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Shampoo
1975
In the heady last few days before the 1968 election, George (Warren Beatty), a very popular Beverly Hills hairdresser who wants to open his own shop, becomes sexually involved with several, if not all, of his female customers. This fast-paced comedy, written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby (they had previously .. Read more
| Starring | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Jack Warden |
|---|---|
| Director | Hal Ashby |
| Genres | Comedy, Gay/Lesbian |
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Shampoo
In the heady last few days before the 1968 election, George (Warren Beatty), a very popular Beverly Hills hairdresser who wants to open his own shop, becomes sexually involved with several, if not all, of his female customers. This fast-paced comedy, written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby (they had previously collaborated on THE LAST DETAIL), provides a sharp satiric view, albeit from the safe distance of 1976, of the sexual mores of Southern California. Although George has a serious girlfriend, Jill (Goldie Hawn), the story revolves around his relationship with Lester (Jack Warden), a wealthy Republican who at first believes George is just his wife, Felicia's (Lee Grant), gay hairdresser until he learns the truth about his relationship with her--and with his mistress, Jill (Julie Christie), and her daughter, Lorna (Carrie Fisher). Obviously drawing on the audience's knowledge of Beatty's well-known reputation as a ladies' man, Towne's script cleverly uses that expectation of fun and carefree sexual high jinks to then slowly begin to show the emotional damage this lifestyle has done, not just to everyone around him, but in a deeper sense to George himself. The big party on election night--for which George has done all the women's hair--serves, with the election of Nixon, as a parallel political story as George's deceitful life, like Nixon's world, eventually catches up with him.
| Starring | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Jack Warden, Lee Grant, Carrie Fisher, Tony Bill |
|---|---|
| Director | Hal Ashby |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 43 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy, Gay/Lesbian |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Feb 2004 Production year: 1975 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (5)
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This one-time succès de scandale grossed more than $60 million at the box office in its day. While it is delightfully amoral, producer, co-writer and star Warren Beatty never quite pulled his themes together. Nevertheless, there are striking moments, not least of which is Julie Christie's now classic appearance at a memorable dinner table. Nominated for four Oscars, it won one — best supporting actress for Lee Grant, who plays Beatty's married lover. The model for Beatty's crimper was widely believed to be Jon Peters, but was actually Jay Sebring who was killed in the Sharon Tate massacre, an event that's as forgotten now as the night on which Shampoo's action is set: 4 November 1968, the day Richard Nixon became president.
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Ugly little sex farce with few laughs but much dashing about and bad language. Its setting on election eve 1968 has made some people think it a political satire.
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Most helpful member's review
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5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
No mullets here
Films and actors age, some with grace, others not. Warren Beatty may fall into the latter category but his 1975 production, Shampoo, still turns heads.
George (Beatty) is a the hairdresser in L.A., a vacuous Lothario with a motorbike between his thighs and a lie on his lip. It is election eve 1968. One of his clients and lovers Felicia (Lee Grant) recommends he approach her husband Lester (Jack Warden) for a loan to start his own salon. George chaperone’s Lester’s lover (and his ex) Jackie (Julie Christie), to a party and over the course of the evening the chickens come home to roost.
George is a dim puppy chasing his tail from start to end. Beatty plays the role with great self-awareness turning all those assumptions about his huge ego and self-aggrandizement on their head in a performance that ranks alongside McCabe and Mrs Miller as one of his best.
Were it only this, Shampoo would be dismissed as a cute bit of fluff. However, with Hal Ashby in the director’s chair and Robert Towne’s mature script Shampoo is a searing indictment of the failings of 60’s counterculture. George and his naive model girlfriend (Goldie Hawn) are well versed in the hippy vernacular. Lester’s hypocrisy is aligned with Tricky Dicky lurking in the shadows.
Shampoo weaves social comment with a rigorous examination of personal relationships to devastating effect and reminds us just how good Beatty once was. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Shampoo is a bland, mundane comedy at best.
All right, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I thought Shampoo pretty much sucked. I cannot believe this movie was chosen as one of the AFI's top 100 comedies of all time. Why? On the back of the package, a Los Angeles newspaper critic is quoted as saying 'Shampoo will provoke shocked gasps and shrieks of laughter for its abundance of outrageous one liners.' Huh? I don't recall one funny, memorable line from this film. Not a single one. It's a dated, dull, and rather boring movie.
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News and features
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Lost Jolie film set for director's cut release
- 21 Mar 2009
Angelina Jolie's first movie role in a forgotten 1982 comedy is set for release - 17 years after it was made. Jolie was just four when she appeared alongside her actor father Jon Voight in cult Shampoo and Being There director Hal Ashby's Lookin To Get Out, but her part was cut and the film only had a limited release. Ashby re-cut the film before his death in 1988 and his family and Voight, who starred in the director's Coming Home, have worked tirelessly to get the new film a release. Voight, Read more
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Shampoo
In the heady last few days before the 1968 election, George (Warren Beatty), a very popular Beverly Hills hairdresser who wants to open his own shop, becomes sexually involved with several, if not all, of his female customers. This fast-paced comedy, written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal ...
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