Some 70s Classics on DVD 

Tina and I had the opportunity recently to watch two seminal New Hollywood satires: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Shampoo. 

Interestingly, though Shampoo was filmed in 1975, it’s set against the backdrop of the 1968 Presidential election, a period also in focus – in a much less overt way – in Bob & Carol, which was filmed in 1969.

Both films examine sexual mores amid the tumult of the Sexual Revolution and the subtle ways sex and politics – whether personal and national – interweave.

Bob & Carol tells the story of an affluent LA couple (Robert Culp, Natalie Wood) who attend a weekend retreat at an Esalen-like institute, where they get in touch with their feelings and take their frustrations out on sofa cushions and indulge in group hugs. Giddy with this newfound “openness,” they attempt to act on it in their everyday lives, much to the chagrin of their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould, Dyan Cannon), who represent the more “normal” demographic – repressed and disapproving.

First-time director Paul Mazursky (who had previously scripted I Love You, Alice B. Toklas with writing partner Larry Tucker) knocks one out of the ballpark. The film is superb on every level: writing, direction, acting, set and costume design, cinematography.

What keeps it fresh and not at all dated is the attention to character, to the complexities and contradictions that fuel the four main characters.

Shampoo (written by Warren Beatty and Robert Towne (Chinatown), directed by the great Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Being There)) centers on Beatty’s much-in-demand hairdresser. Attempting to branch out on his own, he goes to businessman and political fundraiser Lester (Jack Warden), whose wife (Lee Grant) and mistress (Julie Christie) he is currently “servicing.” This round-robin of sexual indiscretion and careerism climaxes (if you’ll forgive the pun) at a dinner being thrown for Republican candidates by Lester and his cronies. The aftermath works itself out in novel and absolutely believable ways. It's got one of those classic, downbeat endings the 70s were famous for and that would nowadays be test-marketed right into oblivion - replaced with an uplifting affirmation of quirk and neocon values...

Both come highly recommended, both more than stand the test of time.