Censorship, Counterculture and the Cinema of the 60’s

Paper by Donna Trimble. Viewed on DVD.

The Cinema became one of America’s favorite past times. The artistry and the technology captured American audiences. In the 20’s it was a roaring time, seventy percent of the cinema goers were immigrants, silent films crossed all language barriers and the country was flourishing post WWI. Movies stars and their scandals were born. By the end of the 1930’s, technology leaped again with the ability to produce living, taking story lined films. The movie industry was now considered as influential as literature. The concern about the possible negative impact and influence on the American culture produced organizations such as the “National Organization of Decent Literature (NODL) and the Catholic League of Decency. Then in July of 1934, the Production Code Administration (PCA) was born; this code was to provide film censorship. By the 1960’s America was spawning a new culture altogether, the “Counterculture” from a generation known as the “baby boomers”; these young adults were born after WWII from about 1944-1960. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, Cinema would never be the same and censorship as it was known for over four decades was literally “rocked and rolled”. This paper will explore the effects of the “Counterculture” and the impact this generation had on the Cinema. Did the Counterculture generation challenge censorship and freedom of expression, bringing an end to the Code as we knew it? Or did the Cinema challenge censorship when they saw an opportunity to capitalize on a generation which had become a disillusioned and disappointed culture? These are two very opposing possibilities, for which I will present an interesting argument on the power of the people.

Post WWII brought financial destitution to Hollywood studios, the war propaganda films were no longer a valued commodity by the United States government. Big city life was being abandoned for the new found wonders of life in suburbia. Movie houses were empty by comparison to the war torn years from 1941 to about 1946. The economy was booming, but it wasn’t sharing the wealth with the film industry. According to our text book, American Film: A History, “After boasting record profits of $120 million in the first full year after the war, the studios saw their profits fall steadily beginning the following year: to $87 million in 1947” (p.194). By the end of 1950 their profits had declined to just $31 million. “Hollywood survived the Great Depression, but by 1950 it was fair to wonder whether it could survive the postwar economic boom” (American Film: A History p. 194).

Obviously times were changing for film makers and the big studios. The Cinema was losing its edge. The 1940’s and 1950’s brought on the first flirtations with film and filth. Say that three times really fast. This new film style became known as Noir. The black, dark, shady characters of these films brought shocking stories of crime, adultery and even pessimism to the Cinemas. The studios began pushing the envelope of socially acceptable film content to its limits. The PCA was only as enforceable as the studios were willing to hold each other accountable to it. The first sign of profit over proper came in 1952, when director Otto Preminger made the film, “The Moon is Blue”. A story which blatantly exploited the idea of illicit sex and seduction, between a young woman and two simultaneous love pursuits; United Artist was the distributor and unsuccessfully submitted this film for the PCA’s approval. When the film was denied approval, they tunneled under to put it out there by quitting the MPAA thereby avoiding a fine for doing so from the PCA. The big risk was would the theaters show the film without the PCA seal, and show it they did, to the tune of a 4 million dollar box office draw; the waters for, profit over proper, no matter what, had been chummed.

The gates were open, in 1955 Preminger and United Artist released yet another non PCA sealed film, “The Man with the Golden Arm”, and this film highlighted the use of illegal drugs. It too was a box office hit. John Lewis said this, “In 1956, due in large measure to the success of Preminger’s two films, Shurlock, with the support of MPAA president Eric Johnston, announced a change in the code, the first material change in over twenty years”(American Film: A History, p. 238). The words “hell and damn” could now be utter when relevant to context. This was the first crack in the dam wall for profit motivated change in the film industry.

Hollywood was on its way, the discovery of yet another untapped well was just what a starving industry needed. This well was aptly named the “Baby Boomer Generation”. In my research, I came upon an interesting article, “Reel Revolutionaries: An Examination of Hollywood’s Cycle of 1960’s Youth Rebellion Films”. In her article, Dr. Aniko Bodroghkozy says this, “The Hollywood film industry, in haphazard ways, began trying to win baby-boom viewers to its products with a spate of hippie-oriented films in the mid-1960’s. By the end of the decade, the wooing of youth viewers had turned into a full-scale campaign to capture this lucrative but politically and culturally unstable sector of the population”. (p.38) She went on to say, “Studios such as MGM, which invested heavily in these films, hoped that these productions would finally bring the young people to the box office in large enough numbers to reverse the industry’s economic downward spiral”. (pg.38) It had been determined by the industry that the targeted audiences who once shelled over millions of box office profits had found a new love. These were the now “over 30” crowd who were cozy in their suburban homes raising their 2.3 children and watching their new love, television. TV had stolen the once loyal Cinema goers with its unlimited and most importantly, free viewing pleasure. However, the teenagers and now college age children of these suburbanites had “disposable income” and they were certainly not going to sit at home watching the Wonderful World of Walt Disney with their younger siblings. Hollywood saw the bulls eye target painted on their pimply little foreheads and went for it. James A. Clapp, said in his article about Cinema and youth, “The recognition on the part of the entertainment industry that youth were developing into a significant niche market brought forth a flood of celluloid trash that may be of greater value to social archeology than to art”(Growing Up Urban: The City, the Cinema, and American Youth, p.11) Ouch. In our textbook, Jon Lewis said, “There were of course teenagers before the end of WWII. But Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the music industry did not discover them until 1953 or so.

Hollywood’s discovery of the youth audience had less to do with a savvy reading of the zeitgeist, the cultural winds of change, than with a kind of desperation in response to the continuing industry-wide slump at the box office (American Film: A History, p. 250).

The Boomers took on society and challenged American Culture of the 50’s and 60’s. They were, by this time, separated from their family’s traditional values and patriotism which was caused by huge social issues. Issues like the Vietnam War, racism and flat out political disillusionment. The Counterculture was born; they were as diverse as they were vast. This new culture included people from 29 years old to 15 years old; they were from one end of the scale to the other, with extremist groups, such as the Black Panthers, and yet it also included college students from all over the country, to Hippie’s living in Haight Ashbury San Francisco, or in a commune in Arizona, this new culture even included Vietnam Vets. The film industry was hurting as much financially as this generation was hurting emotionally and culturally.

Both needed the other really, Cinema for much needed revenues, the Counterculture as a voice or perhaps even an outlet for their confusion and disapproval of what society had left them. With the extreme differences in the ideology of the Counterculture generation, and even though the film industry was more than willing to cater to the attitudes of this generation, the industry executives were not that thrilled with their own contributions or with the so called voice that was afforded to this culture. Sure the money was worth it, but at what costs. It was appropriately acknowledged in one article that, “In experimenting with this cycle of youth films, filmmakers needed to suggest something of the positions of activist, protesting youth. The resentments and anxieties circulating among film industry executives and practitioners suggest that they were often uncomfortable with the antiestablishment points of view”, (Reel Revolutionaries: An Examination of Hollywood’s Cycle of 1960s Youth Rebellion Films, p. 40).

I viewed several films that could be credited to the “Rebellious Youth” genre. Dr. Aniko Bodroghkozy said this; “…Studios were quick to jump on the rebellious youth bandwagon, including Joseph E. Levine’s AvcoEmbassy. Livne had scored box-office gold with The Graduate (1967) and in 1969 used the success of that picture with the sixteen-to-thirty-year-old market to tout a new AvcoEmbassy program of pictures described as “nonconformist cinema”. (Reel Revolutionaries: An Examination of Hollywood’s Cycle of 1960’s Youth Rebellion Films, pg. 39)

Not all of the films released in the 60’s that were specifically aimed at the youthful audience were necessarily directly associated with unbridled rebellion. Just as many films were subject to a more subdued social rebellion. The fore mentioned film, The Graduate, was more of a direct stab at the Countercultures own parents. This film showcased the apathetic and disconnected lives of their parent’s generation. How they too had engaged in taboo premarital sex which in this case had forced Mrs. Robinson into an unhappy marriage, an unwanted pregnancy and the implied loss of her college pursuits as an Art History major; this loss resulting in an alcoholic depression and deliberate seduction of the young graduate. The rebellion came when in the end, the manipulation by their parents failed and they slipped through their grasp only to find themselves on a bus to nowhere.

The bus to nowhere seemed to be theme of the 1960’s. In 1969 America was reeling from loss, Robert Kennedy, the 1968 democratic presidential hopeful had been gunned down during his campaign tour in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel, where he had just finished yet another dynamic campaign speech. America’s most notable civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. was picked off by a racist gunman on the balcony of a motel in Tennessee, where he had come to support the civil rights of sanitation workers who were striking. The most notable of events still raging after nearly ten years in 1969 was the Vietnam War. This war was broadcast in the living rooms of America every dinner hour; the country watched as our young men died in a war that was not ours and local innocent villagers suffered unspeakable brutalities. Our country was disillusioned, bewildered, confused and most of all angry.

By 1969, the rebellion of the youth seemed to give way to totally disillusionment of the youth. Many were now aging hippies or college graduates who had moved on. However, there was a group lost in the middle of the activist and college students, and yet they were still a part of the counterculture generation, they were just as willing to part with their “bread” for a little entertainment. They were those who were just along for the ride yet were just as disillusioned. The blue collar guy, this group had gone to work right out of high school, smoking weed and going to work every day but looking for meaning in their lives. What was their film; Easy Rider. Easy Rider was and remains a cult classic from 1969. I found this statement on a poster for this film online and it was also quoted in our textbook, it said, “A man went looking for America and couldn’t find it” (American Film: A History, p. 290). This shouts disillusionment. However, it also made the cash registers ring at the box office. This film produced by BBS Productions, three guys named Bob, Bert and Steve, made this film for only $375,000. Watching this film it is glaringly clear why it required so little funding. Many of the scenes were adlibbed and some included actual locals from the luncheonette. This film had mass appeal; it didn’t have a snappy dialogue, but what it did have made it big, music. Easy Rider’s musical score was Rock ‘n Roll bad asses, Jimi Hendricks, Steppenwolf and the voice of disillusionment himself, Bob Dylan. “The documentary style was especially important to the film’s lager appeal as it enticed viewers to sympathize with its counterculture heroes. (American Film: A History, p. 290).

The opening scene shows a drug deal going down, the two main characters, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were on a quest of sorts, but each had a different agenda. Peter Fonda’s character, “Wyatt, or Captain America” was looking for freedom, and perhaps peace. Freedom was represented in acceptance, acceptance of others and acceptance for himself. He was tired of the city life in LA which seemed to have brought nothing but pain and disillusionment. Billy, played by Dennis Hooper, who was also the director of this film, was out for a good time and adventure, his freedom was to be found in rebellion, the antiestablishment attitude of “if they won’t give it to you, screw ‘em”. The drug deal financed the bikes and the fatal road trip of Captain America and his sidekick Billy.

This film was about America’s ugly secret. We love to present ourselves as the patriotic heroines, however, while we are willing to defend the world’s humanity and fight for freedom; we discriminate against and murder our own citizens of all color, gender or sexual orientation. The best scenes in this film are after the guys meet up with Jack Nicholson in the redneck’s jail house. Jack plays the part of an ACLU attorney with a drinking problem, named George. The scene in this film that speaks to what I found to be the underlying message of the entire film is the campfire scene. This one is where Wyatt, George and Billy are drinking and smoking a joint (George’s first experience with Marijuana) George is describing one of his “profound insights”, as funny as this scene is, it has the message that in the perfect world, George says, “[Man], will have a chance to transcend and evolve with some equality for all”. Wyatt was looking for this in his search across America, and like the poster said, “he couldn’t find it”. In the end neither one of these men found what they were looking for.

Easy Rider seemed to have been made to depict a parallel of where our country had gone. It is a confused film, with violence, drugs, bigotry, intolerance, shame and despair. This film, left you feeling empty and deeply sadden; and so did 1969. For the industry this film far exceeded everyone’s financial expectations. It grossed $40 million worldwide.

The Cinema of the 1960’s and the Counterculture did indeed change the PCA forever. However, I believe that there is overwhelming evidence that the influence of the Cinema to target and push censorship to the back of the priority list was completely motivated by pure profit. In the end the industry was more than willing to go outside of even their own best judgment to revive the slumping market and do whatever was necessary to reestablish their unbelievable success and wealth. This at the expense of all people, the public, the actors and even themselves.

Citations:

Brodroghkozy, Aniko. Reel revolutionaries: An Examination of Hollywood’s Cycle of 1960’s Youth Rebellion Films. Cinema Journal: 41, number 3, (2002): 38-58 (Article)

Clapp, James A. Growing Up Urban: The City, the Cinema, and American Youth. Journal of Popular Culture: (2007), Vol. 40 Issue 4, : 1-30,

Lewis, Jon. American Film: A History .W.W. Norton & Company: New York, NY, 2008.