I too was just old enough to remember the controversy surrounding this movie, but not to have actually seen it. I still remember riding on the bus in Detroit past a group of protestors picketing in front of a movie theater. But, of course, the world was changing and within a year or 2 there was real hardcore pornography in theaters all over the place, and increasing nudity and sexuality in mainstream movies.
Still, I've always remained curious (red, white & blue?) about this movie, since I knew it wasn't really a porn film at all, but a culmination of trends in "art" movies of the time that eventually led to the huge changes of 1970s cinema in the U.S.
Having just seen it on DVR of the recent showing on TCM, it strikes me that in the U.S. today it would be much more controversial for its mildly leftist politics (commonplace in the ferment of the late '60s) than its erotic plotline and its sex scenes (which seem not shocking at all now in a world of "R" movies).
All the discussion of the minutia of Swedish politics in the '60s in this movie - with its talk about class politics, economic justice, social changes, pacifism, direct action, and large-scale non-violent resistance - seems somehow much more shocking and relevant in early 21st century America (where we can no longer talk openly about such things in large sections of the country) than I'm sure it did to late '60s audiences waiting through all of the tedious talking for the fleeting juicy, sexy bits.
reply
share