Cinema: The Dark at the End off the Tunnel

COMING HOME Directed by Hal Ashby Screenplay by Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones

In his 1975 comedy Shampoo, Director Hal Ashby drew a scathing portrait of privileged Americans living in selfish bliss during the Viet Nam War. Shampoo was set in Beverly Hills against the pointedly ironic background of the 1968 presidential election; its characters were upper-middle-class philanderers whose lives revolved around the chic local beauty salon. Throughout the film, sad news from Southeast Asia blares forth from radios and TV sets, but no one in Shampoo bothers to listen. They are all too busy getting ready for a Nixon victory...

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