the counter culture movement and cinema
[short]
Anti-establishment is a visible arch in history and politics, not confined to any particular period or place. As a movement the western world began officially identifying the 1960s as the year that kick-started “counterculture”. Counterculture is the stage that amplifies the voice of the outcast and downtrodden. It is often placed in exact contrast to the popular culture and therefore, can be understood as a response to it.
The western world began recognizing the counter-voices more significantly after the Civil Rights Movement and their encroachment in Vietnam, probably as a resistance to the empire’s unethical stronghold of minorities in their own country and abroad. Despite there being a very large power imbalance, the counterculture gained its foothold not simply in unorganized politics but music, movies and literature. Disenfranchised from societal participation, they share a similar history of oppression from the hands of the global north began participating and reinforcing the thoughts of the subaltern, among them being women, LGBTQ members, hipsters and the poor.
A dismissal of what was up until then an ambitious cry: ‘American Dream’ became a disastrous reminder of disillusionment pushing down upon the lives of the poor and lost. Therefore, this period’s production of art involved a critical and often menacing sense of resistance that exposed a sensation of struggle. The struggle, as the culture repeatedly emphasized, was something reserved to the powerless and the poor and further expressed hope of a meaningful revolutionary change.
The counterculture expressed hope, but was also ruthless. It made a point to tear apart the devious system that had deprived their lives of joy and meaning, but in the process also encouraged the victims of the system to indulge in activities that were previously refused to them. The resistance period was one that saw a great rise in the populace experimenting with drugs and psychedelics as part of their culture; the resulting media that it creative also reflected the effect of certain endearing “trance” which was cynical of the society and correctly identified the society’s role in their misfortunes.
Experimentation wasn’t simply limited to drugs, the counterculture opened up a pathway for a subculture that valued and fortified this.
With such a strong sense of upheaval, the ordinary populace was obviously thrown off their course of existence. Often, filmmakers and artists engaged in a grim and absurd outlook- thus, giving rise to a resurgence of true existentialism. An example of this is the movies that were produced from the French New Wave, permanently altering the way cinema operated.
New Hollywood was also a similar way for the US to grasp at what was happening within its own borders. A board of movies with grit, comedy, drugs, promiscuity, violence began to come out as the regulations with regard to censorship saw an ease.
The 1970s horror film I Drink Your Blood was an indelible mark of such a culture. Following the trial of Charles Manson and the fear among the Christian population of a fearful and rampant youth of hippie activists, it was set as a morbid mirror to the American audience. Despite being one of the first movies to get an X rating for its explicit violence and it’s blatant symbolism of the devil, the movie received a dramatic response if not positive. I Drink Your Blood is constantly revisited as a hallmark counterculture film.
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