Shampoo

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.

Hal Ashby's "Shampoo" stars Warren Beatty as George Roundy, a popular Beverly Hills hairdresser who spends his life juggling customers, jobs and women.

The great joke of the film is that George exists solely to please other people. He's entirely selfless. Whilst Ashby paints the rest of society as being self-centered and selfish, George dutifully cuts hair, tends to women and bounces from one lover to another. The poster boy for altruism, he exists solely to make other people happy.

Though marketed as a sex comedy, the film works better as a political statement. It takes place during the eve of the 1968 presidential election (in which Nixon was elected) and attempts to capture the last vestiges of a certain crazy, carefree era, Ashby contrasting whimsical Pre-Nixon attitudes (nonchalant sex, free love, a kind of social cohesion which George can no longer maintain), with the knowledge that Watergate, corruption, lies and the general pessimism of the Nixon era, were all on the horizon. By the film's end, George can no longer love everybody. The glue has failed and myopia, separation, selfishness and egotism on a grand scale has begun.

Unsurprisingly, everyone in "Shampoo" aspires to success in both bed and bank. The characters are constantly working. Working at their jobs, on themselves, or on their lovers etc. But Ashby's larger point is that they ultimately have no significant political or cultural impact. They're too selfish, myopic and self centred, and thus the Nixon administration, which comes about at the end of the film, is exactly what these people deserved.

"Shampoo's" opening and closing scenes neatly portray George's own personal evolution. The film opens with him making love to one of his many women, the Beach Boys' lyrics, "Wouldn't it be nice if we were married..." pulsating on the soundtrack. The song emphasises the yearning beneath George's playboy image. By the end of the film, however, George is left alone on a hill top, watching as his women turn their backs on him and drive away with their respective partners. They've all moved on, whilst he stands there, a dead man with a pipe dream. Hard luck, man.

7.9/10 - Worth one viewing. Adam Sandler's "Don't Mess With The Zohan" would borrow heavily from Warren Beatty's work here.

Beatty says he approached Towne to do a modern version of the classic restoration comedy called The Country Wife (hilarious by the way). In the original play, the hero beds all the wives by confessing to their husbands that he's impotent so the husbands make fun of him and think nothing of leaving their frustrated and underappreciated wives in his care.

Here in the updated "Shampoo", Beatty and Towne make the hero an assumed-to-be-gay hairdresser (instead of impotent)and the results are inspired bedroom farce mixed with social satire.

Younger viewers may find the film a little dated but it was a "period" film when it was made (set in 68 when it was shot in 74) so Ashby consciously gave it that dated look. For me this and Heaven Can Wait are Beatty's best work. Walks a fine comic/tragic line. And this really feels like the closest character to Beatty's heart. It was after this that I went back and saw Splendor in the Grass and began to appreciate Beatty as an actor rather than just a gigolo celebrity.

Great dialogue by Towne, Jack Warden's hilarious and Julie Christie is stunning.

No matter what the AFI or other critics say, Shampoo is not a great comedy, mostly because it doesn't try to be one. Of course there are some humorous moments such as when George(Beatty) tries to listen to his women and work at the same time, or the out-of-place Lester at a party filled with hippies of the psychedelic era. However, this is a much more serious film than it lets on, which will certainly make some people mad or disappointed in that it didn't live up to its billing.

Yet, I cannot blame this film for what it does well, which is portray the life of a man who simply wants a good time and success and an accurate picture of the times of 1968 when Nixon was about to be elected, the Summer of Love was almost upon us and free love was a progressive idea. Yet, this movie seems harder on these characters than would be let on. Perhaps it is a nostalgic look-back to a time when there was a great feeling of new-found freedom but these people didn't know what to do with it. Some also criticize it for being chauvinistic but in reality, the females are the most confident, the most aware of their situations and the only ones able to make sense of what the next step should be.

As you might expect, the acting is very good with Beatty playing the character completely aloof, always in his own world trying to think faster than the situations being thrown at him. He realizes what a mess he's in but also knows he doesn't want out so easy. Goldie Hawn is a wonderful, charming and confident actress whose beauty is secondary to her talent while Julie Christie gives the film's best performance as a conflicted woman who seems to know exactly what she will do despite not letting on. The Academy Awards only recognized Lee Grant and Jack Warden, perhaps because they represent a past age, a world about to get completely swept up in the new era being established during the '60s.

Some see it as a political satire, others see it as an unfunny comedy about the consequences of free love. I see it as both as well as a very smart character study of what not to do but also why it's so fun doing it.