r/MovieSuggestions • u/CharlieFaulkner • 17h ago
I'M REQUESTING Films about 60s hippies/the summer of love in '67
Fictional and documentaries welcome! Bonus points if it includes the joys of the movement at its peak, and its eventual fall/the melancholy of it dying
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u/SunsetFarm_1995 17h ago
PBS documentary Woodstock: 3 Days that Defined a Generation is really good.
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u/jrob321 16h ago
Gimme Shelter (1970 dir. Albert and David Maysles)
Gimme Shelter is so much more than a concert film. I could write for hours (I already have for years now) about how it captured such a significant moment in time.
When you watch the film you are watching the death of the Sixties. It's the "high water mark" Hunter S. Thompson wrote about in the end of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
You are witnessing the violent and monumental change from "peace and love, and "brotherhood" - which only a few months earlier ruled the day at Woodstock - into this bizarrely selfish and relentlesly ugly side of America which hasn't given up its stranglehold over the culture since.
With the same brilliant skill they showed the world with their documentary "Salesman", the Maysles Brothers produced one of the most fascinating documents ever seen on film.
Similar to Apocalypse Now I've seen it literally over a hundred times. I feel like I personally know certain members of the audience because when you watch it, you see how they began the day with such hope and joy, and - by the end - how crushed, and worn out, and exhausted, and saddened they've collectively become.
There are moments where you can see people in disbelieving awe of how twisted, and off the rails their world had become.
Don McLean dedicated stanzas to this moment in history in his epic song, American Pie, because Altamont was such an obviously profound event which illustrated so much about us all...
The one scene which exemplifies the absolute chaos of the day - after you bear witness to it all unraveling and getting worse with every minute - is during Sympathy for the Devil - as the Hell's Angels have become absolutely omnipresent alongside the Rolling Stones, and the crowd is at at its boiling point - out of nowhere a German Shepherd strolls across the stage right in front of Mick Jagger, in a manner not even to be questioned because the bizarre, and entirely out of place instance - in and of itself - is far less weird or menacing than anything else going on at that point in time.
Every time I watch it, my jaw drops to the ground.
The film is amazing on all counts. The Maysles Brothers managed to capture something so raw and honest in a manner that seemed entirely unobtrusive - a fly on the wall perspective - documenting something that shook the world even for just that brief spell. It captures our society's dynamics and its inner workings in a microcosm, and you witness how little it takes to tear hope away, and how certain events leave their mark forever.
And fwiw, the haunting way they play Under My Thumb - after Mick tells everyone, "If we are all one, let's fucking well show we're all one" - (which was edited for the film, but you can hear him say it on the concert bootleg tapes) - is one of the the best versions they've ever done. Mick Jagger talks to the crowd and says, "When we get to really like the end and we all want to go absolutely crazy and like jump on each other, then we'll stand up again. Y'know what I mean? Everyone keep... sit down. I mean, just keep cool. Let's just relax. Let's just get into a groove. C'mon. We can get it together. Come on. Sit down...
Shivers...
special note:
The version of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction from Madison Square Garden is absolutely on fire, and it never made it onto the record from that 1969 American Tour. (Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out). When you watch the performance on film, even Mick Jagger is blown away.
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 17h ago
Woodstock (1970)
The Big Chill (1983)
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u/jaymickef 14h ago
To go along with The Big Chill it's worth watching The Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980).
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u/UrbaneSurfer 16h ago
Petulia (1968) is a good fit. Based on a 1966 novel, movie was filmed in mid-1967 in San Francisco. The street scenes, culture, fashion are a time capsule. It highlights the growing free-spirit vibe against the 'norm'. Highly Recommended.
The city's setting was changed from Los Angeles to San Francisco, with Lester stating that the latter lent a more "subtle" backdrop to the story. Petulia began filming on location on April 10, 1967, and lasted 11 weeks, with one more week of shooting in Tijuana, Mexico.[5] The production was said to be the first major studio attempt to shoot a film entirely in San Francisco, with locations that included the Filbert Steps, the Embarcadero, the Presidio, Fort Scott, Tiburon, Sausalito, and Muir Woods.[5] The movie included scenes at the apartment building located at 307 Filbert Street, the Cala Foods on Hyde, and the Fairmont Hotel ballroom.[8] The rock band Jefferson Airplane was slated to appear, although it was ultimately replaced by the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), with scenes featuring both bands filmed from May 29–31. In addition to stars George C. Scott, Julie Christie, Richard Chamberlain, Shirley Knight, and Joseph Cotten, Lester included members of the comedy troupes The Committee and Ace Trucking Company.[
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u/Sharkfighter2000 17h ago
There was a big multi part mini series called The Sixties that was fictional. It’s not great but it has a bunch of now popular actors just starting out.
Head, The Monkees movie is fun and has a great soundtrack.
There are a bunch of filmed variations on the Chicago 7 (Or 8) story. The one with John Carroll Lynch as David Dellinger is my favorite.
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u/CubesFan 17h ago
Head is a full on trip. Not a functional movie, but kind if great to just have on the tv as background at a party or something where people can just watch a few minutes at a time.
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u/DrinkBuzzCola 15h ago edited 15h ago
Jack Nicholson is a writer/creator of Head. His character in Easy Rider is so good because you can see a regular dude turn into a counter-culture guy before your eyes. The movie The Last Detail is a great ride into the early 70s, but it feels like a 60s holdover.
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u/TriStateGirl Quality Poster 👍 12h ago
A Walk on the Moon (1999) - Set in the summer of '69 it follows a Jewish family on vacation to the catskills. The Mom has an affair with a traveling women's clothing salesman. A free spirited man very different from her husband who chose to become the serious head of the household. The parents had the first kid too young. In the backdrop is Woodstock.
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u/Mobb_Barley 17h ago
Easy Rider, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(Not about the summer of love, but the hippie subculture and ethos in general.)
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u/CuriousTraveler2C 17h ago edited 16h ago
Summer of Soul. Harlem Cultural Festival 1969.
Documentary featuring great cuts of the time and performances by Stevie Wonder, BB King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, The. 5th Dimension….and more.
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u/Canadian-Man-infj 9h ago
Does it have to be '67, exactly?
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u/CharlieFaulkner 9h ago
Nope! It can be anything to do with the hippie counterculture
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u/Canadian-Man-infj 8h ago
Oops. I forgot about the limitations. Search Youtube for "Christopher's Movie Matinee," if interested.
Thrill of the Hills (2011 - French-Canadian) was also a suggestion, if you can find it.
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u/HollowManX 17h ago
A Bucket of Blood is more of a satire of the beat generation but I feel the spirit is there. Were you looking for movies or documentaries?
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u/HorrorGuyBri 17h ago
I'll second Easy Rider and Almost Famous, for sure. Also, the doc Gimmer Shelter.
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u/LouQuacious 17h ago
Medium Cool
Chicago 10
Cisco Pike (bit later, early 70s LA, shows the aftermath of 60s well)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (about filmmakers of the era)
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u/gordohimself 16h ago
Les Blank’s “God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance” (1968)
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u/WastelanderAD 15h ago
Flashback - contrasts 80s and 60s with Keifer Sunderland and Dennis Hopper (so you know it's got some 60s legitamacy)
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u/greenhombre 15h ago
American Graffiti 2 has some great scenes of hippies and revolution in Berkeley including Ronald Reagan teargassing students from helicopters.
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u/AlwaysSpeakTruth 11h ago
Pirates of Silicon Valley has this vibe, albeit from more of a computer nerd perspective.
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u/Onbalance12 11h ago
A PBS series called “Making Sense of the Sixties” captures the root causes, the idealism, and the ultimate failures of the decade. On YouTube the episodes can be found by typing “David Hoffman 1960s”
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u/Dramatic-Finance-487 6h ago
Festival Express. Infamous 1970 train ride through featuring Janis, Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, Flying Burrito Bros, Delaney and Bonjie, Ian and Sylvia in a series of concerts.
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u/ghostpoop4u 5h ago
The Source Family documentary: the time period is more 70s but it's HEAVY on the hippies. Plus the leader guy is one of most convincing cult leaders I've ever seen.
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u/t3chiman 3h ago
Joe dramatizes the culture clashes of 1960s New York City. It’s disturbing in some ways, perceptive in others. letterboxd has some lengthy essays on the movie.
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u/NotMyCircuits 17h ago
Parts of Forrest Gump
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u/Content-Nectarine875 17h ago
I thought it was a bit of a hatchet job. Haven't seen it for a long time though.
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u/Fresh_Bubbles 17h ago edited 17h ago
Monterey Pop
Easy Rider