Hippie Films, Hippiesploitation, and the Emerging Counterculture, 1955-1970
HIPPIE FILMS, HIPPIESPLOITATION, AND THE EMERGING COUNTERCULTURE, 1955- 1970 Britton Stiles Rhuart A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2020 Committee: Cynthia Baron, Advisor Dawn Anderson Graduate Faculty Representative Angela Ahlgren Bradford Clark Johnny Walker © 2020 Britton Stiles Rhuart All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Cynthia Baron, Advisor The 1960s was a turbulent time in the United States. The war in Vietnam and the assassinations of leading progressive figures created great cultural anxiety. One response to the divisive war and the rightwing violence was the Hippie movement, which advocated peace, love, and social equality. In American cinema, films touting their cultural relevance or appeal for the lucrative youth market came to include representations of Hippies. Initially, mainstream films failed to capture Hippie style and ideology, but subsequently featured sympathetic portrayals of Hippies. By comparison, exploitation films depicted stylistic elements associated with Hippies even at the outset, but offered sensationalized characterizations of Hippies throughout the 1960s. The study’s primary method is textual analysis of films, reviews, marketing materials, and print documents ranging from mainstream news coverage to counterculture manifestos. To provide a context for analyzing the various trends in cinematic representations of Hippies, the study examines cultural events and filmmaking patterns that led to and sustained the Hippie movement and its representation on screen. Studying depictions of the Hippie movement on-screen sheds new light on how dominant American society viewed the Hippie counterculture. Most on-screen representations of Hippies reflect the views of the country’s dominant culture, because, in contrast to other Hippie art forms, Hippie films were produced, distributed, and exhibited almost exclusively by companies outside the Hippie movement.
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