This didn't happen all at-once. The very early 1960s still retained some 1950s lingering, innocent charm. Indeed, music-wise, the song, It's My Party (and I'll Cry If I Want To) by Leslie Gore came out in 1963 though it very much defines the 1950s by its standard. Truly that specific song is the final hit of the 1950s era, suitable as it clarion calls the end of an era into a new one.
Yes, it really wasn't until 1963 or so when things just started acting whacky and this generation pretty much continued into 1974, so that whole movement lasted about 11 years, you know, the whole Austin Powers thing that we recognize now. Woodstock outdoor concert in Pennsylvania ends the decade.
While the "greasers" of the 1950s symbolized the counterculture of its time, the 1960s embraced it to the point of it being common-place. Flashy, colorful fashion was everywhere to an extremist, self-indulgent level in America. Hippies continue with this from the "beatnik" jazz-loving crowd to the next level by burning bras, wearing tie-die shirts, embracing nature and joining communes, turning their back to the institutionalization of society, making their own, made famous by the movie, Alice's Restaurant which a 15 minute segment about the Army draft is now played since then every Thanksgiving Day on various FM channels in the US.
Hollywood was trying to take-in all of this chaos and fared better than the 1950s, particularly towards the end of it as the free-love hippie movement was more based in their home state the directors saw and embraced more of it. There was a huge insurgence of the surfer scene as well, and several movies were based on it, such as Beach Blanket Bingo which starred Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello and several spin-offs come from it of beach-dancing and surfing. None were very good, really, but just plain fun. None of the surfer-scene movies make it to my list, but I give them historical mention.
 |
| Beach Blanket Bingo |
Most of the older folks really rebelled against the teen rebellion which just fueled the fire further, making things even more extreme. WWII Veterans hated it.
The "peace sign" of two fingers held up as well as the circle of three joining into one becomes the anthem of the time.
 |
| The Peace symbol was often depicted on VW Bugs of the time and represented the hippie culture. |
The great British Invasion of culture also erupted, thanks to many interesting films and music, in particular The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as well as Pink Floyd, The Dave Clark Five, The Troggs (think Wild Thing), Tom Jones (think What's New Pussycat) as well as several films from James Bond to Peter O'Toole and Michael Cain and television such as Dr. Who (not that new crap) and The Prisoner.
 |
| Twiggy dares to wear a scandalous Union Jack-British Flag dress, a famously skinny British model |
Cars changed as well. Gone was the '57 Chevy and say hello to the Pontiac GTO Judge, '69 Camaro SS, and the Ford Mustang convertible. Muscle cars are IT.
 |
| The Pontiac GTO "Judge" named after a Sammy Davis Jr. sketch, "Here Comes the Judge" on Laugh-In |
 |
| Golide Hawn on Laugh-In in typical mid-sketch dance-atire lampooned in Austin Powers 30 years later. |
Sesame Street got it's start in 1969 thanks to The Ed Sullivan Show which was "Late Nite TV". A new concept for night-owls. Star Trek was ground-breaking in 1964. Gilligan's Island, The Monkeys, Get Smart, and Bewitched were prime-time favorites. Soap operas dominated the afternoons for the stay-at-home moms. The Flintstones were a prime-time equivalent of The Simpsons as a parody of a show called The Honeymooners.
 |
| Cartoon introduction of the TV show, Bewitched about a wife knowledgeable in "good" witchcraft marrying a suburban man. |
 |
| Star Trek explored counterculture and progressiveness in a sci-fi setting "boldly", particularly with mixed-race actors. |
 |
| President Nixon on Laugh-In anouncing the punchline, "Sock it to .. me?" |
 |
| Vietnam soldiers trying their darndest to survive despite Jane Fonda's anti-war campaign that said the Vietnamese were peaceful and treated our prisoners well, which was not true if you meet any of 'em. |
 |
| Counterculture invades the War Effort of Vietnam, contradicting war wtih "flower power" |
 |
| Vietnam was incredibly difficult a war |
Space exploration is in full-swing with the Great Space Race against the Soviets with brave heroes using push-button indicators and transistors with nary a computer chip to be found, and we land on the moon, televised for every human on Earth to see.
 |
| We made it to the moon using tinfoil and transistors |
 |
| Hippie counter-culture is parodied in the film, I Love You Alice B. Toklas who, in fact was based on the 1800's inventor of marijuana-brownies. |
 |
| Teens embrase non-work and laziness fighting agaist the System similar to the Occupy Wall Street movement, and with the same results. |
 |
| Long hair replaces the short, buzz-cut. People often stunk due to lack of showering. |
Top 10 Best Movies of the 1960s
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
_bquad.jpg)
Following the footsteps of The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, Columbia Pictures wanted to one-up Paramount and MGM with this grand epic. Story is about a British soldier, T.E. Lawrence and his real-life experiences in Damascus. To create the immense size of the desert, Columbia filmed it in Super Panavision 70 which was double the size of normal films. Select theaters had to build double-sized, curved screens similar to IMAX theaters today. For 1962, that was a big deal.
The acting is excellent, particularly with Alec Guinness of Star Wars fame and Omar Sherif. Fantastic, epic film that contrasts and submerges the viewer into the Arabic culture. A nice balance of action and acting. Film runs an astounding 222 minutes and is thankfully broken into 2 parts with a wonderful Intermission section, making a nod to older films of the 1930s and 1940s. Watching this movie is an event in itself.
 |
| Peter O'Toole is suprised how good this film really is. Omar Sherif says, "I told you so!" |
Enjoy the splendour. If you can see it in the rare instance of an actual theatrical watch with the London Philharmonic blasting away at the surround speakers, do so for effect alone! This movie definitely one-ups more epic films of the past by sheer force.
2. Psycho (1960)
A secretary embezzles from her employer to help out her boyfriend and during her escape stays at a secluded hotel enroute to his house in California so she can wait out the night rain storm. Here she meets the hotel owner, Norman Bates who isn't all quite right in the head. The movie plays out to a great twist.
The classic "shower scene" is known and parodied forever, but this is the first time such a clever arrangement is done. Alfred Hitchcock plays on the female vulnerability amplified in a shower. Think about it, trapped, naked, and a shadow appears. Playing on the suspense, the scene lingers and the terror builds. Cleverly done, sir.
A great horror film refreshing the genre from the 1930s without being supernatural. The movie is plausible as well, playing on the Americana culture of staying in a strange place as many Americans did on "road trips" across country to strange surroundings yielding most dire results.
Great cinematography and appropriate music, again the shower-scene music is classic. A must-see.
Creepy as all frack, and the scary thing is.. it could happen to you!!!
3. How the West Was Won (1962)
MGM would not be out-done and came back to fight Columbia's Lawrence of Arabia with a vengeance in this beyond-epic greatest Western film of all time!
You want epic? THIS is EPIC. Easily the most epic movie in American history of film.
How the West Was Won spans FOUR generations of the Prescott family from 1839 to 1889; that's 50 YEARS span!!! Great Jesus on His Throne, that's EPIC!!! The actors range from Eli Wallace to Jimmy Stewart to Debbie Reynolds to Henry Fonda to John Wayne to.. why, everybody worth mentioning in Hollywood at-the-time (sorry, no Paul Lynde, this is serious business, son). I think Jesus Christ was also in it (if you're Mormon).
 |
| The screen was something like 2000 feet. |
The movie score is rated at #25 best soundtrack of all-time. For the BluRay release, an optional "smile box" version exists to simulate the wrap-around effect that warped people's minds in 1962. This is not required, however, as it's a tad distracting, and a 4:1 letterbox edition exists as an option.
So.. overall the movie is pretty good and I kinda liked it.
4. The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Low-budget westerns were often filmed in Italy to save on production costs. The actors who were extras couldn't be flown-out to Italy due to high airfare prices so Italian actors would work alongside American actors, often speaking their lines in Italian to be later dubbed into English. The West was often parts of Italy that looked barren or rocky and could easily be "sold" to the public as parts of Colorado or Wyoming. The term "Spaghetti Western" came from this, often as a derogatory term meaning "cheap", though later, like tequila or chroizo is more of a descriptive term rather than one of poor-quality. Indeed, it's become a style of Western filmography, and there are a few gems out there of amazing note, such as, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Django.
Sergio Leone did a few of these rather well, particularly a trilogy known as the Dollars Trilogy (aka The Man With No Name Trilogy) which comprise of, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This trilogy is somewhat similar to the continuation prequel of, God Forgives.. I Don't, Ace High, and Boot Hill which also star Eli Wallace as a point of his origin, though by a different director, Giuseppe Culizzi. This particular film is considered somewhat to be a prequel of the other two, though watching all three is confusing as they each play off-characters. There is some relation between all of them, but honestly, they should all stand alone. A fourth film was never created, though several canonical books have been written, to include, A Coffin Full of Dollars, and Blood for a Dirty Dollar exist and are a good read for superfans.
Ennio Morricone pens the soundtrack so memorable it's by-far the most memorable Western tune of all time! I bet you know it though it's 50 years old!
I adore this movie. There's sarcasm and comedy as three men race to a hidden grave where tons of gold is buried, and they make alliances and turn on each other. The end of the movie is very tense with a "Mexican standoff". Indeed, the term CAME from this movie itself!
This is Clint Eastwood's best film, as is Lee Van Cleef's and Eli Wallaces, each playing their respective, symbolic roles to the backdrop of the Civil War as a sort of mirror of brothers against each other for financial gain.
The first 10 minutes of the film has almost no dialogue and is great. Director Quintin Tarantino tries each time to try to capture the grittiness of this film, and even hired Ennio to do the soundtrack to a recent film, but like all little-boy directors got too impatient, so he will never know greatness. Indeed, if Ennio Morricone does your soundtrack, you are bound for greatness for all eternity.
.jpg)
The film did well in the theaters, as being low-budget at $1.2M but yielding $25M (and much more since home-release) is the exact opposite of How the West Was Won in size. It's still panning and huge, but originally released in mono-sound and 16x9 standard size film. Cheap all the way it's just as good as the expensive epic which shows good acting and heart is just as good as mega-budget blockbusters. The movie has an amazing amount of cinemetography and special-effects, often involving real dynamite and real bridges being blown sky-high that the actors nearly died often enough! This movie has all the heart, comedy, suspense, and intregue you want, for a few dollars less. Enjoy!
5. The Sound of Music (1965)
Oh, quit your whinin'. Yeah, it's another musical. I was going to put The Music Man instead, which stars Ron Howard and I give honorable mention, but almost all women just adore this flick. The songs are epic and spanning, particularly in the first half of the film. It was WILDLY popular.
Story's about a nun with a music fetish (to the distaste of the abbey) who becomes a governess of a military Captain during the eruption of WWII in Austria. As historians know, Austria got "annexed" during this time by the Nazis. Personally, I prefer the second, more dangerous half of the film where all the freakin' Nazis are everywhere, but that's just me. Most people remember the song, "The hillllls are aliiiive, with the sound of muuuuuusiiiiic." by Julie Andrews.
Another song people remember is the "Do, a deer, a fe-male deer" section where she's teaching the kids the "do ray mee fa so la tee do" whole-notes. Kids dig it, I guess, though when I was eight I wasn't too impressed. The scenery is really delicious though. Get the BluRay HD version if you can.
The kids are out of control so she keeps them in coordination with music and singing. Interestingly, this is based on a real-life event so it gets a nod there.
Most guys ain't gonna like it, so for them, I recommend The Music Man which is about a swindler taking advantage of a town to sell them fake instruments. Much more up my alley and not as girly, though if you sit through Sound of Music with your girl, she'll probably stay with you if you don't fidget too much.
The Music Man has well-known songs as well, such as, "There's trouble, right here in River City!" and the Family Guy TV show series parody, "Shaboopee" with Buddy Hackett of Herbie Goes Bananas fame. If you're a guy, and you're gay, watch Sound of Music, if you're a guy and you aren't having an estrogen-rush, watch The Music Man. I give honorable mention to the musical Oliver! which has a lot of memorable tracks as well and I equally recommend it based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Hey, it's got Mike TV in it from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but then again, I'm getting ahead of myself..
 |
| Buddy Hackett says, "Watch The Music Man, man!" |
6. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Towards the end of the 1960s, sci-fi took a dark turn. Those who watched Logan's Run know what I'm talking about. Charlton Heston again brilliantly performs as astronaut who crash-lands on a planet controlled by Apes. Twist ending blows-away viewers darkly.
Film inspired five (!) more sequels, two fairly-recent but ill-received reboots, a TV series, a way-too-dark cartoon series (I used to watch it when I was 5 in 1975, which might explain why I'm so brain-whacked) and several toys, playsets, and action-figures.
Got a lot of parodies after-the-fact, particularly the surprise-ending. The sequels were rather good as well, particularly Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) though there are some that prefer others. The film, like Star Trek the TV series put into focus heavy issues being re-looked-at at the time, later also seen on early 1970s television such as All in the Family. Such examples would be the concept of slavery, animal cruelty, and communism destroying individuality by way of control and homogenization as well as the evils of war and treachery and corruption in government.
Great visuals were filmed near Lake Powel and the soundtrack is especially noteworthy for its off-beat percussion work inspiring tension and jungle-law. For its time, very good special effects.
This movie is culturaly significant and has a decent amount of action. Acting by Roddy McDowell and other "Apes" is also pretty noteworthy. Linda Harrison isn't hard on the eyes, either.
Cinematography at points is similar to the 1930's Citizen Kane for angles and technique.
7. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
I could have put a lot of war-action films in this list. The Great Escape, The Longest Day, The Dirty Dozen, the list goes on. I wanted to include a movie where the good guys aren't totaly devestated. Dark as it may be, America ebrases heroes. Where Eagles Dare staring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood fits the bill nicely.
Everyone likes it when the good guys fight the Nazis. Kapow! Ratt-a-tat-tat-tat! This movie is an adventure/spy movie during WWII in Austria. Good guys gotta get to "The Eagles Nest" to defeat Hitler, but getting there requires clever sneaky-spy stuff. Awesomeness all-around.
It's interesting that the movie has French and German soldiers in it, each speaking their respective languages instead of English dubbing. This is one of the first times this is done, where Americans aren't spoon-fed and are required to read the subtitles or, I guess, lean the respective languages. Adds realism nicely. Great soundtrack sold well, and top-billing didn't hurt either.
One of those 10x their money deals again, which is amazingly rare these days if you think about it. The movie is historically accurate as well. Yep, the Germans actually had produced 44 working helicopters for the war-effort and one is seen in the film. Pretty awesome. They even got the model correct. Cool.
8. You Only Live Twice (1967)
I continue this list continuing with the spy-theme honoring one of the most popular spy-genres of all time, James Bond aka 007 aka "double oh seven", the famous MI6 British spy from the Ian Flemming novels.
 |
| The original Dr. Evil but not quite so "humorous" as the leader of SPECTRE |
I could have put any number of James Bond films here. I considered the original, Dr. No, and there were indeed no less than SIX James Bond films in the 1960s, all with Sean Connery except for one rather oddball one starring George Lazenby which was more accurate with spy-work than the others and arguably the best one considered by some.
 |
| Ninjas use poison on a string dropped into Bond's bedroom from the ceiling into his mouth to kill him while he sleeps |
 |
| The original "Volcanic Underground Lair" |
It has the first appearance of Blofeld of the SPECTRE organization, which is pretty badass. The film has ninjas, an evil volcano lair complete with a self-destruct-the-island button, spaceship hijacking, and mini-helicopters. This movie was almost completely parodied by the Austin Powers series and several other short films. It's got Soviet enemies and Japanese culture. The movie just rocks the socks. I give very honorable mention to the first 4, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball. They're all equally good, and I recommend watching them all in-order, but a lot of things are answered in this one and it marks the end of a Sean Connery era as his best work.
9. Ocean's 11 (1960)
Have you ever heard of the Rat Pack? Sound familiar? Back in the 1960s, there was a group of gentlemen who dominated Las Vegas, the Mob aside, and these fellows were the famous Rat Pack. The Rat Pack originated with Humphry Bogart and evolved into a bunch of gang-bangers. Legendary for the time, later lampooned lightly with a bunch of teens in the 1980s as the "Brat Pack" these men were well-known.
The original Ocean's 11 makes the 2001 remake look like diet-vanilla. Everything is way more amplified in this version with GOOD acting. This movie is both tense and hilarious at the same time starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Cesar Romero (The Joker from Batman). All-star cast about a Vegas heist, cleverly coordinated and controlled with class. GREAT film. Love it. It's interesting to see Vegas' "Old Strip" as the centerpoint and its origins, and how 11 guys get together to steal from the Mob.
10. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Well, here we are at #10. It's hard to compile lists, but hey, it's just that. I missed several great films, and some may not suit your liking, but it's my list and my recommendations. I don't dishonor others, they're all really great. I didn't put the likes of Midnight Cowboy, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bonnie and Clyde, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Apartment, The Graduate, or Cool Hand Luke. I missed, Bullit, The Great Escape, The Birds, and Breakfast at Tiffany's as well as Rosemary's Baby and even Pipi Longstocking. These are all great films and I encourage people to watch the list here: http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/movie-pages/movie_60s.html For those I missed, perhaps one of your favorites not included, please forgive, but I was cramped for space. Perhaps, however, you the reader hadn't considered one of the above films and you might take a taste? The 1960s were a wild time and there was an interesting, varied selection!
I couldn't avoid putting one of the classic, epic films using Ray Harryhausen's claymation monsters. The movie tells (loosely) of the Greek Mythological tale of Jason and his men on the sailing ship "The Argo" to find the "Golden Fleece"which has healing powers to save his friend from death.
I feel bad for the Greeks of ancient days. They had to fight all SORTS of creatures! Imagine having to battle a HYDRA on the way to work when you just want to get a coffee, "Sorry, sir. I had to battle a 9-headed freakin' HYDRA. That's why I'm late." There's harpies, a Hydra, skeleton warriors, an actual titan, and other baddies to endure enroute. It's pretty freakin' awesome, with a wizard trying to stop them along the way, and time is running out!
Great story and super-cool special effects. Honestly, they're a bit dated now. Claymation can only be so awesome, but Ray Harryhausen is the best claymation artist ever, working on the likes of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (and the rest of the Sinbad films) as well as Clash of the Titans (the original, kids, not that joke-of-a-remake, though its sequel is pretty good, surprisingly).
An amount of "suspension of disbelief" is required to fall into this movie's spell, particularly with the enemies that are a bit laughable now (to some).
I myself love it. I can easily imagine that, hell yeah, there's a freakin' army of skeleton warriors ready to chop me up. Good luck fighting those. To really appreciate this film, you gotta go along with it.
You also must have some vague sense of appreciation of how long it took to animate all this stuff, make it look pretty darn real, and how the actors interacted with early-form of green/blue screens at the time. A great undertaking and good fun. Somehow this movie has been rated G. I'd give it an X-Rating for violence alone, and horror, but hey, that's me.
Stay tuned for the 1970s!!!
.
.
.
Ah, but if you'll indulge me, just one more. Albeit a bit selfish. For dessert..
11. Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Okay, this one's a personal favorite from this time, Pipi Longstocking be-damned!
The United States and the Soviet Union have both developed technology that allowed matter to be miniaturized using a process that shrinks individual atoms, but its value is limited. Objects only stay miniaturized for a limited amount of time depending on how much miniaturization the object undergoes. Scientist Jan Benes, working behind the Iron Curtain, has figured out how to make the shrinking process work indefinitely. With the help of the CIA, he escapes to the West, but an attempted assassination leaves him comatose, with a blood clot in his brain.
They go into a miniaturized spaceship to fix the clot, defending themselves against white blood cells and other bad things, but there's a Soviet spy trying to stop their efforts onboard, trying to kill them!
Great special effects, and the ending is just awesomely performed. Probably one of the most colorful films of the 1960s, and decent acting. Honestly, the movie is mostly like staring into a lava-lamp for 2 hours. LSD (if it was legal) may be required for full-effect! I leave out a lot of the colorful imagery so you can experience it first-hand. It's amazing color explosion of light and sound so trippy it DEFINES the 1960s!!!
One of those films like Serenity that did marginally well in the theaters but a favorite amongst sci-fi fans, getting a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. No easy feat!
Cool and trippy, defining the 1960s, ends our fantastic voyage.
Soon, the 1970s and it's drab, dark, counterculture dreariness. You like brown and yellow? Well you're gonna get a load of that because soon, corduroys are in, hippies are out, and everything's like a 10 year hangover of depression. Can't wait to dive into the 1970s which held some of the best movies OF ALL TIME. Gee, ever hear of Star Wars or Jaws anyone? Yep. 1970s. All aboard the Disco Train! Coming soon! Huzah!
No comments:
Post a Comment