Born in the ‘60s

“Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film,” a 90-minute documentary premiering Tuesday on American Movie Classics, illustrates how directors pushed boundaries and altered the art of filmmaking during the turbulent, swinging 1960s.

Narrated by Woody Harrelson, “Reel Radicals” features clips from such seminal films as Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie & Clyde” (1967); Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate,” (1967); Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” (1969); John Frankenheimer’s “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962); Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” (1964) and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968); John Schlesinger’s “Midnight Cowboy” (1969); Richard Brooks’ “Elmer Gantry” (1960) and “In Cold Blood” (1967); and Norman Jewison’s “In the Heat of the Night” (1967) and “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968).

Frankenheimer, Jewison, Hopper, Schlesinger, Penn, Buck Henry, Paul Mazursky, Roger Corman and Arthur Hiller are among the filmmakers who discuss the decade.

Though Hollywood was still making traditional films such as “The Alamo,” “The Sound of Music” and “My Fair Lady,” the ‘60s saw an infusion of young filmmakers who began their careers in live television in the ‘50s and were inspired by the intimate, personal and humanistic films made by such European directors as Roberto Rossellini, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Ingmar Bergman.

This new breed of Hollywood director explored America’s fear of Communist Russia, the growing uneasiness about the Vietnam War and the rebelliousness of the country’s youth. Previously taboo subjects such as racism, sex, drugs, politics and the war took center stage.

“We were all so young then,” says Jewison, who began his film career in 1963 with the fluffy comedy “40 Pounds of Trouble,” then quickly segued into such diverse, sophisticated and often controversial fare as “The Cincinnati Kid,” “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Thomas Crown Affair.”

“I think America was going through big changes in the ‘60s,” says Jewison. “Let’s face it: Cities were being burnt down and the nuclear threat was so ominous in the ‘60s. The iron curtain was impenetrable.”

Because the majority of the young directors came from New York television, “they were not part of the film industry,” says Jewison. “They didn’t think Hollywood. Their films were very personal and very strong. There were new technical ideas--the zoom lens, the multi-screen. It was really an infusion of different thinking and much more rebellious. There was a certain amount of resentment [from old Hollywood] at the time because most of us were from the East Coast. We were all mavericks here.”

Hopper had been part of the Hollywood establishment, making his film debut at 18 in 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause.” But as with Jewison and Frankenheimer, he was influenced by European filmmakers too. “The first guy who really twisted my head around was Ingmar Bergman,” Hopper says. “I also loved the comedies of Alec Guinness, like ‘The Lavender Hill Mob.’ Then we got Godard and Truffaut. Intellectually, Godard was amazing, but I didn’t really care for his films. But I loved Truffaut’s films--’The Four Hundred Blows,’ what an amazing film. That influenced me probably more than anything else.”

“Easy Rider” probably had more impact on Hollywood than any other movie released in the ‘60s. Hopper and Peter Fonda played young men who chucked everything after scoring a drug deal and hopped on motorcycles to “find America.” The movie reflected the alienation and dissatisfaction of that generation.

Before his film, says Hopper, “we had been doing ‘Pillow Talk’ with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. I am not putting down ‘Pillow Talk.’ I am just saying that was it. We had gone through the ‘60s and no one had done anything on the ‘60s. How ludicrous was that? I mean, the Summer of Love was over and nobody had addressed rock ‘n’ roll in films. I wanted to leave a time capsule.”

“Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film” can be seen Tuesday at 7 and 10:15 p.m. on AMC. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).