After reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, I’m going back to re-visit them all. I kept a list on the back pages of the book.
This morning I watched “Shampoo”. I’ve always loved that movie. Watching it again was like running into an old friend. I mean, even the names on the credits give me a bit of a thrill. Hal Ashby, Robert Towne. And Julie Christie is so damn wonderful. Getting trashed in her backless gown, at the uppity party celebrating Nixon’s win, throwing olives at the back of her lover’s head, getting completely out of control, in this totally glammed-out way.
So much has changed since then. I’m not just talking about in the world, I’m talking about movies.
There’s barely a soundtrack in this film. I watch movies from the 70s, and realize: Wow. The soundtrack has completely taken over now. Soundtracks often come out before the movie opens. Sometimes it adds to the film (like in Pulp Fiction) and sometimes it’s just a crutch. Directors now rely on the SOUNDTRACK to tell the audience how to feel, as opposed to figuring out a way to let the story do it. It’s lame.
If you see the movies in the 50s, and 60s – there is always a very histrionic soundtrack. Like “Rebel without a Cause”, which is supposedly a realistic film – but the color scheme and the operatic soundtrack tells you a different story.
The 70s took away all the crutches. Most of the films were driven by characters, not plots. And barely any of those films have soundtracks. Either the story is on the screen, or it is not.
I loved the lack of a soundtrack in “Shampoo”. When they all end up at the wacked-out party with the strobe lights, and suddenly “Sgt. Pepper” is blaring, I realized that there had been no incidental music up until that point. Nothing. Not even on the in-between scenes, where you see Warren Beatty racing from lover to lover to lover on his motorcycle. It’s just real. You basically just see a man on a bike. There is no music cluing you in on what your emotions should be. “Oooh, he’s nervous now.” “Now he’s mad.” “Now he’s horny.”
No. You fill it all in yourself, because the story works on its own.
Goldie Hawn is wonderful. I loved the truth-telling scene between the two of them at the end. He’s really a wonderful actor. I forget that sometimes. Because of his producer persona, and because he doesn’t really act all that much anymore. But I’ve loved him since I saw “Splendor in the Grass” when I was 15 years old. He’s got a natural-ness, every film he’s in he somehow manages to make it look like a documentary.
The political undertones of the film – it’s 1968 – add a level of gravitas to the story. You can sense, even if many of the characters do not, that an era is ending.
The ending of the film is perfect. Because, of course, despite the fact that Beatty is running from woman to woman to woman, you are completely on his side – and YOU can see, even if he can’t, that he has met his match in Julie Christie.
The ending of the film is perfect because you are left sad for this man. You see his silhouette on the top of the hill, and suddenly – even though the rest of the movie occurs at a frenetic pace, and he seems like a madman, running from this to that, completely impulse-driven – but suddenly, seeing him up there – you feel his loneliness. You feel his sadness and isolation. Warren Beatty always managed to convey the sadness behind the womanizing maniac. He never seemed too pleased with himself – he always was able to convey the price such men pay. Without ever being self-pitying. I admire him for that.
I admire him for a lot of reasons, but I definitely admire him for his ability to put that rather negative aspect of his own personality up on screen. It’s a rare quality. A lot of actors (most actors) protect their image, and always want to be right. They always want the audience to side with them. They are afraid of coming off as weak, or as flawed. That kind of acting does nothing for me, although it certainly has its place.
I prefer the flaws. I relate.
Goldie Hawn is one of those actresses that never really made the transition into later adulthood for me. She was phenomenal in her early roles (Cactus Flower is my favorite, Butterflies are Free, and Shampoo) but she is only so-so since. Admittedly, those are tough acts to follow.
Rob..did you see her in that wierd Woody allen musical? Everyone Says I Love You….Goldie was great and its the kind of part she should be doing..smart and sexy and mature.
Oh, Red.
Julie Christie is my all-time favorite actress. Such an amazing talent, such extraordinary internal and external beauty. She’s usually overlooked when people discuss great actresses, just because her physical beauty leads people to assume she’s not a great actress. Look at the expanse of her work – from Doctor Zhivago in 1965 to Afterglow in 1997 – consistent excellence all along the way.
The vision from my youth of Julie in Far From The Madding Crowd is indelibly burned into my memory. It was a revelation to me (I was very young) that such beauty and extraordinary intelligence could be found in one person.
Warren Beatty is truly exceptional as well (even though his persona couldn’t be much further removed from mine). Actually, McCabe And Mrs. Miller is probably – if I were forced to choose – my all-time favorite movie.
Ah, I could talk about Julie all day long! But sadly, I’d better try to get some work done…
Mitchell,
I didn’t like that movie. Woody is hit or miss with me, mostly miss. I don’t remember anything remarkable about Goldie in that although I somehow remember her “Now you’re in character” line.
I thought Goldie Hawn was brilliant in Housesitter, First Wives Club and Overboard. I think she’s a great comedic actress (or is she one of the ones I’m supposed to call “actor” in order to not inflict the offense of indicating gender?).
I loved Goldie in Seems Like Old Times, with Chevy Chase and Charles Grodin (“This dog is dribbling on my briefs!”) and Foul Play (which made me terrified of albinos forever).
She is a great comedic actress, Emily. You’re right.
Oh, and I found that Woody Allen film very entertaining. Especially the scene at the end, where she flies up into the air, along the Seine. For me, Allen perfectly captured in that moment the magic of musicals, first of all, and the magic of Hawn’s personality.
But Woody is pretty hit or miss with me, as well. At least recently.
And Butterflies are Free … God, she was just wonderful in that. Thanks for reminding me – I saw a snippet of it on TV recently, and it still seems fresh and original.
First, I’m with Emily, at least part way. I haven’t seen Housesitter or First Wives Club, but Goldie Hawn was great in Overboard. Emily didn’t cite Protocol, which I liked, though it’s so lightweight it makes Overboard look like Ibsen. There’s also Swing Shift, a movie I saw a long time ago and liked very much, and in which Goldie Hawn was excellent and thoroughly grown up.
Second, I remember a little background music by Paul Simon in Shampoo. I noticed it because it sounds remarkably like “Silent Eyes,” one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums, Still Crazy After All These Years, which came out around the same time as Shampoo. It suited the movie beautifully, I thought, not least because there was so little of it. So I’m with Sheila, too.
“it makes Overboard look like Ibsen”
Nice work from you.
And yeah, you crazy cinephile, there is a bit of background music in the film, but not the bombardment of “FEEL THIS” that we get today. Like, I love the movie “Notting HIll” (it’s a guilty pleasure, I gues you could say) – but the soundtrack is ridiculous. The film-makers do not trust me to get ANYTHING without a musical cue.
Like – he loses the girl. He gets on a bus dejected. Song begins: “Aint no sunshine when she’s gone”
I find that insulting. Just let Hugh Grant sit dejected on a bus, please. I will fill in the rest.
Oh, I say “crazy cinephile” with total and utter respect.
Red,
You flatter me (don’t stop!), but I’m really a Simonphile. There’s no way I’d remember the music from Shampoo if it hadn’t recalled other music I loved. And I’m in full agreement with you. The little music there is in Shampoo is tremendously effective because there’s so little of it. The lack of a score emphasizes the emptiness of the characters’ lives.
I love Notting Hill. Including the “Ain’t No Sunshine” scene. And I’m not the least bit embarrassed about it.
Please don’t tell anyone.
Love Notting Hill. Love Hugh Grant, although he mildly disgusts me. Woody Allen in any way shape or form is on my “To Don’t List”. Probably the first thing on my list. I find NOTHING about him or his writing/acting funny, smart, etc. He makes me want to slap someone, preferably him. Maybe Soon Yi.
Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts having zero chemistry together and the patronizing “oh the little people just adore us big-ass movie stars to the point where they can’t even control themselves while we are in the same room and will tolerate us shatting on them over and over and over but still love us anyway” premise aside, I thought Notting Hill was worth it for the roommate guy alone. He was hysterical.
and im a 70’s television addict
mostly
the bionic woman numbero uno
followed by the six million dollar man
wonder woman
and
that rare cult classic
few knew about
that came on late at night
prisoner block something or another
i think it was english
with johnny the big dyke
very progressive for the 70’s
also loved
bill bixby’s “hulk”
but my all time fave movie babe
who’s hiatus was surely the 70’s
was barbara streisand
“a star is born”
in that scary afro
she
my all time 70s favorite… JAWS. That was no boating accident Chief Brody….
J
“I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
Classic!!
Oh and Emily, I know, that roommate was beyond funny.
“I’m about to tell you a story that will make your balls shrink to the size of raisins!”
All with his ass crack hanging out.
Oh, and Rossi – have you seen What’s Up, Doc?
Hard to describe how funny it is, and how funny Barbra is. Madeline Kahn made her debut in the movie – and it’s got to be one of the most impressive debuts of all time!
I love “Shampoo” also; Hal Ashby was a genius, and Carrie Fisher was real hot back in the day…
Another funny Bogdanovich film featuring Madeline Kahn (and Ryan O’Niel) was 1973’s Paper Moon. Of course Madeline and Ryan were both superb, but neither could help being upstaged by little Tatum. Her exasperated response to Trixie Delight’s continually having to stop and pee is classic: “She must have a bladder the size of a peanut.”
The First Annual AJFF: Goldie Hawn, Part Four
Shampoo, 1975 Yes, the biggie, the classic. There’s a lot to say about Shampoo, and a lot of good stuff has been written already. In my view, this was a transitional movie in Goldie Hawn’s career. She was thirty…