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| October 2008 |
| Billie Silvey |
| Four 60s Movies |
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| West Side Story (1961) is a musical retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Set in Manhattan's West Side or Hell's Kitchen, it hits several of the serious themes of the 60s--race, the youth culture, violence and love. It features music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and choreography by Jerome Robbins. Coupling a dark focus on social problems with sophisticated music, it marks a turning point in American theater. |
| To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1960 movie based on an autobiographical novel by Harper Lee. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a southern lawyer during the Depression who risks his career by defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. It features beautiful scenes and the best child actor I've seen. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, the movie won four against an unusually strong field. It features 60s themes of race, prejudice and standing up for principle. The title comes from a proverb that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird, a bird which does no damage, but just sings--a metaphor for killing innocent and vulnerable people. |
| A young Dustin Hoffman plays Ben Braddock, a recent college graduate who lacks direction in The Graduate, a 1967 coming of age film. Seduced by Mrs. Robinson, a friend of his parents played by Anne Bancroft, Ben falls in love with her daughter. Both deliver outstanding performances in avant-garde director Mike Nichols's ground-breaking satire/comedy, just his second film after Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? It treats 60s themes of shifting sexual mores and questioning the values of society. |
| Paul Scofield plays Sir Thomas More, the incorruptible advisor to King Henry VIII, in 1966's A Man for All Seasons. Henry wants to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn, while the Catholic More stands against him. The prize-winning drama, based on a play by Robert Bolt, features real-life people facing moral choices with life-and-death consequences. It includes beautiful scenery, historical accuracy and the serious discussion of religious principles too often missing from the big screen. |