Shampoo (1975)

In a recent interview in Cineaste magazine, celeb film critic Pauline Kael described the 1970's as the greatest decade of American movies. She then laid claim by listing her seven favorite films from that period. One of the films mentioned was Shampoo. I couldn't agree more with Pauline. Aside from the lighting and some of the camerawork, everything in the film is about as good as it gets---Robert Towne's ear for common parlance, Beatty's understated charisma, and Ashby's whirlwind direction.

It's strange that more people haven't written about this movie. In many ways, Shampoo seems to have been forgotten, floating somewhere in film history heaven. I live in Los Angeles and have never heard about it being screened anywhere. Dave Kehr and the critical establishment in general have all written it off as a film that hasn't aged well. And I've never seen a book written about either Shampoo or Ashby. Am I living in a vault or is this really the legacy of Shampoo? If you don't like this movie, I urge you to write or contact me. My e-mail address is listed above. I simply don't understand why more people don't

Fmovies: Dated? Unfunny? Only to those weaned on formula action comedies of the past fifteen years. I can still remember the gasp in the suburban twin theater when Carrie Fisher made her indelible suggestion to Beatty, and the roar of delight as viewers saw what Julie Christie was up to at that dinner party.

Towne's script, and the acting, makes us care about George, Jackie, Felicia and even Lester, to a degree, and it makes the excellent point that is still true today: money trumps all. Its logical ending, where nothing happens but life goes on, without a wild chase on motorcycle to the airport in pursuit of Jackie and Lester, is perfect. Did anyone really expect George to win the fair hand of the gorgeous Ms. Christie when he cannot even talk to a banker.

As I write more and more highlights come to mind: George giving Lester his lecture on women while Lester's goons wait outside. George fobbing off Felicia in the dark as he hustles to see Jill, the "terminally ill" friend.

When Kubrick died, print and the net was drowned in tributes, but poor Ashby, a great filmmaker practically left the earth in silence. Ashby lost himself once the 70s ended, and films had to have tacked on happy endings again [e.g. The Natural], but then in my mind the same could be said of Kubrick.

This is one of those films that all takes place in one 24-hour period. When such movies work, the changes in the characters' lives feel more real and intense. So it is in "Shampoo", as we watch George's world slowly crumble.

Rarely has a movie-star's real life persona been used to better effect. Warren Beatty gives a moving performance as a guy who sincerely does not intend to hurt anyone, but he becomes a victim of his own allure. He is supported by fantastic ensemble acting.

Written by Beatty and Robert Towne (Chinatown), and directed by Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, Being There), "Shampoo" is Hollywood moviemaking at its best, and it deserves to be ranked with its more well-known contemporaries, like "M*A*S*H", "Annie Hall", and "The Sting". Its theme of the emptiness of unchecked promiscuity is still relevant in a culture where sex is more of a commodity than ever.

Shampoo fmovies. An almost perfect balance showing at once the beauty and shallowness of Los Angeles and those who live there. The film is famous for being about Lothario, but the film is really about a cultural malaise that is Los Angeles. The movie industry has infected everyone in Los Angeles and as a result, you can't get your car repaired without hearing some namedropping (especially today, but even back in 1968) and velvet rope sightings.

Some people seem content to try and write off this film as a Hollywood porn film, but it's much more than that. Porn is cheap and often mechanical. Shampoo is full of rich characters and the story, as it should, has the tangles of wet hair. How often has you seen a film where you look forward to each scene? To know what the characters will do next? Shampoo at its center, has Beatty, playing both a fictional character, and to some I'm sure, a bit of the ladies man he was in the public eye for years and years. (Actually, the character is based on a real hairdresser who had a sad ending, being murdered in the terrible Manson murders along with Sharon Tate.) The film not only entertains, but deepens with time. (Anyone, whether here or on other sites, tries to compare movies made years ago with movies today, is either naive or terribly arrogant. Would you hold Wuthering Heights next to Saw? Would you compare Nat King Cole to Marilyn Manson? All were or are popular, so what's the difference? Plenty, I doubt most Blacks would like to go back in time and compare the civil rights laws, if even existed, to today's laws.) Besides Beatty, there are many other fine performances, from Lee Grant, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Tony Bill, Carrie Fisher, Jack Warden among others. Restored on DVD, it's a very good watching experience now as well.

Hal Ashby always leavened his comedic films (Harold and Maude, Being There, Last Detail) with sharp social commentary and observation, and "Shampoo" is no different. Taking place on the eve and day of the 1968 Presidential Election, it's as concerned with the "free love" hedonism as it is with the profound and dark social changes that had taken place by 1975 (the year "Shampoo" was produced).

Beatty has never been more charming - or revealing as emptily vain as anyone so "successful" with women can become, and the film switches between surprisingly adult material even for now with a concern for mid-life crises, cultural politics, and ultimately, a cynical view of how the free-wheeling 60s counterculture didn't take themselves seriously enough. Robert Towne's influence in the script is clearly evident.

Already "dated" when it came out, it's a great snapshot of the times, its concerns and issues, and is relevant today.

Robert Towne's "Chinatown" is considered the greatest script of the past 30 years, but I think "Shampoo" (written by Towne and Beatty) is even better. It is an intricately constructed sex farce, with realistic, flesh-and-blood characters. Beatty's character, George, is trying to serve two masters -- his own uncontrollable libido, and his desire to set up his own hair salon. These two desires come into direct conflict when he seeks funding from wealthy financier Lester (Jack Warden), while also having affairs with Lester's wife Felicia (Lee Grant), Lester's mistress Jackie(Julie Christie), and even Lester's daugther (Carrie Fisher). In fact, George beds all of these women in a 24-hour period, while also trying to maintain his relationship with his steady girlfriend (Goldie Hawn). All of these incompatible desires are compressed into a short time frame, and George's life unravels spectacularly, as he learns some very hard lessons by the end.

Structurally, "Shampoo" is brilliantly devised. Each character has an opposite. George, the satyr, has Lester, the cuckhold, as his opposite. George exudes natural sexual appeal, whereas Lester is loved merely for his wealth. Tony Bill's character, an ad executive, is the younger version of Lester. Tony Bill dangles a job offer to Goldie Hawn in order to bed her. Despite his hip outward appearance, this character is as staid as Lester. In fact, the two characters are linked by separate scenes in which each one stares out of a skyscraper window, gazing at a panoramic view of L.A., and makes a world-weary comment about the craziness below (in Bill's case, he says, "Jesus, this town"). There is also a contrast between George and Jackie. George, in his own words, "doesn't f*** for money, I do it for fun," whereas Jackie ends up as a kept girl (by Lester). Goldie Hawn's character also prostitutes herself, in a very subtle way. In the moral universe of Beverly Hills in 1968, Beatty's promiscuity seems more pure than the money-driven machinations of everyone else.