The Age of Commercialism

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

How am I feeling about this 1960's boring comedy with the most unoriginal title I've ever heard? The only thing I liked about Bob and Carol... etc is the presence of the fabulous Natalie Wood.With the abolished Hayes code, Hollywood began experimenting with more risqué content, including: sex, drugs, violence and anything else previously considered taboo, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice wasn't immune from this new found freedom, as it is overly sexual and contains brief drug usage, in the form of marijuana being smoked from a pipe. But all things considered, how boring was this film? The acting was pretty decent, particularly from Natalie Wood who I consider an all time great actress, Dyan Cannon playing Alice also demonstrated her worth, but sadly the film lacked, maybe at the time of its release (1969) it could have been rated more highly, but sadly it hasn't aged very well at all..., it smacks of the sixties and the changing of society at the time. In the beginning, Bob and Carol attend a self help retreat, this changes Carol in a way and opens her eyes, so later on when Bob admits that he'd had an affair in San Francisco, she sees this treachery not as cheating, but as something rather positive..., however when she admits what Bob has done to her friends Ted and Alice, they are stunned, particularly Alice, she cannot believe what Bob has done, and cannot believe even more so how Carol is handling it!Eventually the couple come to terms with what their friends are doing and ease into a closer relationship with them, at the same time breaking every rule in the former Hayes Code. It's a "modern" tale of love that would've formerly been outlawed, the film smacks of freedom, and therefore the actual story and presentation of seriously lacks any real quality.A sheer step below Natalie Wood's standard, but another film to add to her brief library.

Don't let the famous poster of this swinging comedy of the late 1960's fool you; This is actually more a study of two marriages, two inseparable couples. This shows how modern morals changed the way people communicated, and how they just interrelate. These couples believe in total honesty, but it takes its toll on the real star of the film, Oscar nominated Dyan Cannon. This starts with the seemingly leading couple of Robert Culp and Natalie Wood heading towards a spa, driving into the beautiful countryside as the "Hallelujah Choir" plays lushly in the background. Wood finally gets to be free and honest and practically has a nervous breakdown over it. Back home, they begin to change their existence based upon their experience, and when motherly Cannon overhears Wood's blase revelation that Culp had an affair, she looses it, pretty much having a nervous breakdown in a very groovy nightclub. The tides turn as the honesty leads them to decide to switch partners, Wood ending up with Cannon's husband (a very droll Elliot Gould) and Culp preparing to make love with his best friend's wife, all in a rather tiny bed.So you can say that this is not as wild as it looks, supposedly happily married couples getting together and seeing if they can be as swinging as the world has been trying to tell them that it's OK to be. But individual morals are stronger than sexual desires, so there's a great lesson for them to learn. Thanks to a witty and smart screenplay, this ends up being surprisingly sweet, and nobody gets to point and laugh.

After a weekend of emotionally charged encounter sessions at an Esalen- like retreat known as "The Institute," L.A.-based documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders (Robert Culp) and his wife Carol (Natalie Wood) become zealous acolytes of the late-Sixties, hippie-inspired cult of expressive individualism: an apolitical ideology of bourgeois hedonism that sanctifies joyful spontaneity, uninhibited candor, and guilt-free (extramarital) sex as the sine qua non of a fulfilling life. Adhering to the new openness, Bob confesses to Carol that he has had a "just physical" one-night stand with a 20-year-old blonde while on a business trip to San Francisco. Though seemingly sanguine about the news, Carol proceeds to have her own dalliance with Horst (Horst Ebersberg), her handsome tennis instructor, but is caught in the act when Bob comes home early from a trip to New York. After a bout with old-fashioned jealousy, Bob seems able to reconcile himself to Carol's infidelity. As for Bob and Carol's best friends—Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon)—this New Age ethos strikes them as suspiciously naive and self-indulgent until Ted succumbs to his own opportunity to cheat while on a trip to Miami. When he confesses his indiscretion to Alice while the foursome is on vacation in Las Vegas, Alice calls everyone's bluff by stripping down to her underwear and suggesting the two couples have a spouse-swapping orgy in their hotel suite before going to a Tony Bennett concert! Supposedly dutiful swingers all, the four climb into bed and commence foreplay with each other's spouse but come to find that they cannot go through with it; evidently, primal taboos surrounding conjugal intimacy are too strong to overcome. In the somewhat surreal denouement, a chastened Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice march out of their casino hotel, followed by a long string of other hand holding couples and promenade in the parking lot to the lilting strains of Jackie DeShannon singing Bert Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now is Love." The ending, and the movie as a whole, is tonally ambiguous. Are viewers meant to applaud or sneer at the triumph of conventional morality over revolutionary sexual-emotional mores? Probably more the former but the film still manages to raise questions about status quo hypocrisy that it cannot put to bed peacefully. Made for a mere $2 million, 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' was a smash hit, earning $30 million at the box office. A watered-down TV series based on the film lasted only half a season in the autumn of 1973. VHS (1996) and DVD (2004).

The 60's, a decade of rebellion and expressionism can happen. With this movie, you got a great cast of stars to make this movie worthwhile. Robert Culp and Natalie Wood play Bob and Carol Sanders. An Los Angeles couple who just returned from a retreat to express "free love" to one another. Their friends Ted and Alice Anderson (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon) are the exact opposites of Bob and Carol. So what do they do? They head out to "Sin City", Las Vegas, Nevada. What is it? Not to gamble, but to have an orgy. Are they going to be content with that? It is to say. No one one was truly faithful with each other. Especially Bob and Carol. Even Ted was a very naughty man as well. So everyone gets one big room, get undressed and all four of them are in one big bed. Kissing each other: Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Hence the title. Of course, Bob did kiss Alice and Ted kiss Carol. After that night, it was very bewildering for all four of them. Back in the 60's, I thought only the hippies practice free love, who would ever know. Great movie, great plot, great cast. It's a gem one will never forget.5 stars!