Ryan/Kellner: From Counterculture to Counterrevolution, 1967 to 1971

While some of the points in the Ryan/Kellner reading, "From Counterculture to Counterrevolution, 1967 to 1971," were slightly redundant (not in the context of the article, but in the context of the film studies classes I've taken up to this point), I thought it did a good job of explaining the why in the change in film content during this crucial time.

It set up a pretty explicit backdrop for the remainder of the article, especially citing historical events/movements/etc. It addressed the 1950s as a time of vast restriction, uniformity, and a fear of variation. It then pointed to some of the classic "New Hollywood" films (Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider) as a means for people to break away from the conformity, and to establish an independent and liberated voice for the generation of the 1960s. The 60s, a time identified largely with public unrest and the vocalization of social/political concerns and complaints (the Civil Rights movement, insurgence by feminism activists, strong opposition for the war, etc.), and the emergence of the idea of "the Establishment" and ways to go against it. Essentially, the America of the 1960s was unraveling the threads of the social fabric three times quicker than the 1950s America spent creating it.

The idea of alienation and rebellion was coming through in full effect in the films (The Graduate, one of the biggest grossing films of the 60s, inspired by the French New Wave, and featuring a soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel, was an inevitable success). It seemed that for every identifiable aspect of "The Establishment," there was a film made to rebel against it (alienation from the "white middle class," the bourgeois lifestyle, a reliance on the "American Dream", etc.). There were films that reflected the feminist movement (Wanda, Diary of a Mad Housewife, The Rain People and Up the Sandbox), the Civil Rights movement (Uptight, Watermelon Man, and The Spook Who Sat By the Door), and the student-orchestrated anti-Vietnam movement (Billy Jack, The Revolutionary, and The Strawberry Statemement).

As could have been expected, however, the glorification of this rebellious outcry caused a large amount of unrest amongst conservatives and the older portion of the American population. The article does an excellent job of bringing the movement full circle, describing it as a cycle. The seventies brought a paranoid population, concerned with the dissolving unity in America. There was too much disharmony between the conservatives and the liberals, and tension began to manifest itself in the form of violence, less peaceful protests, etc. Soon came the emergence of a new audience, seeking films with simpler, less-hostile, and more conservative themes. As is in the tradition of Hollywood cinema, the industry responded quickly by catering to these needs with films of "personalism" (Love Story, French Connection, and Dirty Harry). Amongst popular topics were intimacy (which many were searching for at the time), a more accepting view of crime prevention (a critique of the liberal view of criminal justice), and "films promoting conservative positions on the family, sexuality, unions, human nature, crime, war, politics and society as a whole."

As previously stated, a lot of the ideas put forth in this reading have been addressed before. However, it was the inclusion of the historical backdrop that really aided in an understanding of why Hollywood was as it was during the transitional period from the 60s to the 70s.