Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Jack Warden, Lee Grant, Carrie Fisher, Tony Bill, Howard Hesseman

Director: Hal Ashby

Summary: A Beverly Hills hairdresser tries to borrow money from an investment counsellor with whom he has a few things in common. The hairdresser is having an affair with the man's wife, mistress and daughter. Lee Grant won an Oscar for her role as the investment counsellor's wife.

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.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

A modish creation teased into life by Warren Beatty, Shampoowas an offbeat Hollywood hit back in 1975. Made after Watergate, it reflects on the hedonism of late-60s Los Angeles with a sad, somewhat cynical eye. Basically a bedroom farce, fuelled by some famously raunchy dialogue, its comedy is nevertheless underlain with melancholy. Screenwriter Robert Towne was inspired by Wycherly's Restoration comedy The Country Wife, wherein a wily fellow convinces friends of his impotence even while he is merrily seducing their wives. Hence, Towne invented handsome Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Beatty), who ought to be gay, but emphatically isn't. Shampoobegins on US Election Day, 1968, as Nixon is trouncing McGovern at the polls, and George Roundy is trying to sort his life out. An earnest advocate of sensual pleasure, he beds most of his female clients, from the fretful Jill (Goldie Hawn) to the wealthy Felicia (Lee Grant). Yet George is himself unfulfilled, and imagines that owning his own salon will satisfy him. He asks Felicia's husband Lester (Jack Warden) to back him, but first Lester coerces George into squiring his mistress Jackie (Julie Christie) to a Nixon victory party. Inevitably, Jackie is another of George's girls and, having seduced Felicia's vivacious daughter (Carrie Fisher) earlier that day, George has much to conceal from Lester and Felicia as the evening's festivities unravel.

Shampooshows the 60s turning sour. The characters are rich hippies, superficially liberated but deeply unhappy, and blandly indifferent to the dawning of the Nixon era. The excellent Lee Grant won an Oscar, but Shampoois Beatty's film. He produced it, had a substantive hand in Towne's script, and deputised the nominal director, Hal Ashby. The film mildly exploits legends of Beatty's real-life sexual prowess, but mainly it embodies his commitment to making thoughtful movies for grown-ups. Richard Kelly

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1975
Release Date:	February 16, 2004
Runtime:	103 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C 822 067 4
Keywords:	Comedy, General, Wide, Screen, Shampoo
Genre:	Comedy