Warren Beatty is a catalytic character in both Pictures at a Revolution and 1999's Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind. Biskind's book looks at the testosterone trail of Beatty, Robert Evans et al (and defeats his own title thesis by discussing the ultimate takeover by Lucas and Spielberg), but Harris' book patiently studies just the transition points of old and new Hollywood, focusing on the production and reception of five films during 1966-7 (The Graduate, Dr. Dolittle, In The Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner). The book is a study of contrasts: the fossilized studio generation and the new boomers/hippies, east and west coast, studio bloat and rigidity and the push by new faces for new approaches, such as the creative use of colour for "serious" films. Harris' mature analysis provides the wider picture of American society in transition - focusing most strongly on the rise of the civil rights movement- and documents how art does not always neatly align with actual events but rather timing is everything.
Perhaps more so than Beatty, Harris makes Sidney Poitier his central figure; Harris' impressive research shedding light on the challenges faced by the actor who was the only black leading actor for years and Hollywood's "Acceptable Negro." The book is beautifully structured. Early in, we are invited to a beach party hosted by the Fondas; Peter has invited the Byrds and Henry wonders if they can't keep the racket down. The book culminates with the 1967 Oscars, postponed, out of respect, until two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and hosted by an out of touch Bob Hope who joked that the delay "didn't affect me, but has been tough on the nominees -- how would you like to spend two days in a crouch?"
Because it inspires hope, I was relieved to learn that 1963 was considered a nadir for movies, with overblown sword and sandal pix (the equivalent of today's superhero flicks?) boring the public, and to understand that the Oscars have always been a sham, and even more so, that many Oscar winning "classics" were considered by most critics to be junk. I'd only seen snippets of Guess Who's Coming for Dinner but always thought it had a somnolent effect - and so to read that by contemporary standards director Stanley Kramer's visual style was risibly out of date and his messages considered heavy handed and condescending is a relief. Every passage about what an asshat Rex Harrison was, was also quite hilarious. If you have read it, this is a great companion to Easy Riders and Raging Bulls.
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