STACK June 2017 Issue 152

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22 JUNE 2017
a place of freedom and true democracy was
severely damaged. A cascade of dramatic and
tragic events shocked American society through
pervasive coverage by the media. TV newscasts
beamed pictures into American homes of
hand-to-hand combat between American
soldiers and Communist Viet Cong – within
the confines of the US embassy in Saigon!
President Lyndon B. Johnson had continuously
promised the American people that victory in
Vietnam was close at hand. But the carnage
of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive proved
that Johnson had been lying to them. As a
direct consequence, this led to strong domestic
opposition to the US involvement in the
VietnamWar. Soon after, a haggard-looking
Johnson announced that he would not run for
presidential re-election. Violent anti-war and anti-
racism protests increased across the country,
with bloody battles fought with police on
the streets of Chicago and at various State
Universities.
And then, just two months after King was
murdered, so too was the new Democratic
frontrunner, Bobby Kennedy. The young New
York senator was shot just moments after
claiming victory in the California primary.
Assassination and anarchy now seemed
to be part of American political life. The US
burgeoning youth population found themselves
increasingly at odds with the established social
and conventional political order that appeared to
be coming apart at the seams.
Two films that had tapped into
America’s youth counterculture won Oscars
at the 40th Academy Awards ceremony.
Bonnie & Clyde was the most profitable film
of 1967-68, and The Graduate became one
of the top five box office hits of the decade.
With the scrapping of the strict Motion
Picture Production Code, Hollywood was at
long last free to explore controversial subject
matter in more mature films. Time magazine
ran a cover story describing Bonnie & Clyde as
the beginning of a new American cinema,
influenced by the European Nouvelle Vague.
The article was headlined “Violence... Sex...
Art, a new freedom of filmmaking combining
commercial success with critical controversy”.
The following year saw the release of a
movie about two disillusioned, drug-addled
bikers. Alienated from society, they take to
the road to find the real America, only to die
in the process. Easy Rider (1969), a satire on
the American dream, perfectly captured the
zeitgeist of the late 1960s. Accompanied by
a groundbreaking hard rock soundtrack, the
film became a cinematic phenomenon.
Independently financed but released through
Columbia Pictures, it was made on a budget
of less than $400,000 but returned over
$19 million in domestic rentals. Easy Rider,
brought youngsters flocking back to theatres
The 40th Academy Awards, honouring
film achievements for 1967, had been
originally scheduled for 8th April
1968. But the ceremony was postponed for two
days out of deep respect for the leader of the
Civil Rights Movement, Dr Martin Luther King
Jr., who had been assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee.
1968 is considered to be one of the most
turbulent and divisive twelve months in
American history, where the country’s image as
HOLLYWOOD'S
SECOND
GOLDEN AGE
1968-1974
visit EXTRAS FEATURE
Part 3:
Political Turmoil and the
Rise of the Movie Brats
[Easy Rider] was made
on a budget of less than
$400,000 but returned over
$19 million
A classic scene from Easy Rider with
actor/director Dennis Hopper and Peter
Fonda, with Luke Askew riding pillion