There is a scene where Goldie Hawn is freaking out because she said that she heard gunshots in the canyon outside of her house... Was this supposed to be in reference to the Manson Murders?
Per trivia, Warren Beatty's character is based on Jay Sebring who was killed in the Manson Murders.
Not literally, since the movie takes place nine months before the Manson murders. But having Hawn hear gunshots in the night does seem to be the filmmaker's intentional allusion to Manson and the coming end of the "carefree, free love Sixties."
From the film:
Hawn: "Honey, don't be mad at me. There were some shots. Gunshots. Some gunshots."
Beatty: "Where?"
Hawn: "Here. In the canyon."
Beatty: "It's a big canyon, honey."
Hawn: "So what?! A bullet could probably go a mile."
And from the first page of Vincent Bugliosi's "Helter Skelter":
The canyons above Hollywood and Beverly Hills play tricks with sounds. A noise clearly audible a mile away may be indestinguishable at a few hundred feet....share
All things considered, it's surprising that more people didn't hear something.
Very interesting- thanks for your response-
I've seen "Shampoo" and read "Helter Skelter" but never would have associate the first page of the book- with the dialouge of the movie - great research!!!!
The book came out the same year the movie was in production, and Beatty, Towne & Company, with their insiders' interest in the story, certainly would have read it.
I didn't get around to reading "Helter Skelter" till the late eighties, but when I read the first couple of pages, describing the night of the murders and all the neighbors who thought they heard shots or screams but couldn't decide if it was serious, I immediately flashed on that scene from "Shampoo."
I love the movie for its rich tapestry of throwaway details. Like the snatches of "Sgt. Pepper" and Buffulo Springfield at the neverending party, like the Nixon/Agnew posters everywhere, like Jack Warden in his car hearing a Vietnam War news flash and switching away to the stock market report, those gunshots that Goldie Hawn hears contribute to an amazingly detailed ambient picture of LA in '68.
The Pen is Mightier than the Swoaaaaarrrgh!!!
I think Warren Beaty was really good in this- That ending is pretty emmotional! Love also the whole party sequence- great music too-
I love Los Angeles- and would have liked to have been there in the 60's.
There's a lot to this movie. I think one of the points is that the 60's party is about to come to an end -- Nixon has just been elected, Manson will strike soon. The references to the Vietnam War are fleeting, but show just how insulated these characters are from it -- Lester turns the radio station away from reports of the war, the owner of the salon hears that his son has been killed (not in combat, but in an accident).
George is trying to juggle too many balls at once -- he carries on an affair with Felicia, while living with Goldie Hawn's character (forgot her name), and pursues his old flame Jackie. He can't make up his mind who he wants to be with, until it's too late. On top of the sexual adventures, George is trying to raise money from Felicia's husband, Lester, while also sleeping with Lester's daughter. George is too flaky to pull all this off, and all the chainsaws and oranges that he is juggling will come crashing to earth.
I love Hal Ashby's understated direction. He doesn't nudge us in the ribs like a lot of filmmakers. He lets things play out in a natural way, even when what is going on is farcical.
One of my favorite understated moments is when they go to the Nixon fundraiser, and George checks in Jackie's fur coat, but he forgets to get the ticket. Tony Bill takes it and gives it to George, saying, "In case she wants it back." George obviously has too many things on his mind.
I love the scene in which George tries to get a loan from a strait-laced bank executive. This scene reveals how George is ill-suited to running not only a business but his own life.
I also like when Lester decides to leave his wife for Jackie. We think he's just going to keep Jackie on the side, to keep up appearances, but he's really in love with her. They are obviously a mismatch -- he doesn't realize that Jackie's Yorkies are miniatures who have grown to full size -- he refers to them as "pups."
The script is superbly structured. Each sex scene is interrupted, which not only frustrates George but serves to advance the plot.
Excellent comments, fluffer. You should post them in the review section, or as the start of a new thread, so they get more attention.
It saddens me that this film's reputation has fallen off in recent years. I think it has something to do with the changing sensibility of America. I've gone to several screenings of the film in the last few years, and the audience reaction has been noticeably muted... don't really have the time now to try to tease out what exactly has changed.
But I consider the damn thing a masterpiece and a touchstone portrait of its time and place. If anything, it deepens every time I see it. Your comments touched on some things I've always seen in it, but also pointed out details I'd never thought about before, like Lester calling the yorkies "pups."
Keep the flame of careful viewing alive!
There is something that has changed from 1975 to 2005 -- it is called the "nothing happened" syndrome. I hate to slam young kids, but they are impatient and need to have something "happen" every ten minutes.
70's films are laid back, and observe behavior and reality. Shampoo, in the vernacular of a video game/Star Wars fanatic, features people "just talking" and "doing nothing."
Shampoo is too sophisticated and too subtle for the vulgarians who have turned George Lucas into a multi-billionaire.
More thoughts on Shampoo --
1. When George says "I don't **** for money, I do it for fun," it shows that at least he's honest about how he negotiates the choppy social waters of Beverly Hills. His two main girlfriends, Jill (Goldie Hawn) and Jackie (Julie Christie) have no such scruples. Jill hooks up with ad executive played by Tony Bill to get a modeling job in Egypt, and Jackie hooks up with Lester for blatant financial gain.
2. There is a link between Tony Bill's character and Jack Warden (Lester)'s characters -- both have to pay for women to put out, unlike George. Tony Bill is the young and hip version of Jack Warden's character. Both occupy offices in westside skyscrapers that command a God's-eye view of the city below. In one scene, Tony Bill looks out the window and sighs, "Jesus, this town," and in another scene, Jack Warden looks out the window and says something similar. These are the types of guys who really run the town -- they are like the pompous princes and/or cuckholds in a Shakespeare comedy, meanwhile the knave (George) is running around with their women.
3. The film is based upon Wycherly's restoration comedy The Country Wife, hence the story structure is pretty airtight.
4. Jackie is the young version of Felicia, she will become a respected Beverly Hills doyenne in 20 years.
5. During the final party sequence, George chases after Jill and runs through a room in which a strobe light is flickering in a visually disorienting way and Jimi Hendrix's Manic Depression is playing over the images. I think this is supposed to be a visual and auditory expression of how George's world has been shattered.
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I also consider the damn thing a masterpiece and a touchstone portrait of its time and place. Yes, keep the flame of careful viewing alive. Lester, " I'm not jealous of the dogs." to Julie. Thank you.
shareIt is a small miracle to encouter people who respond to this underrecognized movie. So may quotable phrases. George, You need to learn how to nickle and dime....or you won't have a pot to piss in.
shareThe Manson family murders used knives only..FYI
git011 wrote:
The Manson family murders used knives only..FYIA common misconception, but not true.
I have never heard that before, but what an interesting theory. The film takes place in 1968 though and I don't think the Manson murders were until 1969.
shareYes, Tate and her friends were murdered 10 months later, in 1969. If the filmmakers did in fact intend the "gunshots in the canyon" dialog to allude to the Manson murders, then they meant it to FORSHADOW that event as the symbolic end of the good vibrations/free love Sixties. They certainly didn't mean for the gunshot to be LITERALLY the sound of the Manson murders.
shareExactly! The Hollywood Hills are riddled with canyons - not just Benedict Canyon where Sharon Tate died (r.i.p.)
share