Essay Example on the Book Something Happened

The book Something Happened focuses on the different decades in the Seventies and what happened in these decades such as the evolution of movies and television and it tries to show us what they signified and what was their importance at the different decades that they occurred. This paper aims at reading; Something Happened, which was written by Berkowitz and selects one of the films and television shows that are discussed in Chapter 9 and 10. These films and shows will be used to discuss and explain what they tell and talk about the decade that is spoken of in the book.

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The film that is discussed in this chapter is called The Graduate. This film was released by Mike Nichols who had previously featured as a director in various comedy teams before releasing this film. Dustin Hoffman, who was the star in the movie, was referred to as Benjamin Braddock. He was an advantaged kid who had finished school and graduated, and life was so uncertain.This was because he faced an uncertain future which had no meaningful jobs unlike the case in the depression generation where there were no jobs. However, instead of Benjamin looking for a job that would fit him during the summer, he spent it having an affair with his neighbor. The exciting part is that he even follows the neighbor's daughter from Los Angeles to Berkeley so that he would save her from an empty marriage that she was being subjected to by her mother. The reason behind this was that he had found love which came in the form of chaste relationship. A turn is witnessed when Ann Bancroft is introduced, and Benjamin's rising and falling attraction for her is seen due to her beauty on the screens. Simon and Garfunkel also present a soundtrack that displays their harmonic folk-influenced form of rock and roll. This film is used to display the different methods that one can use to solve problems which face you during your era by making little efforts that could mean a lot in the end. Benjamin, for example, is seen to follow the neighbor's daughter so that he may save her from the clutches of her mother and an empty marriage.

Television was not also left behind. Shows such as the Sixty Minutes became common after televisions were introduced in the seventies. These shows saw the end of the life of evening newspapers which had earlier dominated the industry before. Its first broadcast was in 1968, and its main aim was to balance news and entertainment in the industry which had been left void. It aimed at having a few stories which were unique and different from the news, and they could even have been the hour-long documentaries. It also aimed at having parts which included the short opinions of people or even debates which revolved around current issues. It did not gather many audiences at first but as time moved on it gathered many viewers and became one of the favorite shows. This show had the advantage that it was cheap to produce as compared to other shows such as comedies. This show also started exposing the wrongdoings of people in society to the point that some of them ended up in jail for their bad acts. The television shows ensured that there was continuity of the culture in the nation. These shows in most scenarios offered entertainment as well as focus on current and emerging issues in the events of the era, and this helped much as it made a common interest as the country was faced by bad economy as well as divided between different groups and cultural concerns.

Bibliography

Berkowitz, Edward D. Something happened: a political and cultural overview of the seventies. Columbia University Press, 2007.