Thursday, April 5 at 8 PM: Wild in the Streets USA 1968 d. Barry Shear with Christopher Jones, Shelley Winters, Richard Pryor, Diane Varsi and Hal Holbrook. Colour. 97m
“A scurrilous political satire, Wild in the Streets opened in the spring of 1968 and played more or less continuously in drive-ins and grindhouse theaters throughout that convulsive election year.
Opposition to the Vietnam War was reaching its height and, in the wake of the catastrophic Democratic convention in Chicago, Fortune magazine estimated that a million young Americans identified with Students for a Democratic Society and other manifestations of the “New Left.”
Wild in the Streets, directed by Barry Shear from a script by Robert Thom (elaborating on his Esquire article “The Day It All Happened, Baby”) reflected, even as it satirized, a fearful fascination with the Kids. The movie industry calculated that more than half of its audience was under 25; in its own way, Wild in the Streets parodies Hollywood’s bemused efforts to reach younger viewers.” [J. Hoberman]