This Bold ’60s Dramedy Took Taboo Into the Mainstream

The big picture

• Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
  explores midlife crises and marital problems amidst a cultural revolution.
• Paul Mazursky's film delves into gender politics and changing attitudes towards marriage in the 1960s.
• The film, despite its setting in the 1960s, remains relevant today showing the struggle to stay vital in the changing times.

As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, America experienced a cultural revolution the likes of which it has not seen since. The Civil Rights Movement, the sexual revolution, and the proliferation of drug use completely changed the normal order of American society in the first half of the 20th century. Hollywood found itself in a similar period of transition, with aging movie moguls handing over the reigns to young directors who wanted to make movies about what was really going on. It was in this environment that Paul Mazursky's Bob and Carol and Ted and Alicea surprisingly frank exploration of polyamory, was released by a major studio in the late 1960s.

Robert Culp i Natalie Wood stars Bob and Carol Sanders, an affluent couple who decide to be more open about their feelings after a weekend getaway at a self-help retreat. His newfound openness is put to the test when Bob, a documentary filmmaker, has an affair with a young assistant while on set in San Francisco. Bob tells Carol the truth, and she forgives his infidelity, much to the surprise of his friends Ted.Elliot Gould) and Alice Henderson (Dyan Cannon). Alice can't believe Carol accepted her husband's infidelity, while Ted finds her wandering eye during a business trip to Miami. Things come to a head when the four find themselves jumping into bed together while on vacation in Las Vegas, with messy results. While some films that had their finger on the pulse have aged badly, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice has aged like wine, and many of his observations about midlife crises and marital problems are as relevant today as they were in 1969.

Midlife malaise and counterculture intersect in 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'

Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice it was the directorial debut of Mazursky, who started out as an actor in films like Stanley Kurbrick's Fear and Desire i Richard Brooks' Slate jungle before moving on to screenwriting. Mazursky was almost 40 years old when he directed his first film and, like the characters B&C&T&A, he was already married with children. While movies like Easy Riderpublished the same year, examined the counterculture through the lens of young caprices, Mazursky's was from the perspective of adults entering middle age, with all the baggage that entails.

Which is fascinating B&C&T&Awith whom Mazursky co-wrote Larry Tucker, is that it finds its characters facing a period of transition in their lives, as the country faced its own radical transformation. Born in the 1930s, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are too young to be fully part of the older generation and too old to be considered baby boomers. They are caught somewhere in between, both fascinated by the revolution of the 1960s and terrified by it. They want to prove they're hip to the changing times, but their conservative upbringing colors their experiences with sex, drugs and rock & roll. Growing old is hard enough, but doing so during a period of massive cultural upheaval is truly a head trip.

Throughout his career, Mazursky explored the apathy and depression that comes with living in sunny California. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are products of Los Angeles, and have become complacent hanging by the pool in their Beverly Hills mansions. Suddenly, they wake up on the wrong side of 30, and desperately try to get the clock to start ticking in the opposite direction. More than anything, their embrace of free love, smoking, and emotional honesty is a means of proving that they will not become their parents, despite evidence to the contrary. Bob and Carol's excitement to get in touch with their feelings and open up sexually masks a deeper sadness about realizing that their lives aren't as exciting as they thought they would be when they were in their 20s.

Paul Mazursky explores women's liberation through sexuality

Marital infidelity was nothing new in the 1960s, but what did change were certain attitudes about it. Although affairs were usually conducted in private, the era of free love led many couples to stray with their partner's consent, and some even chose to waive restrictions traditional marriage Of course, as in all things, there was a double standard between men and women. As I would later A single womanMazursky explores the seismic shift taking place during the Women's Liberation Movement as both Carol and Alice rise above the expectations of the traditional housewives they were raised in.

When Bob admits his affair to Carol, he's almost upset that she isn't upset about it. His acceptance acts as a green light for Bob to sleep more, and encourages Ted to engage in some extramarital activities of his own. However, when Bob returns home from an unannounced trip to find his wife in bed with another man, their embrace of free love suddenly flies out the window. Carol has shown her independence, and despite all of Bob's supposed progressive values, she can't pull it off, leading to a hilarious scene where she tries to show her acceptance of the situation by offering the tennis instructor a drink (Horst Ebersberg) in his bed.

Meanwhile, Alice is horrified by Bob's infidelity and Carol's approval, and is horrified that Ted doesn't care. He unloads it during a therapy session in which he questions his life up to that point. In Las Vegas, Ted admits to having a one-night stand while out of town, prompting Alice to propose what she believes is the only possible solution to their current situation: a foursome with Bob and Carol. Like Bob, Ted is uneasy about his wife's recent sexual freedomproving once again that what's good for the goose is not good for the goose…at least in the eyes of the goose.

'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' is both a film of its time and out of it

Yes Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice were made today, it would probably be independently funded. However, thanks to a miracle of historical circumstances, it was distributed by Columbia Pictures and became a blockbuster that earned four Academy Award nominations (including Gould and Cannon for Best Supporting Actor and Actress , best original). Screenplay for Mazursky and Tucker, and for Best Cinematography). Understanding how and why it was produced by a major studio and embraced by audiences and academia alike is truly one of those “you had to be there” moments that happened in the late 1960s and 1970s as Hollywood struggled to maintain its relevance to attract younger audiences.

However, even though the characters dress in Tie Die and wear hippie beads, the film is no less relevant today than it was in 1969. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice it may be a quintessential 60s movie, however, its themes of gender politics, aging, and trying to stay vital in changing times remain universal.. More than anything, it shows what can happen to people who are too comfortable in their lives and suddenly find themselves on the other side of middle age, wondering where the time has gone and what they can do to catch up. ne a little before it's too much. late

The film ends with Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice walking around Las Vegas as the soundtrack plays, almost ironically, “What the world needs right now is love.” As the song says, it's the only thing there's too little of. It's funny how, no matter how much things change, they somehow stay the same.

Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice is currently available to stream on Prime Video in the US

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