A certain friendo re-watched Shampoo last night, and re-loved it. And he passed along an interesting political perception.
We all understand that the Democrats are going to get killed in November, in large part because they’re seen as being in the grip of progressive wokesters and in favor of teaching four-year-olds about gender fluidity and gender reassignment — average people HATE that. Plus Asian parents and Anglo parents with really smart kids hate the equity thing (i.e., show favoritism to POC students re university admissions and grades as a kind of cultural make-up exercise). They also reject the idea that European-descended Anglos are inherently evil and racist to the core, and therefore have to sit in the back of the bus for a generation or two in order to make up for past sins against POCs.
With all that said, here’s what friendo said about Shampoo….
“Shampoo was made as kind of a nod to Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game (’39), which was about a frivolous society right before Hitler invaded. Shampoo has Nixon humming in the background to make the point that after the politically tumultuous 1960s the Me Generation of the 1970s became silly and frivolous in their own way, and thus lost the country to conservatives (politically).
“It could also have been a nod to Charles Manson killing Jay Sebring (one of the inspirations for Beatty’s “George Roundy” character, the other being Jon Peters) and taking away Sharon Tate (Julie Christie).
“But I guess I see us in that movie: narcissistic, self-involved, not seeing the bigger picture. Focused on woke movies and tinkering with our utopian dioramas and not thinking about what is coming next. Which could be really really, really bad.”
2270 Bowmont Drive, by the way, is the address of the Beverly Hills home resided in by Christie’s “Jackie” character and paid for by Jack Warden‘s “Lester” character.
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