ABSTRACT
The Kennedy spirit helped liberalize the nation, the civil rights movement provided political momentum, driving both Kennedy and Johnson to the left. The beach-blanket and art house audiences even merged to make big hits of a few independent productions with counterculture themes. A few movies of the 1960s dealt explicitly with the political process, high in both political content and intent. These traditional Hollywood political films contrast with a new genre of political films that emerged in the 1960s, the political thriller. The Quiet American and The Ugly American anticipated the Vietnam quagmire and Brian De Palma's Greetings was an antiestablishment comedy about draft dodging. Social change was in the wind in America in the 1960s, and in the movies of the era. Besides concerns about nuclear holocaust and wars in foreign lands, racism and an emerging counterculture became popular subjects for filmmakers.
