Life Lessons

Sometimes I can't help but feel like this guy....

My Token Summertime Movie



Circa 1967



Set to the music of Simon & Garfunkel, The Graduate would be a film very representative of 1960’s California and affluence. Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman would be a young man in between his college years and his career in limbo living at his parents’ home. He begins a torrid affair with the wife of his father’s friend and one that leads him through all the trials and tribulations involved in this kind of deviance. Mrs. Robinson played by Anne Bancroft is very easy on the eyes, seductive, worldly, well spoken, cool, and lonely. She retreats to her booze and seduction of Hoffman in the film leading him to fancy hotels as they embark in passionate interludes and steamy taboo. That is until her daughter is set up with Hoffman on a date courtesy of their parents and he becomes enamored. He is defying the norms at his place in life and like many young people in the 1960’s is starting to embrace an alternative lifestyle wherein one does not have to be anything at all, just be. Ms. Robinson only reinforces this.

The film, by Mike Nichols, gained importance not only for it being a fair and enticing representation of the mentality of this era but also because it was so well acted. The roles played by Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in particular proved be dynamical and the movie is full of lust and passion due to these characters. The soundtrack would be the perfect complement to this film as Simon & Garfunkel captured the spirit and essence of this film in the songs for example when Benjamin is floating in the pool while Sounds of Silence rambles along. Mrs. Robinson was well written and a song that matched the weight of the film in that they both proved to be great. The film would be one of the first which would exhibit a changing Hollywood, one in which would become more socially aware. It divided the younger and older generations in the way that the characters were portrayed. The parents came across as very traditional and tended to care about their class in society as well as titles and distinction where the younger generation during this period did not. To the older generation image was everything as was keeping up with the Joneses. Benjamin becomes a refuge for Ms. Robinson as she finds herself lost in her upscale lifestyle that has no depth or meaning as she lacks the attention of her husband and the drive to be dedicated to her family is lost through her alcoholism and feelings of self worth.

His cavalier attitude makes for an interesting first date where he kills Elaine with recklessness and buoyancy. Mrs. Robinson is obviously upset at him taking her daughter out and it is evident on her face. The daughter is shown as a youthful version of her mother and cast in a positive light in contrast to her mother who begins to take form of the enemy. He almost tries to scare the poor girl away and his efforts in the end work with her crumbling with humiliation after being taken to a bar featuring a girl review in scantily clad, barely there outfits. The movie will progress as Benjamin realizes this move may have cost him someone he begins to have feelings for as he finds himself in a very compromising position as he is giving into temptation with her mother. He eventually ends the affair and she doesn’t take it well. No amount of opposition will keep these two apart in the end. She tries to persuade Elaine and spats off and hits her, she is angry but comes to the realization she is no match for her daughter who willingly will also defy her parents. Finding himself emotionally in ruin he heads to Berkeley to win Elaine back and finally succeeds on the day of her wedding to another man as they tangle with family and end up riding off into the sunset together in the back of a bus. The ending finds them on the brink of what’s next? And an uncertain future but is also very light hearted as they are careless and seem to not be concerned with what the future holds. Together they have gone against their parents and are now willingly able to share and start their new found life together. Maybe this was the point all along, with the driving force being to stand on their own two feet and defy their parents, not each other.

The Original Badass



Warren Beatty was very easy on the eyes and had a commanding presence in Hollywood. His interpretation of the notorious story of Bonnie and Clyde would be another big budget studio film, and one in which he was eager to make. He pairs up with the cool and uncanny Faye Dunaway as Bonnie and the two prove to have an undeniable dynamic which screams on the screen. The adrenaline rush of a film is set in the 1930’s in America and is a depiction of the real life story of Bonny Parker and Clyde Barker, historic criminals for which this film gained them even more of a cult following. It is glorified violence in perfect Hollywood fashion. They feed off of each other with Clyde committing the robberies at first to impress and drive the object of his affection, Bonnie crazy with this feeling of possibly getting caught met with lust and desire for her man which seems to grow as the crime wave hits full swing. They are on the run terrorizing everyone who comes their way hitting up small town to small town they will not be caught but instead consider themselves not only above the law but untouchable. Their ego and drive are fueled by one another and they are as magnetic as they are as foolish as love is blind.

They tangle with the law back and forth. The public is concerned, frightened and fans all at the same time. Kidnapping a Texas Ranger they join forces with some unlikely comrades and the film then becomes a classic gangster film similar to which was so ever present in Hollywood some 30 years prior. It captures 1930’s America effortlessly and transcends the viewer into another time and place with simplicity yet features violence like never before seen on the big screen up until this point. There is blood, there is gore, and the public find this fascinating. In watching this film some 50 years later it is still considered to be very violent. It had to be a shock to the system of America and Hollywood when it first came out. Warren Beatty played Clyde with a youthfulness and attitude which helped solidify his star status. The beauty and rough around the edges style that is Faye Dunaway helped the cavalier and cool actress to not only get noticed but become bankable in Hollywood. The best case scenario for this big budget film was to be able to gross a ton of money and by doing so it was the acting of these two that carried it into such a successful spot. The shock and awe was just a byproduct of this.

It also was made to appeal to a much younger audience much in the same way many of the most popular films during this era were. Because the film relayed the message that it was honorable to perhaps steal from the rich while giving to the poor just fueled the fire of defiance of the norms and values that was ever-present in 1960’s America where there was a clear division of young and old but also of the classes. Younger people in America were focusing less on material things and money and wealth therefore they were able to read that message in this film and recognize its worth and appreciate it. The violence in the film however was contradictory to this and showed that aside from all of the new ideals and trials and tribulations that people were still able to be amazed and entertained by the shocking effects of cinema. One might think that in a society so hell bent on non violence and peace and one that was in strife over the effects of the Viet Nam war and our perception of it being never ending that it might not have been appropriate for this movie to have taken such a violent approach. Movies are interesting for a variety of reasons to an audience and one of the reasons that the film was to be so successful is perhaps America wanted to be entertained wanted an escape from al of the conflict unanswered questions and distrust that we held in the government. Movies seek to entertain and captivate., This could be by telling the tale of a beautiful love story which touches our heart, taking us to a place we have never been before, making us feel an emotion that we normally do not entertain like fear or lust or even, although shocking, by violent means.

~ It gives you a whole new way of looking at the day.~



Nothing exemplified the freewheeling, carefree 1960’s mentality quite like the film Easy Rider. It has become a cult classic for having so seamlessly personified the evolution occurring in late 1960’s America. The film features a young Dennis Hopper as Billy and Peter Fonda as Wyatt and the characters the play were similar to their personalities off screen , essentially they were shown as an exaggerated version of themselves. The film, also directed by Peter Fonda had a pretty low budget from the get go comparatively speaking and was made independent of any big money studio and their influence. It knocks the socks off of studio execs who see the film gross millions of dollars and would wake up the traditionalists in Hollywood as to the new wave of 1960’s cinema. It was a reality show in that you almost feel very voyeuristic just watching two dudes get on with their private life which could be caught on any given day. It features references to drugs throughout representing the “Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out” attitude exhibited in young America through the Hippie movement. Were the actors really under the influence or in a drug induced state when they made this film, it is any ones guess but in looking at the times and the film this probably was the case on some level. It’s two men on the back of a motorcycle heading from California to wherever the road takes them and it’s anything goes and whatever happens happens. They have the freedom to do as they please the question being do they find what they are looking for?

Their travels take allow them to pick up hitchhikers which were commonplace in this era. It also brings them to a commune, a lifestyle for which hippies would embrace as they sought a sort of utopian existence. They end up in trouble with the law and land themselves in jail. Which to the surprise of no one they bounce back from relentlessly as nothing can hold them down and they keep on rolling with the punches. It is jail they meet the crooked character of George played by the witty and enigmatic Jack Nicholson. Jack being a good friend of Hopper and Fonda in “real” life would be a likely fit to add to the mayhem that is the characters in this film. George has his own pre conceived notions about life in a faltering America full of humanity which has perhaps lost its way. He finds his new friends’ suit him very well as they introduce him to the mind altering bliss that is mary jane.

New Orleans in the 1960’s was much like it is today, void of the wreckage and scars it bears in modern day times. Of all the places where debauchery and free love ruled the roost New Orleans was King. The party never stops and the women, drugs and psychedelic abundant. Wyatt and Billy were welcomed into this circus and went for it with great zeal. After dropping too much acid and indulging in too many women they head for the sunshine state experience a seemingly never ending life hangover. Perhaps they begin to wonder what they are running from or where they are running to. Perhaps the world looks a little different from the other side, a little dirtier, a little rougher around the edges, not as pretty. Perhaps they find that the people they meet along the way have led to a loss of faith in humanity itself. Does any of this matter? In the end it does not as they have no direction home.

America was divided at the time by the Viet Nam War and films of this nature much like the graduate would be appreciated by the youth and would reaffirm their defiance and aspirations to seek alternative lifestyles, much to the dismay of the older more reserved and conservative older generation. The actors in this film would be catapulted to stardom. Imagine Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in the 1960’s and this film is them, it is America and it is a picture which doesn’t glorify nor sugar coat but was made to appeal to a certain counterculture for which there became a market for these types of films. It is careless and important all at the same time because it is a huge piece in the puzzle of what was the late 1960’s transition of Hollywood.

En Memoria de chernobyl 2011