Terry Southern: Hollywood’s Most Subversive Screenwriter

Terry Southern: Hollywood’s Most Subversive Screenwriter

7 Episodes

Writer, satirist, “pornographer,” surrealist, and provocateur, Terry Southern was one of the great literary minds of his time. As a screenwriter, he brought his irreverent, gonzo sensibility to some of the defining counterculture films of the 1960s. Invited by Stanley Kubrick to assist on the screenplay for DR. STRANGELOVE, Southern was instrumental in transforming it from a straight thriller into a savagely satirical comedy, and the film’s success soon made him one of the most in-demand screenwriters of the decade. From cult classics like EASY RIDER and BARBARELLA to his outrageous adaptation of his own novel THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, to the ultracontroversial rarity END OF THE ROAD, Southern’s screenplays defined the wildly subversive spirit of the New Hollywood era.

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Terry Southern: Hollywood’s Most Subversive Screenwriter

7 Episodes

  • Terry Southern Teaser
    00:57
    Terry Southern Teaser
    Episode 1

    Terry Southern Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Spotlight on Terry Southern
    15:36
    Spotlight on Terry Southern
    Episode 2

    Spotlight on Terry Southern

    Episode 2

    Writer, satirist, “pornographer,” surrealist, and provocateur, Terry Southern was one of the great literary minds of his time. As a screenwriter, he brought his irreverent, gonzo sensibility to some of the defining counterculture films of the 1960s. Invited by Stanley Kubrick to assist on the scr...

  • Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
    1:35:02
    Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
    Episode 3

    Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

    Episode 3

    Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1964 • United Kingdom
    Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden

    Stanley Kubrick’s painfully funny take on Cold War anxiety is one of the fiercest satires of human folly ever to come out of Hollywood. The matchless shape-shifter Peter Sellers plays thr...

  • Barbarella
    1:38:07
    Barbarella
    Episode 4

    Barbarella

    Episode 4

    Directed by Roger Vadim • 1968 • France, Italy
    Starring Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Marcel Marceau

    This outrageous blend of science fiction, high camp, and erotic fantasia made Jane Fonda a permanent cult icon. She is sensational as a wide-eyed space adventurer whose quest to track down a fame...

  • Easy Rider
    1:35:43
    Easy Rider
    Episode 5

    Easy Rider

    Episode 5

    Directed by Dennis Hopper • 1969 • United States
    Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson

    This is the definitive counterculture blockbuster. The down-and-dirty directorial debut of former clean-cut teen star Dennis Hopper, EASY RIDER heralded the arrival of a new voice in film, one...

  • End of the Road
    1:50:14
    End of the Road
    Episode 6

    End of the Road

    Episode 6

    Directed by Aram Avakian • 1970 • United States
    Starring Stacy Keach, James Earl Jones, Harris Yulin

    This X-rated, cult-classic black comedy is one of the most subversive, totally nihilistic transmissions from the fringes of the 1970s New Hollywood. A daring adaptation of the novel by John Barth...

  • The Magic Christian
    1:32:10
    The Magic Christian
    Episode 7

    The Magic Christian

    Episode 7

    Directed by Joseph McGrath • 1969 • United Kingdom
    Starring Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, John Cleese

    Adapted by Terry Southern from his own novel, this wild satire of capitalism run amok stars Peter Sellers as a bored billionaire who, along with the street vagrant (Ringo Starr) he adopts as his s...

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