Mary Poppins: Radical Elevation in the 1960s

Mary Poppins is a 1960s film that reflects and invests in its radically changing times, resonant with conditions and issues affecting baby boomers. It explores tensions inherent in the studio production as a mainstream Disney release evoking imperatives of 1960s American youth while sanitizing figures and values representing radical change. The book examines the films collective authorship, reception, and influence on popular culture and drug culture. It is ideal for students, researchers, and scholars of cinema studies and youth culture.

Format: Hardback
Length: 132 pages
Publication date: 12 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive volume delves into the examination of Mary Poppins as a 1960s film that profoundly reflected and actively engaged with the radically transforming times of its era. While it undeniably possessed a predominantly antiestablishment musical resonance that resonated deeply with the conditions and issues that significantly impacted the baby boomer generation, the film also showcased a nuanced and multifaceted portrayal of its era.

Among the plethora of baby boomer films that rocked the 1960s, Mary Poppins emerged as one of the most stirring and influential early works. Released in 1964, this cinematic masterpiece captivated young audiences, achieving remarkable box office success, receiving numerous Oscars, and securing a landmark status as a cultural phenomenon. The book aims to shed light on Mary Poppins as a musical that was teeming with the preoccupations of American youth during the early to mid-1960s. It delves into the antiestablishment desires, anxieties, and pleasures that characterized this generation, offering a reading that challenges the prevailing narrative. By examining Mary Poppins as a mid-century reflection that spans the generation gap, dysfunctional nuclear family, youth unrest, activism, including feminist advocacy, counterculturalism, capitalist imperialism, race relations, socially conscious music, and hallucinogenic consciousness expansion, the book offers a fresh perspective on this beloved film.

Concurrently, the book explores the tensions inherent in this studio production as a mainstream Disney release that sought to evoke the imperatives of 1960s American youth while simultaneously sanitizing figures and values that represented radical change. It examines the collective authorship of Mary Poppins, tracing its origins in the writings and life of the nonconformist author P.L. Travers, as well as in Disney cinema and the studios adaptation processes. The analysis extends to diverse facets of Mary Poppins reception, including the shifting image of its star, Julie Andrews, the films influence on popular culture, its controversies as an adaptation, its appropriation by drug culture, its association with the teenpic, and its status as a cinema of social consciousness.

This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of film, music, and popular culture. It provides a deep and nuanced understanding of Mary Poppins as a 1960s film that reflected and invested in its radically changing times, offering a rich tapestry of insights that will captivate readers for years to come.

Weight: 426g
Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781138586406