The Sixties

Soviet Nuclear Explosion, 1949

The Sixties
• Censorship & the Courts
– The Miracle Case
– Released in America in
1950, the film was found
blasphemous (a woman
thinks she is the Virgin
Mary) by the Legion of
Decency (The Catholics,
not the MPAA) but decision
was overturned by
examining First Amendment
principles
The Sixties
• Revising the Production
Code
– Rise of foreign films came
PCA problems
– Otto Preminger’s The Moon
is Blue (1953) was denied
approval as Preminger
refused to cut words such
as “seduce,” “virgin,” and
“mistress”
– United Artists opted out of
the Motion Picture
Association of America
(MPAA) temporarily - would
theaters book the film?
The Sixties
• Yes! And it made money!
– Preminger did it again with The
Man With the Golden Arm
– Due to the success of these
two films, the code was revised
- you could say hell & damn!
– Tea and Sympathy modified –
no hint of homosexuality and
adultery had to be “punished”
– Baby Doll was allowed to pass
as a favor to HUAC friendly
Kazan
The Sixties
– Blacklist broken officially
in 1960 by either Kirk
Douglas or Otto
Preminger - depending
on who’s talking – both
were written by Trumbo
The Sixties
– Ban on nudity ended in
1957 with a court case
involving the 1954 film, The
Garden of Eden, which set
the precedent for “nudie
cuties”
The Sixties
• Jack Valenti, the MPAA &
Film Ratings
– Hollywood saw the potential
for mature audiences with
the success of Preminger’s
films
– Spearheaded the effort to
put a new ratings system in
place in 1966 which is still in
effect
 The Sixties
• Kennedy assassination,
1963

The Zapruder Film, frame 238

The Zapruder Film Stabilized

The Sixties
• Civil Rights Protests
• Voting Rights Act, 1965
 The Sixties
• Meanwhile, in came the
French New Wave
– Jean-Luc Godard
– François Truffaut

Godard’s
Bande à part, 1964
&
Breathless, 1960
 The Sixties

Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, 1962 & The 400 Blows, 1959

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

Visconti’s The Damned, 1969

The Sixties
• Federico Fellini
– La Dolce Vita, 1959
• Michelangelo Antonioni
– Red Desert, 1964
• Pier Paolo Pasolini
– Accattone, 1961
• Luchino Visconti
– The Leopard, 1963
The Sixties
• But in the early 60’s,
studios were still behind
the curve
• Continued to make
large-scale, wide-
screen 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, 1963
– Nearly bankrupted 20th
Century Fox
– Cost $44 million or $270
million in today’s 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
– Elizabeth Taylor became the
first actor to be paid a million
dollars
The Sixties
• Politics began to seep
in to film because of the
Cold War & nuclear
proliferation as well as
the Bay of Pigs standoff
in 1961
The Sixties
• Stanley Kubrick’s Dr.
Strangelove or: How I
Stopped Worrying and
Love the Bomb &
Sidney Lumet’s Fail
Safe, 1964
The Sixties
• Vietnam War and the
shift in sensibility
• War where the U.S. had
no interests and fighting
for a corrupt regime
• Flood of images on
television & in print
 The Sixties
• New sexual
permissiveness
• Drug use
• Anti-establishment
tone
• Don’t trust anyone
over 30

John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Bed

In for Peace, 1969
The Sixties
• Robert F. Kennedy
assassination, 1968
The Sixties
• Martin Luther King
assassination, 1968
 The Sixties
• Violent polarization of
society
– While many protest
movements started
peacefully, assassination
& violence at protests
radicalized them

Kent State, 1970

 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
• Easy Rider, 1969
– Echoes of Altamont
– Success surprised
everyone
– Made for $375,000
– Biker film – not
considered a prestigious
genre
– About America - myths,
hypocrisies and
strengths
The Sixties
• No stars
• Contemporary music
• Opened the industry up
to young filmmakers
The Sixties
• Major filmmakers
– Sidney Lumet
– John Frankenheimer
– John Cassavetes
– Mike Nichols
– Sam Peckinpah
– Stanley Kubrick
The Sixties
• Sidney Lumet
– Began in television
• Twelve Angry Men
• Fail Safe
• The Pawnbroker
• Long Day’s Journey into
Night
• In the 70’s made
Serpico, Network & Dog
Day Afternoon
The Sixties
• John Frankenheimer
– Also from television
– Way ahead of his time -
more appreciated now
– The Paranoia Trilogy
• Seven Days in May
• The Manchurian
Candidate
• Seconds
• Birdman of Alcatraz
The Sixties
• John Cassavetes
– Actor who acted to finance
films
– Father of independent film
– Cinéma Vérité
– Actors improvised
• Shadows
• Faces
• Husbands
The Sixties
• Mike Nichols
– New York stage
comedian/director
– Oscar for The Graduate
– “Killed” romantic comedy
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf
• Silkwood
• Closer
• Heartburn
• Working Girl
• Carnal Knowledge
The Sixties
• Sam Peckinpah
– Revisionist Westerns
– Bad guys against guys
even worse
– Extreme violence in slow
motion
• The Wild Bunch
• Ride the High Country
The Sixties
• Stanley Kubrick
– Photographer for Look
magazine
• Spartacus
• Lolita
• Dr. Strangelove
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• A Clockwork Orange
• Paths of Glory
The Sixties
• Bonnie & Clyde, 1967
– “They're young... they're
in love... and they kill
people”
 The Sixties
• More of a reflection of
the 60’s than a biopic

The real Bonnie & Clyde

The Sixties
• Anti-heroes
– Accomplish goals in an
un-heroic way
– Film Noir characters
– Spaghetti Westerns
• Revised ( Revisionism)
the idea of genre and
the codes and signs
The Sixties
– Turning point of
cinematic sensibility
– Living out the dream
of violent social
rebellion
– Intense violence
– Criticized for
glorifying crime and
violence with
elements of comedy
The Sixties
• Arthur Penn, 1922-2010
– Also from television and
NY stage
– "Lee Strasberg ruined an
entire generation of
actors with that sense
memory crap.”
• The Miracle Worker
• Bonnie & Clyde
• Little Big Man
• Alice’s Restaurant
The Sixties
• Warren Beatty
– Already a star & this
made him bigger
– Was producer on film
– Produces and directs
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller
• Heaven Can Wait
• Shampoo
• Reds
• Dick Tracy
The Sixties
• Faye Dunaway
– Bonnie & Clyde made
her a star
• Three Days of the
Condor
• Network
• Chinatown
• Mommie Dearest