Shampoo Movie

Shampoo
Rating:
Run Time: 109 min
MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1975
Directors: Hal Ashby
Genre/Type: Comedy Drama
Satire
Sex Comedy
Ensemble Film
Producers: Warren Beatty
Plot Synopsis by Lucia Bozzola
A frankly adult comedy about the sex lives of the aimless and the rich, Shampoo is also a pointed commentary on the demise of 1960s idealism at the dawn of the Nixon era. It is Election Day, 1968, and randy Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) is too worried about attending to all of his women's tonsorial and sexual needs, while trying to swing a bank loan to fund his own salon, to notice the fateful Presidential race. As George juggles the demands of girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) and mistress Felicia (Lee Grant), not to mention Felicia's daughter (Carrie Fisher), he meets Felicia's husband Lester (Jack Warden) to get money for the salon and discovers that his beloved ex-girlfriend Jackie (Julie Christie) is now Lester's mistress. Lester asks George to escort Jackie to a banquet for Nixon supporters, leading to a series of climactic confrontations at the dinner and a Hollywood orgy that expose the conflicting demands of sex, love, and security among these terminally narcissistic L.A. denizens. As Nixon's victory speech drones in the background the following day and Paul Simon's mournful '60s music plays on the soundtrack, George's free-wheeling world collapses around him for reasons that he can barely begin to comprehend. Produced and co-written (with Chinatown scribe Robert Towne) by its star Warren Beatty, Shampoo became Beatty's second critical and popular success as a producer after Bonnie and Clyde, and it bolstered Hal Ashby's track record as director. Shampoo earned Grant an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Supporting Actor nomination for Warden and Beatty's first nomination as writer. With Nixon's 1974 Watergate disgrace adding an extra edge to the humor for 1975 audiences, this tragic bedroom farce became one of the highest-grossing films in Columbia Pictures' history at the time.

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Cast

Actors Character Born
Warren Beatty George Mar 30, 1937 in Richmond, VA
Julie Christie Jackie Apr 14, 1940 in Chukua, Assam, India
Goldie Hawn Jill Nov 21, 1945 in Washington, DC
Lee Grant Felicia Oct 31, 1927 in New York, NY
Jack Warden Lester Sep 18, 1920 in Newark, NJ
Tony Bill Johnny Pope Aug 23, 1940 in San Diego, CA
Carrie Fisher Lorna Oct 21, 1956 in Los Angeles, CA
Jay Robinson Norman Apr 14, 1930 in New York City, NY
George Furth Bank Officer Dec 14, 1932 in Chicago, IL
William Castle Sid Roth Apr 24, 1914 in New York City, NY
Sue Moore Gloria
Hal Buckley Kenneth
Susan Blakely Sep 7, 1948 in Frankfurt, Germany
Brad Dexter Senator East Apr 19, 1917 in Goldfield, NV
Howard Culver Newscaster
Mike Olton Ricci
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Back to the topReview

Review by Lucia Bozzola
A sex comedy crossed with social satire, Shampoo (1975) is a vital 1970s Hollywood work. Co-written by top '70s screenwriter Robert Towne and star/producer/avowed Democrat Warren Beatty, Shampoo's witty examination of the Los Angeles rich and lustful eulogizes the 1960s hedonism brought low by the Richard Nixon years, while Nixon's 1974 Watergate demise adds an extra unspoken bite to the proceedings. Along with the politics, Beatty tweaks his own Lothario image as the popular ladies' man hairdresser who may have lots of hair, but not lots of brains. Beatty's beautifully dim George may be what Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, and a comically precocious Carrie Fisher want, yet he and his orgy-attending milieu should never underestimate the power of Jack Warden's Lester and his Rolls. Directed with a low-key gift for humor and sensitivity by estimable '70s filmmaker Hal Ashby, Shampoo spreads the blame equally without over-judging the characters' weaknesses. Proving his mastery of the zeitgeist once again, Beatty scored his second enormous box-office success as a producer-star, and earned his first Oscar nomination for writing; Shampoo went on to become one of the top hits of 1975.
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