Here you’ll find a list of “Sixties” Films. Some of them were filmed during the Sixties but the majority are either set then or about that time period. We’ve tried to include something for everyone.

CLICK ON THE TITLES TO BE TAKEN TO THE LIBRARY’S ONLINE CATALOG. There, you can request the item and see more information including rating information.

61* – Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, one was the Yankees’ best loved players and the other was their most valuable. 1961 was about to be the summer that no one who loves baseball will ever forget. Both men find that they are approaching Babe Ruth’s 1927 single-season 60 home-run record. Facing pressure from the media and the stands, both men know that there is only room for one winner. The fans make their choice, but the people’s favorite isn’t the favorite to win.

Across the Universe – Jude is a dock worker from Liverpool who travels to the United States in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There, he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother, Max, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.

Ali – An amazing epic drama of the biography of boxing legend, Muhammad Ali, from his early days to his days in the ring.

American Gangster – Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in Harlem. He does so by buying heroin directly from a source in South East Asia, and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. As a result, his product is superior to what is currently available on the street and his prices are lower. His alliance with the New York Mafia ensures his position. Richie Roberts is a dedicated and honest policeman who heads up a joint narcotics task force with the Federal government and is determined to bring down Lucas’ drug empire. Based on a true story.

American Graffiti – Four teenagers come of age in 1962 on the last summer night before they go off to college, jobs, or the army.

Annie Hall – Woody Allen’s semiautobiographical portrait of his amorous, but ultimately mismatched, relationship with co-star Diane Keaton. Allen uses satire and comedy to portray this “nervous romance” for modern times.

Apocalypse Now – A United States Army officer/trained assassin is sent into the depths of a southeast Asian jungle to seek out a renegade colonel and terminate his command during the Vietnam War.

Blast from the Past – Adam Webber was born and raised in a bomb shelter by his sherry-swilling mother and his mad scientist father. His simple childhood was filled with Perry Como records, The Honeymooners reruns and good old-fashioned family values. Now, 35 years later, Adam is about to emerge into a bewildering modern world in search of supplies and a simple girl from Pasadena. Instead, he meets Eve, a modern LA woman jaded about life and burned by love.

A Bronx Tale – A hard-working bus driver must stand up to the local mob boss if he is to keep his son from falling into a life of crime.

Catch Me if You Can – Based on the autobiography of a brilliant young master of deception and the FBI agent hot on his trail. Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. passed himself off as a pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor all before his 21st birthday.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind – Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. The story of a legendary showman’s double life–television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative, or so he said.

Crazy in Alabama – It’s the summer of 1965, and everyone in Alabama has gone completely crazy, especially 12-year-old Peejoe’s glamorous Aunt Lucille. Deciding not to let her abusive husband stand in the way of her dreams of television stardom, she gets rid of him in a most unusual way and leaves Peejoe with lots of questions and one explosive secret.

Dead Presidents – “On the streets, they call cash dead presidents. And that’s just what a Vietnam veteran is after when he returns home from the war, only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist–a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency!”

Down with Love – A feminist writer in the early 1960’s who is promoting her book ‘Down With Love’ has sworn off love. A New York City journalist thinks he doesn’t need love. See what happens when they fall for each other in this old-fashioned romantic comedy.

Dreamgirls – The story of the rise and fall of three young women who make-up an African-American girl group in the racially turbulent 60s. Deena Jones, Effie White, and Lorrell Robinson desire to become pop stars and eventually get their wish when they are asked to be backup singers for the legendary James “Thunder” Early.

An Education – In the early 1960’s, 16-year-old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in a London suburb. She is smart, pretty, and working toward her goal of being accepted into Oxford. Her life will take a big turn when she meets David, a man twice her age. Now she must decide if she will pursue an education at Oxford, or if she will choose to learn all that a charismatic older man can teach her.

Factory Girl – Edie Sedgwick, a beautiful, wealthy young party girl, drops out of Radcliffe in 1965 and heads to New York to become Holly Golightly. When she meets a hungry young artist named Andy Warhol, he promises to make her the star she always wanted to be. But after she explodes on the New York scene, she slowly finds herself losing her grip on reality.

Fly Me to the Moon – Young housefly Nat is looking for adventure and hatches a plan to jet into outer space with his two best friends, I.Q. and Scooter. In their homemade space suits, they take a wild ride aboard Apollo 11 all the way to the moon. After a potentially disastrous mechanic problem, these daredevil flies must save the day.

Full Metal Jacket – Vietnam war drama which begins with a depiction of the brutality of Marine Corps training and then shifts to Vietnam, focusing mainly on a group of Marines responding to the Tet Offensive of 1968.

Girl, Interrupted – Based on a true story of a young woman’s life-altering stay at a famous psychiatric hospital in the late 1960’s.

Glory Road – Don Haskins, a future Hall-of-Fame coach of tiny Texas Western University, bucks convention by simply starting the best players he can find: history’s first all-African American lineup.

Hair – Fresh from the farm, Claude Bukowski arrives in New York City for a date with the Army Induction Board, only to walk into a hippie “happening” in Central Park and fall in love with the beautiful Sheila. Befriended by the hippies’ pacifist leader, Berger, and urged to crash a formal party in order to declare his love for Sheila, Claude begins an adventure that lands him in jail, Central Park Lake and finally, in the army. But Berger’s final effort to save Claude from Vietnam sets in motion a bizarre twist of fate– with shocking consequences.

The Help – Mississippi during the 1960s: Skeeter, a southern society girl, returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives, and a small Mississippi town, upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, is the first to open up, to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community.

Little Shop of Horrors – In this musical, business blooms at Mushnik’s Flower Shop when an exotic potted plant called Audrey II arrives. The plant turns out to be carnivorous and has people rushing in to see it–and disappearing.

M. Butterfly – A French civil service officer risks and then abandons everything in his life in his obsessive pursuit of a enigmatic Chinese opera diva.

Magdalene Sisters – In Ireland in the 1960s, four women were sent to the Magdalene Laundries, an institution for “fallen” women, where they will atone for their sins through a regimented life of work and prayer. They all had to work in the laundry, where the strict nuns would break everyone’s wills through sadistic punishment. Based on a true story.

The Man without a Face – A man with a badly scarred face is hired to help a boy pass his military school entrance exam.

Mississippi  Burning – Set in Mississippi in 1964, this is a fictionalized version of the case of the murder of three young civil rights workers, the FBI’s attempts to find the missing boys and the clash between the authorities and the locals in a Klan-dominated town.

Mr. Holland’s Opus – A frustrated composer comes to realize that his real passion is teaching and that his legacy is not a truly memorable piece of music, but the generations of young people whose lives he affects.

National Lampoon’s Animal House – In 1962, Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman are freshman in college. They want to join a fraternity. After visiting several, including the snobby Omega house, they come to a Delta house pledge party. Here they meet the handsome, but compulsive womanizer Otter, his best friend Boone, Boone’s girlfriend Katy, the daring thrill-seeker D-Day, the ever responsible Hoover, and slacker Bluto. They are accepted into the fraternity and join in on the wild toga parties, road trips, and pratical jokes. But Dean Wormer is determined to have Delta kicked off campus and its members expelled. He enlists the help of Omega house and its leaders Doug Neidermyer and Greg Marmalard and new pledge Chip Diller. Delta is not willing to go away quietly.

The Outsiders – Coming of age movie set in Tulsa Oklahoma in the mid sixties.

Peggy Sue Got Married – Peggy Sue, a mother of two who runs her own business & is coping with an impending divorce, attends her 25th high school reunion, where a freak mishap sends her decades back in time, giving her the power to create an entirely different future for herself.

Riding in Cars with Boys – Based on a true story. A single mother, with dreams of going to college and becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 and goes through a failed marriage with her son’s drug-addicted father.

Secondhand Lions – To the rest of the world, Garth and Hub are mysterious old men hiding millions. But to Walter, they are family – and now they’re about to lead him on an adventure he’ll never forget.

Simon Birch – Ever since doctors proclaimed Simon Birch’s birth as a miracle, Simon’s sure he’s going to be a hero, he’s just not sure how.

That Thing You Do! – The overnight triumph of an American rock band in the glory days of rock & roll.

A Walk on the Moon – It’s the summer of 1969 and realizing she missing the sexual revolution Pearl has a passionate affair with a free-spirited young man, but then she has to make a choice between her husband and family or her newfound desires.

Zodiac – A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. The four men most affected by the killer are San Francisco PD Homicide detectives David Toschi and William Armstrong, and the San Francisco Chronicle reporters Paul Avery and Robert Graysmith.

Yellow Submarine – Once upon a time–or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland, a place where happiness and music reigned supreme. But all that was threatened when the terrible Blue Meanies declared war and sent in their army led by a menacing Flying Glove to destroy all that was good. Enter John, Paul, George and Ringo to save the day! Armed with little more than their humour, songs, and of course, their yellow submarine, The Beatles tackle the rough seas ahead in an effort to bring down the evil forces of bluedom.

Here you’ll find a selection of Feature Films and Documentaries. Some of them were filmed during the Fifties but the majority are either set then or about that time period. We’ve tried to include something for everyone.

Click on the titles to be taken to the Library’s Online Catalog.

All the King’s Men – Willie Stark is an uncorrupted small-town mayor in 1950s Louisiana. He gets picked by the political machine to run as a wild card candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial race. When Willie realizes that he is being manipulated, he veers off on his own to become the darling of the electorate’s downtrodden and forgotten hicks.

An American Rhapsody – In order to escape Communist Hungary, a family must leave behind their infant daughter. She is then temporarily raised by a peasant Hungarian couple. When the daughter is finally brought to America to be with her family, her relationship with her real family becomes strained. The girl is torn between two mothers and two homelands. Based on a true story. The girl returns to Hungary and takes an unforgettable journey of self-discovery.

La Bamba – Biographical story of the rise from nowhere of singer Ritchie Valens whose life was cut short by a plane crash.

Before Night Falls – A look at the life of Reinaldo Arenas, from childhood in Cuba to his death in New York City. His writings and homosexuality get him in trouble with Castro’s Cuba and he spends two years in prison before leaving for the United States.

Beyond the Sea – One of America’s greatest performers, Bobby Darin lived a rags-to-riches life. He worked his way from shady nightclubs to his dream destination, the Copacabana, where he wowed the crowds with his songs. He was a marvel at singing, songwriting and performing – stealing the hearts of fans everywhere despite the suffering in his own heart.

The Blue Kite – Told from the perspective of a young boy, Tietou, this film traces the fate of a Beijing family and their neighbors through the political and social upheavals in China in 1950’s and 60’s.

Bye Bye Birdie – When rock star Conrad Birdie gets drafted, his manager organizes a nationwide contest in which one lucky girl wins a farewell kiss on The Ed Sullivan show.

Capote – In 1959, Truman Capote was a popular writer for The New Yorker. He learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Halcomb, Kansas. Inspired by the story, Capote and his partner, Harper Lee, travel to the town to do research for an article. However, as Capote digs deeper into the story, he is inspired to expand the project into what would be his greatest work, “In Cold Blood.”

Che – A biopic of Cuban revolutionary ‘Che’ Guevara.

Cry Baby – A spoof and homage to 1950’s teen rock melodramas. Cry Baby is a rebel with a gang of rough friends. Allison is the straight-laced girl who falls for him.

Diner – Set in 1959, a band of long-time buddies since high school gather at a local diner to share their escapades and make sense of their lives. As one by one they drift off to join the mainstream of life they still cling to their shared boyhood dreams.

Ed Wood – A stranger-than-fiction true story of the early career of Edward D. Wood, Jr., the undisputed worst movie director of all time. Wood was the auteur behind Glen or Glenda? and Plan 9 from outer space, and it is during the making of these two no-budget flicks that Wood is profiled.

Evita – True-life story of Eva Peron, who rose above childhood poverty and a scandalous past to achieve fortune and fame.

Forrest Gump – Through three turbulent decades, Forrest rides a tide of events that whisks him from physical disability to football stardom, from Vietnam hero to shrimp tycoon, from White House honors to the arms of his one true love.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life – Follows the life of French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.

Goodfellas – Three decades in the life of a group of men involved with organized crime.

Grease – It’s love when a greaser falls for a good girl in this classic musical depicting young life in the fifties.

Hollywoodland – Made famous as Superman on television, George Reeves finds it hard to not be typecast because of it. When he is found dead of a gunshot wound, rumors begin to run rampant. Based on Hollywood’s most notorious unsolved mystery.

Hoosiers – A man is given a last chance to redeem himself when he takes a coaching position for a high school basketball team in a small town in Indiana in the early 1950s. He is challenged with the task of bringing the unknown team to a championship.

I.Q. – All the world knows about Einstein the scientific genius. But what about Einstein the matchmaker? I.Q. puts this fanciful notion to the test and comes up with winning results in this fun, warm-hearted romantic comedy.

James Dean – A made-for-cable biography that looks at the star’s short but troubled life, his years of struggle before his sudden rise to fame, and the car crash that took his life at the age of 24.

The Killer Inside Me – A sheriff is on the case to solve a string of murders in his small town, knowing that he is the killer.

L.A. Confidential – The lives of three cops, a call girl, a millionaire, a tabloid journalist, and the chief of detectives become intertwined in a tale of police corruption in 1950s Los Angeles.

The Last Picture Show – A group of 50’s high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied West Texas town that is slowly dying, both economically and culturally.

Lolita – Humbert, a divorced British professor, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte, whom he marries in order that he might pursue her 14-year-old daughter, Lolita.

M*A*S*H – The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

Mommie Dearest – The story of legendary movie star Joan Crawford as she struggles for her career and battles the inner demons of her private life. This torment manifests itself into her relationships with her adopted children, Christina and Christopher.

My Favorite Year – Alan Swann is a legendary movie idol forced by the IRS to face the music–deportation or a TV appearance to pay up. Benjy is in charge of making sure Swann shows up sober. You are taken behind the scenes during the early days of live variety shows.

Nowhere Boy – Set in Liverpool in 1955, the adolescent years of John Lennon are chronicled. In a family full of secrets, two incredible women clash over John — his Aunt Mimi who raised him and the prodigal mother. Yearning for a normal family, he escapes into the new and exiciting world of rock ‘n’ roll where he meets a kindred spirit in the teenage Paul McCartney. Just as John begins his new life, tragedy strikes. But a resilient young man finds his voice and an icon explodes into the world.

October Sky – True story of a young boy growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia during the 1950’s who dreams of building rockets.

Pleasantville – A brother and sister are magically transported through their television set and into the black-and-white world of a 1950s sitcom called Pleasantville.

Quiz Show – Fame and fortune become a hotbed of scandal when a Washington investigator uncovers corruption beneath the TV’s hottest quiz show’s glittering facade. The scandal implicates both the wildly popular champion and the disgruntled ex-champ.

The Reader – Post-WWII, Germany. Michael Berg is a teenager who becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens.

The Right Stuff – The true story of Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton– the seven men chosen for the Mercury Project manned space flight program in the U.S.

Superman – As an infant, Superman is sent to earth from the doomed planet Krypton. As he grows up, he learns he has super powers which he must hide from the ordinary mortals around him.

Sylvia – Born in Boston, MA, in 1932, Plath developed a talent as a writer and published her first poem when she was eight years old. That same year, Plath was forced to confront the unexpected death of her father. In 1950, she began studying at Smith College on a literary scholarship. In 1955, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in England at Cambridge. There, Plath met Ted Hughes, a respected author. The two fell in love, and married in 1958. However, marriage, family, and a growing reputation as an important poet failed to bring Plath happiness.

This Boy’s Life – Caroline just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy and provide a better home for her handful of a son, Toby. When she moves to Seattle and meets Dwight, she thinks she’s got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after spending time with Dwight while away from Caroline. Dwight seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but to do so, he emotionally, verbally and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight’s need to dominate everyone around him.

The Tree of Life – The impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s that follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Walk the Line – Traces Johnny Cash’s childhood, including his distant father to his early attempts at a music career. At this point in his life he marries his girlfriend Vivian. During a tour with singer/musicians Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, he encounters singer June Carter, and his love for her, and her rejection of him through the years, spurs him into drugs, drinking, and depression. June is both a sassy spitfire singer whose charm breaks hearts and eventually becomes a sympathetic friend who tries to help Johnny get over her. A true love story of two country music stars.

West Side Story – This musical sets the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of the rivalry of two street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, in New York of the 1950s. A young woman who is sister to the Sharks leader has her first taste of love with the former head of the Jets.

When Did You Last See Your Father? – When a 40-year-old writer visits his dying father, he begins to relive the memories of his past and is forced to realize that his once “immortal, invincible and infallible” father is human after all.