An anarchist world...a surrealist world: they are the same. -Andre Breton Jean Vigos film Ziro de Conduite was banned when first released in 1933, due to potentially incendiary content, and it provoked a near riot at a press gathering that same year. The film, which concerns a rebellion of French boarding school students against their faculty masters, was an emotional and personal undertaking for Jean Vigo, whose anarchist upbringing colored his view on school and authority. As a result, he created a film that was distinctly anti-authoritarian in almost every respect. This paper will argue that Jean Vigo's masterpiece "Zero de Conduite" is a paragon of anti-authoritarian film, because it subverts power and authority at a political and cultural level by targeting not only the antagonists of the film, but eventually, through surrealism, the structure of the film itself. As a result, "Zero de Conduite" became hugely influential to the political and cultural upheaval of 1968, and anticipated many of the theories and actions of the Situationist International, responsible in large part for the student uprisings of May 1968 in Paris. To this day, Vigo's work and its implications remain influential to the modern anarchist movement, which necessitates both political and cultural revolution.

Valenti, Jack. "Ratings History: How it All Began". Motion Picture Association of America Online. <http://www.mpaa.org/Ratings_HowItAllBegan.asp>.

 

This article, written by former president of the MPAA Jack Valenti, details how the MPAA film rating system was conceived. He describes the turbulent national scene in 1966 – women’s rights, civil rights, youth protests, and “crumbling of social traditions.” Since he realized that a “new kind of American movie” was being made by filmmakers with a much more open course of dialogue between the filmmaker and the viewer, filmmakers felt they were subject to fewer restraints and restrictions, simply exercising the will of the people. The Hays Code had been continually challenged through loopholes over the years and the emerging counter-culture seemed determined to throw it out altogether. He describes one instance where MGM tried to market the first major studio picture with nudity, which was denied by the PCA of California. The Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that states could constitutionally prevent children from seeing films but not adults. Filmmakers were becoming more brazen and thus, bad language and controversial images were becoming more common. Ultimately, the rating system had to be created in 1968 to take the place of the now-defunct Hays Code.

This is relevant to Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song because of the way it was marketed, rated, and ultimately distributed. The film received an X rating “by an all-whyte jury” (according to the film’s opening credits), which went along with the pornographic pretence director Melvin Van Peebles created during production in order to avoid trouble on the set of his controversial film. The rating system was still in its infancy in 1971 when the film was released and thus, many changes in the system were still being implemented. In 1970, the minimum age of admission to R-rated movies was raised from 15 to 16 while X-rated films remained at 17. The audience limitations set by this new system made it even harder for Van Peebles to get exhibitors to play his racy, independent film at first. Of course, the rampant success of the film changed all that, but the historical cinematic context in which Sweetback was released made its initial opening and distribution much tougher. Now, filmmaker's consider it a curse if their film receives the NC-17 rating (replacement for X), since very few papers advertise NC-17-rated films. Sweetback was the shining example of this and this article helps show the impact of the initial X-rating.  The film’s rating has since been changed to R.

This article is a film review in Film Quarterly that provides a very typical response to the movie The Graduate. It is especially significant because it was written in 1968, the year after the movie was released. Because of this, the author cannot take a step back and put the movie's many messages into the context of the time, as we see it today. Rather, he is emerged in the 60s culture. Although he can still recognize the "suburban phoniness" that Ben Braddock is stuck in, for the most part his opinions are slightly skewed.

The article first discusses the importance of Nichols being a young director. Because he was young, he could bring fresh perspectives to the world of directing and could develop realistic, youthful characters. This is important, especially with Ben, who is the audiences are desperately to understand, because Nichols clearly creates a character with genuine feelings and emotions. Ben's lifelike character can also be attributed to the wonderful acting of Dustin Hoffman. When necessary, he can portray the utmost awkwardness perfectly revealing the confusion in coming of age in the 1960s. Another interesting aspect of Ben's simple character is that he can overcome the Mrs. Robinson's sexuality, which seems like a strong decision to be made by such a simple character. Although perhaps he only appears so simple when placed next to Mrs. Robinson, who's character is incredibly complex and sophisticated.

Another juxtaposition discussed in this article is the quirkiness and eccentricity of Ben's love affair with Mrs. Robinson versus his love for Elaine, which appears traditional and classic. It really depicts a difference between sex and love.

Turman has two main criticisms of the movie. Caught up in the sexual revolution, Turman has become accustomed to the overly sexual society emerging in America at the time. He therefore believes that there is a lack of sex in the movie, which he states is one of its downfalls. His second criticism is that the movie doesn't fully develop the oedipal psychological aspects that it could have.  Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the immediate widespread appreciation for the film.