You have to love the Wikipedia sometimes. This is a "list of counterculture films" made in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Some of my favorite movies are on this list. The list might lead you to think the counterculture ended in 1984. That's probably about right. The titles and years are from the Wikipedia. The inane comments and actors and directors names are mine.
My favorites=****
Look Back in Anger (1958)
Pull My Daisy (1959) I know Kerouac wrote the text. I think he appears in the movie too.
Shadows (1959)
The Savage Eye (1960)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Dog Star Man (1961-1964)
The Misfits (1961)**** A great John Huston movie with Marilyn Monroe, Gable, and Clift. Marilyn falls for a burned-out cowboy.
Knife in the Water (1962)**** (actually titled Nóz w wodzie) A great Polanski film--better than Chinatown.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Flaming Creatures (1963)
Scorpio Rising (1963)
Bande à part (1964)
Guns of the Trees (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)**** In my top ten for sure. Kubrick's best?
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)**** Russ Meyers. Some people call this the Citizen Kane of B Movies. Three big-breasted strippers kill and go on a tear in the desert.
The War Game (1965)
Blowup (1966)**** Antonioni. . .an amazing film
Chappaqua (1966)
Chelsea Girls (1966) (Andy Warhol)****I wouldn't call it a good film, but it is Warhol, and worth seeing even if you don't get to see Edie Sedgwick or Viva naked. It is four hours long, and done in a split screen, with basically two different movies side by side. It's either the height or nadir of modernism...
Hallucination Generation (1966)
Masculin, féminin (1966)
Morgan! (1966)
The Endless Summer (1966) An interesting surfing movie by the king of surf movies
The Wild Angels (1966)
You're a Big Boy Now (1966)
The Graduate (1967)**** A great Mike Nichols movie. It cleaned up at the Oscars.
How I Won the War (1967) Richard Lester's movie with John Lennon in the cast.)****
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)**** The first movie I dug Warren Beatty in
I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) One of the first mainstream porn movies
I Am Curious (Blue) (1967) A sequel
Magical Mystery Tour (1967) I thought this sucked. And the Beatles are deities to me.
The Trip (1967) Did Peter Fonda direct this, or just star in it? I'm too lazy to IMDB it...
Week End (1967)
Message for Posterity (1967)
Barbarella (1968) Jane Fonda's breakout movie. She doesn't wear a lot of clothes.
Faces (1968)
Flesh (1968)
Head (1968) - this was a surrealistic Monkees movie--written by Jack Nicholson!
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)****
If... (1968) (Malcom McDowell starred, I think)
Maryjane (1968) Do you wonder what this one is about?
Psych-Out (1968)
Revolution (1968)
Skidoo (1968)
Three in the Attic (1968)
Wild in the Streets (1968) **** This is one of the greatest B movies of all time. The voting age in lowered to 16 and a youth becomes president. I have always loved this film! Rent it!
Yellow Submarine (1968)****
Alice's Restaurant (1969)
Easy Rider (1969)**** Great soundtrack. Directed by Dennis Hopper.
The Magic Christian (1969)**** Not as good as the book.
Medium Cool (1969) This is a Haskell Wexler film. This great cinematographer's movies all have stunning camera work. But he was probably a better camera guy than director.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)**** This film still holds up, in a lot of ways.
More (1969)
Putney Swope (1969)**** I saw this at a drive-in in 1969. A fun movie by Robert Downey Sr.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) Russ Meyer ****
Catch-22 (1970)**** Not as good as the book. A Mike Nichols movie with an all star cast.
El Topo (1970)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)****
Getting Straight (1970)****
M*A*S*H (1970)**** Another of my favorite Altman's (are they all on the counterculture list because Altman smoked a lot of pot?)
Performance (1970) A Rolling Stones movie I think.
Punishment Park (1970)
The Revolutionary (1970)
The Strawberry Statement (1970)****
THX 1138 (1970) George Lucas' tragically underrated and almost forgotten film.
Watermelon Man (1970)
Woodstock (1970)**** I love this movie, including much of the music.
Zabriskie Point (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)**** Whew. Disturbing, a great use of music, and McDowell's best work I think (although he is pretty good in Entourage).
A Safe Place (1971)
Billy Jack (1971)
Gas-s-s-s (1971)
Harold and Maude (1971)**** A tearjerker by Hal Ashby with Bud Courte and Ruth Gordon.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)**** Tied w/ Nashville as Altman's best in my booklet.
Shaft (1971)**** But I'm talkin' bout Shaft...
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)****
The Last Movie (1971) I saw this Dennis Hopper directed movie, but don't remember it. That's OK. Hopper probably doesn't remember making it.
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) With Beach Boy Dennis Wilson and James Taylor****
Vanishing Point (1971)
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Drive, He Said (1971)
Cisco Pike (1972)
F.T.A. (1972) F*** the army!
Pink Flamingos (1972)**** Jon Waters
The Final Comedown (1972)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Last Tango in Paris (1972) Never understood this movie's appeal other than seeing Maria Schneider naked.
Silent Running (1972)
Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
American Graffiti (1973)*** Lucas' second movie.
Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
The Final Programme (1973)
Godspell (1973)
The Harrad Experiment (1973)
The Holy Mountain (1973)
La Maman et la Putain (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Serpico (1973)***
Themroc (1973)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Steppenwolf (1974)
Dirty Duck (1974)
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)
The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Zardoz (1974)
Sweet Movie (1974)
Tommy (1975)**** A messy but interesting flick.
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) One of my all time favorite movies. Cazale and Pacino are heartbreakingly great here.****
Nashville (1975) **** A stunning, gorgeous, brilliantly casted masterpiece by Altman. This may be my favorite movie. Ever.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Lisztomania (1975)
That's the Way of the World (1975)
Helter Skelter (1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1976)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) David Bowie stars.
Opening Night (1977)
Coming Home (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)****
The Last Waltz (1978) The Band. Controversial but wonderful.****
Up in Smoke (1978) Cheech and Chong ****
Apocalypse Now (1979) Coppola's third greatest movie****
The China Syndrome (1979)
Hair (1979)
More American Graffiti (1979)
Over the Edge (1979)
The Rose (1979) Bette Midler
Out of the Blue (1980)****
Repo Man (1984) I haven't seen it since it came out, but I loved it then...****
Suburbia (1984)
---o0o---
6 comments:
This is a great list. My Netflix queue just got a lot longer.
-Mrs. A.
Not to split hairs, but Harold and Maude was by Hal Ashby. I'm surprised how many of these have showed up on Zoom. Zoom is a collective of high-def channels on the Dish network. They have a foreign film channel and film fest channel where high def versions of great movies show up all the time. Wild in the Streets was just on the other day.
You're right. It's the Bud Court part that threw me off a little. I mean, it's clearly not a Bob film.
Did you see Wild In The Streets?
I only watched the first ten minutes or so. I had no idea what it was about other than the tagline. It didn't quite grab me. It was a little too hippy for me, but I might give it another try. This has to be one of Richard Pryor's first gigs. He looks really young.
I can think of one notable film missing from this list :
Lord Love a Duck
love the list! thanks!
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