Every Decade Of Cinema - Ranked
6. 1960s
Notable films: Lawrence of Arabia; Psycho; Dr. Strangelove; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; The Graduate; West Side Story; The Great Escape; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; To Kill a Mockingbird; Rosemary's Baby; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Doctor Zhivago; Planet of the Apes; Spartacus; Easy Rider.
The 1960s - specifically, the latter half of the decade - marked the beginning of the New Hollywood era, which would blossom into a full-on industry revolution by the 1970s. Demographics changed; the new audience was younger, more affluent, and better-educated than the audience that preceded them. They were gravitating towards Japanese and Italian cinema, which were picking up steam in the U.S.
The economic slowdown of the 1940s and 1950s left studios willing to experiment and take risks. As such, studios became less directly involved, allowing the director to assume more of an authorial role and get hands-on with a project. This artistic freedom was only bolstered when the Hays Code was abolished in 1968.
Comedy-dramas, Spaghetti Westerns, and psychological horror films took off. Science fiction films utilized greater special effects, with elaborate sets built to simulate outlandish, otherworldly environments. This was an era of innovation and experimentation.