & television actress Married to Mel Brooks Said that The Graduate overshadowed every role she took afterwards Has an Emmy, Tony and Oscar She was 9 years older that her daughter in the film and 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman

The Sixties
Katharine Ross, 1940 Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid The Stepford Wives The Colbys Donnie Darko Also a published childrens book author

The Sixties
Buck Henry
Writer, actor, comedian, Daily Show regular Created Get Smart with Mel Brooks Hosted SNL 10 times You may have seen him on Will & Grace or Tales from the Crypt or as Liz Lemons father on 30 Rock