Sex and "Shampoo" in the 60s

Title: Shampoo Director: Hal Ashby Starring: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn Studio: Columbia Pictures Genre(s): Comedy Rated: R

After Warren Beatty’s huge success with producing “Bonnie & Clyde,” many would assume the man would take the clout to start work on the next great American epic. After all, the movie garnered several Oscar nominations (as well as a win or two) and was hailed by many critics as one of the most important movies of that generation (with the passage of history: of all time). While Beatty did have more producing ambitions, he took his time with his next major production, choosing to be a working actor for the next several years as he nurtured that project. Instead of producing another epic, he would make a satire on the sexual politics of the 60s with “Shampoo.”

Beatty co-wrote and produced the film (directing duties fell on Hal Ashby), but by all accounts he was at the very least a ghost director, controlling virtually every aspect of the making of the movie. This is not surprising because knowing what I know about Beatty, the character he plays – George Roundy – seems to have a lot of his own personality in him. While George is not an aspiring actor, he is an aspiring artist in the form of a hairdresser. He might enjoy what he does, but his real dream is to open his own shop and work for himself.

He is good-looking and popular with his customers (most of which are ladies), and while he claims he f*&cks because it is fun (not for business), there is no denying that his position makes it easy to sleep around with people who are in contact with the people who have the money he needs. He may be the star hairdresser of the salon, but he has to play second fiddle to the “nickel-and-dime” owner who pressures him to compromise his art for the sake of saving money. Worse, the banks don’t understand George’s vision, which means he has to rub shoulders with the rich and the powerful in hopes of getting financing.

 It's a good thing he’s sleeping with Felicia (Lee Grant), who is married to a powerful business mogul who can fund that business. Ah, but he’s also sleeping with Jill (Goldie Hawn) an actress who also has connections to rich people. The most serious relationship he has been in has been with Jacky (Julie Christie), who (wouldn't you know it) is having an affair with the business mogul (Lester Karpf, played by Jack Warden) who is most likely to invest in his business. Watching it all from a distance is like watching a sexual comedy starring the Looney Tunes. Not only is “Shampoo” pointing out the absurdity of the “sexual revolution” of the time period, but it is also visualizing the hardest truth in America: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

 George may be a talented hairstylist, but the banks aren’t going to give a dime to someone who doesn’t have any assets. Lester may be willing to fund that dream, but to do so George has to suck up by going to political parties that support the election of Richard Nixon (a candidate Beatty – and likely Goerge himself – didn’t support). Actually, now that I think about it, the scenes where rich people suck up to a powerful politician while being oblivious to the everyman's concerns seem especially poetic in this day and age. 

Today, the world looks very different than the one we see in “Shampoo,” and yet the film holds up for two key reasons. The first is that it is very funny, with characters who always seem to ALMOST realize how pitiful their lives are (without actually getting to that point)! The second is that we still live in a world where the rich are in control, the poor will always be left out, and those of us who want to crawl to the top are likely only to do so if the man with the money decides to throw a bone your way. Beatty may have been making this movie with self-awareness, but he was also making it seeing the world as it truly was.