The 1960s: The Counterculture Strikes Back

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The 1960s The Counterculture Strikes Back

• Article By John Belton
• Presentation by Anne Potteiger

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Aims of Discussion

• To be familiar with the social and political
  events of the 1960s and how they influenced film
• To identify how film portrayed women, youth, and
  race in the 1960s
• To explain how the morality of film changed in
  the mid-1960s
• To distinguish between the two 1960s and
  identify the products of them

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Outline of Discussion

• Discussion of Aims/Introduction (1 minute)
• The Kennedy Era (3 minutes)
• Portrayal of Women, Youth, Race (5 minutes)
• Film Clip The Graduate (2 minutes)
• Changing Morality (5 minutes)
• Blaxploitation (5 minutes)
• The Two 1960s (2 minutes)
• Wrap-Up/Review (2 minutes)

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Introduction Youth and Challenge

• During the 1960s, there was an ideological battle
  between youth (those under 30) and age (the
  older generation).
• They differed with each other over the Vietnam
  War, sexual issues, race relations, and
  lifestyle.
• The two generations formed two different cultures.

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The Kennedy Era

• As the youngest President in U.S. history, JFK
  created a New Frontier in American political
  life.
• He stated in his inaugural speech that the torch
  has been passed to a new generation of
  Americans.
• An emphasis on sophistication and style entered
  national politics with Kennedy, the style of
  government changed.

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Events During the Kennedy Era

• The Civil Rights Movement
• Focus of Kennedys domestic policy
• Became the cornerstone of 1960s activism
• Student Protests
• The Womens Movement
• The Feminine Mystique, NOW, more women in
  college/workplace

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Projections Women on Screen

• 1960s films turned the womens movement into a
  sexual revolution.
• Class Activity Barbarella
• Also in many films the female characters were
  stereotyped.
• madonnas vs. whores
• governesses vs. prostitutes
• For the most part, white- and blue-collar working
  women didnt make it back to the screen until the
  late 70s/early 80s.

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Youth Films Activism as Lifestyle

• Many films portrayed the youths war resistance
  as angst.
• The student movement was often reduced to just
  confused college kids who are only attracted to
  the idea of political activism and protests for
  sex and cheap thrills.
• Serious independent films such as Black Panther
  (1968) and Medium Cool (1969) attempted to show
  the perspectives of minority groups and student
  radicals.
• Youth cult films The Graduate and Easy Rider
  (towards the end of the decade).

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The Graduate As a Youth Cult Film

• Became an influential film for the under-30
  market because they felt they could relate to
  Dustin Hoffmans character (Benjamin) and his
  situation.
• Benjamin feels confused and alienated, which the
  adults in the film cannot understand or identify
  with.
• The adults try to manipulate him and shape his
  future.
• Video Clip

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Solving the Race Problem

• 1960s films exposed racism, but did so without
  exposing the sources of it ignored the
  politics of racism.
• They viewed racism as a human problem, so it
  could be solved through dramatic means.
• Problem-solvers
• Mere acknowledgement of the problem (example
  Guess Whos Coming to Dinner)
• White paternalism
• Both blacks and whites working together onscreen
  against a common enemy

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Changing Morality

• In the 1960s, the film industry was still making
  films for a general audience and was reluctant to
  tackle politically controversial subject matter
  they were economically driven to play it safe.
• Big money-makers of the 60s
• War films (The Longest Day-1962)
• Widescreen historical epics (Lawrence of
  Arabia-1962)
• Disney family films (One Hundred and One
  Dalmatians-1961)
• Musicals (The Sound of Music-1965)

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Changing Morality continued

• For the most part, films containing sex did very
  well.
• Cleopatra (1963)
• James Bond movies (especially Goldfinger,
  Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice)
• However, they were the exceptions other forms of
  social controversy (i.e., violence, drugs, the
  rebellion of the youth against the older
  generation) maintained the status of
  exploitation films and rarely made it to major
  theaters.
• No showings meant no profit (which as we already
  know was the main concern of the film industry!).

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Changing Morality A New Vocabulary

• Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Featured language never before heard on screen
• Grossed over 14.5 million and won five Academy
  Awards

• The Graduate (1967)
• The hero engages in an adulterous relationship
  with the wife of his fathers business partner
• Grossed over 44 million

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Changing Morality The Rating System

• In April 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that local
  communities could establish their own censorship
  guidelines concerning movies.
• The Motion Picture Producers Association (MPPA)
  created a ratings system in order to prevent any
  attempts from local governments to make their own
  forms of censorship.
• The new ratings system took effect on November 1,
  1968.
• G, M (PG), R, X (PG-13 was not introduced until
  the 1980s)
• It paved the way for more films dealing with
  mature subject matter.

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Blaxploitation

• Films such as In the Heat of the Night, Guess
  Whos Coming to Dinner, and To Sir, With Love
  indicated to Hollywood that black was not only
  beautiful but box office as well.
• One-quarter of all moviegoers in the late 1960s
  and 1970s were black this statistic plus the
  success of films starring black actors led to a
  period of blaxploitation films.
• Between 1970 and 1972, over 50 feature films were
  specifically made for a black audience.
• Examples Cotton Comes to Harlem, Shaft, Black
  Caesar

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Blaxploitation continued

• Blaxploitation films were inexpensively made
  exploitation films that were made primarily with
  middle- and lower-class blacks in mind.
• However, white audiences were drawn to them as
  well because of the films large doses of sex,
  violence, and gritty realism.
• Critics complained that the heros of
  blaxploitation films were not represented in a
  positive manner (the majority of them were
  criminals).
• Most revolutionaries of the black power movement
  enjoyed the outlaw status because it allowed
  them to strike back against the conservative
  mainstream.

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The Two 1960s

• For moviegoers, there were two 1960s
• One for the conservative, middle-aged,
  middle-class mainstream
• Historical epics, musicals, Disney family movies
• One for the younger, more liberal, middle- and
  lower-class audience
• The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider

• Eventually, the film style preferred by the
  youth became more popular.
• By the late 1960s, movies aimed toward the older
  generation became failures, and films for the
  college crowd were very successful.

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Rejuvenation Products of the 1960s

• The majority of those who produced, wrote, and
  directed movies in the 1960s were products of
  much earlier eras.
• During the early 1970s, a new generation of
  filmmakers emerged who belonged to the generation
  of 1960s filmgoers.
• Examples George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg,
  Martin Scorsese
• Cinema became stylistically youthful and
  inventive but politically conservative.
• They were more conservative because exploitation
  films cost much more to make in the 70s, so their
  potential for revolutionary statements was
  limited.

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Review Questions

• During the 1960s, there was an ideological battle
  between the ______ and the ______.
• 2. How were women portrayed in 1960s film?
• Give an example of a blaxploitation film.
• T/F By the late 1960s, movies preferred by the
  older generation were more successful than those
  preferred by the younger generation.