Dated, Terrible Movie but It's Agenda is Prophetic....
See "The Last Married Couple in America" with "Serial" (released around the same time...) and you get a good idea of what ideas were floating around during the late 70s and early 80s.
Though both films are not very good and they are horribly dated (in a fun way) they reflect a post 60s hangover attitude that's interesting in light of what occurred in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan.
Many thought that the 60s was going to usher in a whole new perspective and enlightenment to the masses. The use of drugs and free love was supposed to push all people's barriers down and out and a new world was to be created. Most people may not have completely shared in that feeling but there was a strong feeling of new and better things were going to happen.
But of course it didn't. People were burned out in the 70s and reality settled in: drugs, free love...it didn't change much at all. And in some cases, it made things worse by making it all so confusing. People who thought that the 60s were going to make everything better were disillusioned to find that nothing fundamental had really changed at all.
That's where "The Last Married Couple in America" and "Serial" take their cues. Both movies start off by trying to be "risky", "edgy" and "daring" by using a lot of four letter words and pseudo-risqué sex scenes (all pretty conventional, actually). The jokes are just sitcom material spiced up with "naughty" words.
In the end, both movies end with a very comfortable reaffirmation of the family/marriage unit and a rejection of the sexual revolution.
OK...so there might be some ripe material made out of this. But neither of these two is it, especially "The Last Married Couple in America". It's another one of those lame 70s comedies like "Silver Bears" with Cybil Shepherd. These are the types of films that even when they were released, I couldn't figure out who would pay money to see them.
Though both films are not very good and they are horribly dated (in a fun way) they reflect a post 60s hangover attitude that's interesting in light of what occurred in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan.
Many thought that the 60s was going to usher in a whole new perspective and enlightenment to the masses. The use of drugs and free love was supposed to push all people's barriers down and out and a new world was to be created. Most people may not have completely shared in that feeling but there was a strong feeling of new and better things were going to happen.
But of course it didn't. People were burned out in the 70s and reality settled in: drugs, free love...it didn't change much at all. And in some cases, it made things worse by making it all so confusing. People who thought that the 60s were going to make everything better were disillusioned to find that nothing fundamental had really changed at all.
That's where "The Last Married Couple in America" and "Serial" take their cues. Both movies start off by trying to be "risky", "edgy" and "daring" by using a lot of four letter words and pseudo-risqué sex scenes (all pretty conventional, actually). The jokes are just sitcom material spiced up with "naughty" words.
In the end, both movies end with a very comfortable reaffirmation of the family/marriage unit and a rejection of the sexual revolution.
OK...so there might be some ripe material made out of this. But neither of these two is it, especially "The Last Married Couple in America". It's another one of those lame 70s comedies like "Silver Bears" with Cybil Shepherd. These are the types of films that even when they were released, I couldn't figure out who would pay money to see them.
- chconnol
- Jul 12, 2006