Since last week I alluded to the subtle references to sexuality in films like It Happened One Night, I thought this week it would be only appropriate to discuss the sexual revolution brought about by what is known as the American New Wave. With the coming of New Hollywood, the proverbial beds were pushed together and the “walls of Jericho” were blown to smithereens.
Prior to last night’s class, I must admit, I was a Graduate “virgin.” Dustin Hoffman’s nervous, insecure demeanor in his performance as Benjamin Braddock was a fitting representation of the time period. Hollywood was just breaking into the realities of sex, testing the waters and seeing what would appeal to viewers. Audiences at that time were craving more – more shock, more entertainment, more realism, and more of a human connection – for their money. Hoffman’s character was “a little worried about his future,” just as the film industry was a little worried about theirs. And, in both cases, drastic steps had to be taken.
Perusing a list of quintessential “New Hollywood” films, it doesn’t take long to notice that many of them were focused very specifically, and sometimes exclusively, on sex. Two years after The Graduate (1967), with its brief glimpses of Anne Bancroft’s nude body and that exceedingly uncomfortable scene in the strip club, the limits were pushed yet farther with Midnight Cowboy (1969), again starring Dustin Hoffman, this time as John Voight’s unlikely pimp. Midnight Cowboy was originally given an “X” rating, but that was changed to an “R” in 1971. Also in ’69, the movie Bob & Carol & Ted Alice (sort of a precursor to The Big Chill [1983]) broached the topic of swinging and partner swapping. The movie poster for this film was, once again, a reflection of the times. “Consider the possibilities,” read the tagline. That could have been the motto for the American New Wave.
The Last Picture Show (1971), shot in black and white, was Cybill Shepherd’s film debut, and included both male and female full frontal nudity. Even more impressed on my memory than this, though, is the sound of the bed-springs creaking during one of the more awkward sex scenes. Because of the context of the scene, that sound was like nails on a chalk board. This was not the glamorized on-screen lovemaking as we are so accustomed to today. Instead, Peter Bogdanavich gives the viewer a taste of the real ineptness and physical pain of a first-time sexual encounter.
Two films released in 1971, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (again starring Dustin Hoffman), contained very graphic and controversial rape scenes. The following year, Deliverance (1972) was released with its now famous male rape scene.
Since this era of thematic experimentation, the waves seem to have calmed a bit. While we still see the occasional controversial film hit the big screen, as in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut [1999] or Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain [2005], audiences are not as easily shocked, and it would seem that, at this point, the envelope could not be pushed much farther without deteriorating into pornography.
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| Bridging a 34-year gap, Larry McMurtry wrote the screenplay for both The Last Picture Show and Brokeback Mountain. |
