As part of my continuing Top Ten project, this year I'm deep diving films from the 1960s. This is going to be an undertaking at least as large as my deep dive of the '70s, so I expect I'll be working through '60s films for the next year or three. This means that my Top Ten lists are no longer going to be monthly after roughly next June, when I hit the point where I won't have watched the fifty films from a particular year that will make it eligible for a Top Ten list. I'll keep writing the lists, but expect some delays.
Prior to this, I watched mostly the world cinema classics from the '60s, and far fewer of the popular ones. There are still a number of big cultural touchstones that I've missed, including titles like "Bye Bye Bird" and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." There are a good number of stars active during this period that are still with us, but very few who are as active in the same way. The only exception is Clint Eastwood, who was busy making his name in spaghetti westerns, and is somehow still a headliner now. However, it's been fun seeing the early work of famous names like Robert DeNiro, making little New York indies with Brian DePalma, Kurt Russell, who was a youngster in several Disney family pictures, and Goldie Hawn, sharing the screen with Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman in "Cactus Flower."
Interesting actors I've come across, new to me, include Richard Benjamin, Hywel Bennett, Joanne Woodward, Michael Hordern, and Glenda Jackson. There's really no accounting for who becomes a household name over the years and who doesn't. Popular actors of the day whose names you don't hear much anymore include Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Lee Marvin, Roddy McDowell, Dean Martin, and Robert Ryan. And I'd forgotten that Elvis Presley had a thriving movie career, once upon a time. The most fun, though, has been seeing character actresses I've only known from playing grandmothers and grand dames, back when they were in their prime: Billie Whitelaw, Estelle Parsons, Cicely Tyson, and Maggie Smith.
The American film landscape of the '60s is so different from how it is today. Sure, there were some genre films, but comparatively far more musicals, more romances, and more small-scale, dramatic films. Spectacles were common, but that usually meant war films or religious epics. Westerns were still everywhere, and a major comedic star of the era was Jerry Lewis. It was fascinating to find that "Goodbye Columbus," a light romance starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw, was a smash hit that outgrossed that year's James Bond movie. Movie musicals were seriously waning toward the end of the decade, but they also managed to win Best Picture four times in ten years, more than at any other point in history.
Let's not forget that the '60s were the era of the French New Wave and New Hollywood, when the studios were in upheaval and a young generation of filmmakers were coming to prominence. Having seen most of the big titles previously, I'm trying to fill in gaps. So far I've seen multiple Claude Chabrol and Jean Luc Godard films. The early work of American directors like Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, and Francis Ford Coppola are on my wishlist. I'm not far back enough in time that the transition from the studio era is that obvious yet, but I'm getting there. Meanwhile some of the undisputed cinema greats like Kurosawa and Hitchcock were active, and I'm missing a few key titles for both.
Moreover, this is probably the most rewarding phase of this project for me yet. There are so many, many films from this era that I had never heard of until I started actively looking for more titles. There have been a few duds, but plenty of good surprises. Content standards had gradually loosened, and I keep coming across surprisingly modern-minded '60s films that address race relations, feminism, homosexuality, and other topics. It's pretty tragic how many good films have simply been forgotten over time, and again there's no rhyme or reason why some become classics and some don't.
I'll be looking forward to spotlighting some of these in my future Top Ten lists. More updates to come.
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