MEDIUM COOL: The Movies of the 1960s

by Ethan Mordden ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 1990

Illustrated (60 photographs--not seen) film history that will leave many readers medium cool. In an effort to cover the ten years from Psycho to Easy Rider, Mordden spoons out a sometimes tasty skim, like flavored yogurt. Nothing is ever gone into deeply enough; and as page after page of titles fly by with their identifying tag lines and few threads of analysis, the reader feels trapped inside a tremendous balloon where text is less important than a big glossy gas-filled bag for Mordden to ride into the chain stores. He strives to hold each chapter together with a theme germane to the 60's, such as ""Thou shalt treat with irreverence that great American taboo, religion"" (as in Elmer Gantry)--or ""Thou shalt question the fairness of the American political system"" (Advise and Consent and The Best Man)--or ""Thou shalt question even the values of that most sacred place of all, Hollywood itself' (Two Weeks in Another Town and Inside Daisy Clover). Along with mini-talks about such artistic winners as The Misfits, Bonnie and Clyde, and Dr. Strangelove, we get the rise of the cult of the director (including a nondirector director, Andy Warhol), of exploitation and sex-ploitation films, James Bond and Elvis Presley, the ecstatically visual sf film (2001), and so on. The theses move along but the space-idler prose seldom engages (""all this forces upon Americans a new relationship with their movies, one of challenge rather than flattery, of doubt rather than certainty;"" etc.). Yes, the 60's films disturbed the public--and if these little disturbances are what spice up the book's captions, there'll be no need to read the text. A chatful of yawns.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION