Shampoo
Shampoo is a racy, star-studded bedroom farce set in the decadent, sexually liberated Los Angeles of the late 1960s. Written by Academy Award winner Warren Beatty (1982 Best Director, Reds) and Robert Towne (Chinatown) and directed by Hal Ashby (Being There), the film was nominated for four Academy Awards and has been chosen as one of the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies.
George (Beatty) is one of L.A.'s most desirable men, a Beverly Hills hairdresser who makes all his female clients look, and feel, better than ever. Encouraged by his girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) to open his own salon, George approaches conservative businessman Lester (Jack Warden) for financing. Unbeknownst to Lester, George is sleeping with his wife (Lee Grant), his mistress (Julie Christie) and his teenage daughter (Carrie Fisher). Can George resist temptation and settle down with Jill or will he get tangled up in even more scandalous affairs?
Member Reviews
A parable of liberal failure in the face of Nixon - filmcmnt
Whether or not you see this film as a brilliant or a tame comedy really depends on whether or not the political component pays off for you. What's the relationship between George's conundrum with the many women in his life and the election of Richard Nixon in 1968? If those two seem to have nothing to do with one another, then yes the movie seems to be simply a light and forgetable sex romp. But if you take Beatty's bait (it was his idea to make the thing a political allegory) to see the political and sexual plots as related, the film really does become a trenchant allegory for the failure of the liberal left (of which Beatty is obviously a committed partisan) to mount any kind of successful alternative to Nixon/Agnew's ascendancy. Beatty's line, said through tears, that he "can't seem to stop getting in his own way," is meant to be a comment on the left's own failures to step up to the plate and direct American policy. While the Republican right idiotically blunders its way into power with one of the least charismatic presidents in memory, the left has, well, nothing but shampoo and image. It's ALL charisma and good intentions, but no real substance or commitment. If you read the movie that way, this movie is of a piece with Beatty's other major works which have always been concerned with charting what went wrong with the American left (see Reds and Ishtar, the latter also a parable for liberalism under Reagan that was misunderstood as simply a failed Hope/Crosby road picture).Oh Beatty! - FilmJunkie
Warren Beatty is unbelievably sexy in this film about extravagence, classism and capitalist America. I believe his character here was a strong influence on 'The L Word's Shane, that is a lothario, a man who can get any woman he wants, but cannot win their respect.
The acting is great, the script and movie really work towards a better understanding of the sexuality of beauty as well as the disposibility of the modern Casanova.Comedy Brings Back The '60's - bwod
In 1968, the sexual revolution was just hitting its stride across America. This Warren Beatty vehicle is little more than a bedroom farce, against the back-drop of the Republican National Convention of 1968, when Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew claimed the brass ring of candidates for the Federal elections. The humour carries the movie, with a bevy of stars like Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Carrie Fisher, and Lee Grant. Jack Warden is outstanding as a business tycoon who is drawn into the psychidelic, pot-smoking sub-culture.
Considering Beatty produced, co-wrote, and starred in this picture, he manages to remain very real, and down-to-earth, as he succeeds in bedding down most of the women in Los Angele's Beverly Hills. Ultimately, it is his "flightiness" that gets him into trouble, and the non-Hollywood ending of the story is refreshing. I liked this movie a lot, and would recommend it to any adult, with an open mind.
Member Reviews
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A parable of liberal failure in the face of Nixon - filmcmnt
Whether or not you see this film as a brilliant or a tame comedy really depends on whether or not the political component pays off for you. What's the relationship between George's conundrum with the many women in his life and the election of Richard Nixon ...Oh Beatty! - FilmJunkie
Warren Beatty is unbelievably sexy in this film about extravagence, classism and capitalist America. I believe his character here was a strong influence on 'The L Word's Shane, that is a lothario, a man who can get any woman he wants, but cannot win their ...Comedy Brings Back The '60's - bwod
In 1968, the sexual revolution was just hitting its stride across America. This Warren Beatty vehicle is little more than a bedroom farce, against the back-drop of the Republican National Convention of 1968, when Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew claimed the brass ...