Patricia Abbott (pattinase): MAD MEN

Monday, June 11, 2012

MAD MEN

Have not watched the last episode yet so don't tell me.

But....what movies and books capture the sixties best during my period of withdrawal?

19 comments:

George said...: You're going to love the last episode of SEASON FIVE, Patti! I'm already counting the days until MAD MEN returns. Nothing captures the Sixties like Richard Brautigan's TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA and IN WATERMELON SUGAR.; 3:19 PM
Brian Busby said...: As far as film goes, I've always been partial to The Party. Mordecai Richler's Cocksure is the novel I most associate with the 'sixties.

Do they capture the decade? I don't know. To someone who missed the first few years (and doesn't remember a whole lot about the rest), everything seemed to change so quickly. The years 1960, 1965 and 1969 seem so very different in a way that 2000, 2005 and 2009 do not.

Ah, what do I know - I was just a kid.; 3:22 PM
Deb said...: If you're looking for an early Mad Men vibe, Rona Jaffe's THE BEST OF EVERYTHING is quite good (there's also a movie adaptation that's entertaining in that late-1950s technicolor melodramatic way). Some of John P. Marquand's later books are about corporate men in the fifties--I'm thinking specifically about SINCERELY WILLIS WAYDE.; 3:39 PM
Erik Donald France said...: Oh, man -- that's a big question!

Depends on 1) which 60s 2) where 3) and other variables.

A couple of Godard films will catch the rad side in Paris and London.; 3:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Which sixties is indeed the question. For the end of the decade I'd go with WOODSTOCK, EASY RIDER, maybe THE TRIP, even FIVE EASY PIECES.

If you want the MAD MEN era that's something else. THE APARTMENT for the early years. Also LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER. A little later on: THE PAWNBROKER.

More from later in the decade: WHERE'S POPPA, PUTNEY SWOPE.

Jeff M.; 4:04 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I have never read COCKSURE by Richler. Thought I had read all his books but not this one.
Have never read Brautigan at all.
Loved John Marquand. Especially B.F.s Daughter. Wonder if it holds up. Also remember reading and seeing the Jaffe one.
yes, there was at least two sixties, maybe three.
LOve with the Proper Stranger and The Apartment are favorites. The early sixties was more romantic somehow. Never saw Where's Poppa or Putney Swope.; 4:45 PM
Anonymous said...: You never saw WHERE'S POPPA? I thought you've seen everything.

My brother in law Buddy was in that one too. A classic - Ruth Gordon, George Segal, Ron Leibman.

PUTNEY SWOPE (Buddy was in that too) was a satire on the advertising business (there's your MAD MEN tie-in) that we thought hysterically funny in 1969. It does seem dated today but is still worth watching, as a period piece if nothing else. It was written and directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

Jeff M.; 6:21 PM
Kieran Shea said...: Patti:

All of Dean Martin's Matt Helm flicks.; 6:33 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Your brother had quite a career, Jeff.
I have never seen a Matt Helm movie. Must correct that too.; 6:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Brother in law. He didn't make it as an actor but has done well directing theater.

Jeff M.; 10:34 PM
Prashant C. Trikannad said...: In books and movies, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE GODFATHER, though the latter was made into a film in early 1970s.; 11:55 PM
Cap'n Bob said...: American Graffiti.; 3:14 AM
Deb said...: I was thinking about your question again last night when I watched THE GROUP on TCM. Although the movie is obstensibly set in the 1930s, with references to Hitler, the depression, FDR, etc., the whole feel of it seems late 50s/early 60s to me: The gorgeous technicolor costumes, the hair styles and makeup (definitely not 1930s), the romantic and working lives of the women, all seem so much more modern than 1938. And the shots of the New York skyline show some buildings that weren't even built until the 1960s, so there's definitely a sense of the movie taking place in a different time period than the book.; 9:32 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I saw the first hour of it. Wasn't it gorgeous? I'd forgotten how pretty and stylish it was. I miss Joan Hackett still.; 9:40 AM
Gerard said...: Heck if I know, I was born in 1971. How about BULLITT?; 12:12 PM
Gerard said...: Oh, I just thought of a couple flicks I saw recently. Both BAADER-MEINHOF and CARLOS cover the 70s as well. Same with the two part flick MESRINE about the French killer crook Jacques Mesrine.; 12:29 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Mesrine was great. The others, I haven't seen. Thanks!; 1:42 PM
Gerard said...: The guy who plays Carlos the Jackal in CARLOS was fantastic.

I watched part of the extras for BAADER and they worked hard for historical accuracy that, I thought, gave a good look back in time.

Which reminds me of when my father watched 1968's THE THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR and mentioned how the characters walk through a room full of typewriters. There's something you don't see now.; 2:35 PM
Todd Mason said...: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, among many others...both novel and film.; 9:24 PM