From the enduring popularity of Mad Men to the upcoming fifty-year anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy, the 1960s remains an era firmly planted in our popular consciousness. A decade of immense social change, it saw the rise of the Civil Rights movement and its fight for racial equality, the coming of the sexual revolution, the growth of the fashion industry and the growth of modern popular music. As a result, the 60s remains an alluring decade for film-makers and directors and in the past five years there has been an influx of 60s-set films, but which are worth seeing? Read on to find out as we highlight the top three recent movies set in the 1960s, chosen due to their ability to be both entertaining and thought-provoking:
3. An Education (2009)
Recently starring as the immoral-yet-alluring Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmanns The Great Gatsby, Carey Mulligans break-out role was in this 2009 film version of British journalist Lynn Barbers memoirs. Mulligan plays Jenny, a university-aspiring teenager living in suburban London who begins a relationship with David, a much older man. Directed by Lone Scherfig, An Education is beautifully filmed, with an astute eye to period detail, but also serves as an insightful portrayal of 60s lifestyle and values. It highlights the gradual developments and changes in gender roles beginning to occur in the 1960s. To our modern eyes, Davids interest in the sixteen-year-old Jenny is disturbing and his actions seem predatory, yet Jennys parents, delighted and charmed by David, are quick to encourage their daughter to eschew her university ambitions in favour of marriage. Mulligan deserved her Oscar nomination for perfectly portraying Jenny as being caught between a child and an adult and between her childhood dreams of studying at Oxford and the tantalising London lifestyle into which she is thrown. The movie is undoubtedly worth seeing for its fascinating portrayal of life in 60s Britain, its evocative cinematography and Mulligans star-making performance.