The Dream Life

J. Hoberman, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties (2003). A fun-filled book that looks at "the Sixties" -- covering from Sputnik 1957 to Watergate 1973, with a B movie coda, "Freedomland 1981: Ronald Reagan and the Last Sixties Movie."

All in all a biting analysis of the conflicted American psyche as reflected through mostly American movies. Some of the films covered to varying degree:

Spartacus
The Alamo
The Manhurian Candidate
Seven Days in May
Easy Rider
The Green Berets
Zabriskie Point
Coogan's Bluff
Bonnie and Clyde
The Wild Bunch!
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Little Big Man
Myra Breckinridge
Patton
Night of the Living Dead
Hey Joe
Dirty Harry
Shampoo
The Candidate
Blowup/Blowout

Hoberman sees the inner American struggle for direction mirrored by movies that are set within a framework of cultural politics and the Cold War.


I've not seen Hey Joe. I wonder how much Shampoo holds up? I never really saw the appeal of Warren Beatty; Faye Dunaway, on the other hand, sizzles in Bonnie and Clyde.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Birthdays: Alistair MacLean, Harper Lee, Saddam Hussein, Ann-Margret (Olsson), Penélope Cruz, Jessica Alba .

Adieu!