Film

The Student Nurses

Name: The Student Nurses
Genre: Drama
Released: 1970
Cast: Elaine Giftos, Karen Carlson, Brioni Farrell, Barbara Leigh, Reni Santoni

Drama

A 1970 dramedy following four nursing students navigating Los Angeles life, love, and the social upheaval of the era. It's a time capsule of early-seventies attitudes toward sex and counterculture, mixing melodrama with the casual energy of low-budget exploitation cinema. For fans of period-specific social realism and anyone curious how Hollywood depicted young women during the sexual revolution.

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The Graduate1967

A masterpiece about generational confusion and sexual awakening. Dustin Hoffman's performance captures the paralysis of youth in a materialist world, and the film's formal inventiveness still astonishes. Essential viewing.

But The pacing slows considerably in the second half, and the ending—while famous—may feel anticlimactic if you're expecting narrative resolution rather than emotional truth.

Valley of the Dolls1967

A camp classic about women navigating ambition, addiction, and survival in Hollywood. Unintentionally hilarious and genuinely moving in turns, it captures the era's attitudes toward female sexuality with wild sincerity.

But The acting is frequently overwrought, the dialogue clunky, and the moral framework reeks of 1960s paternalism. If you need restraint, this isn't it.

Skidoo1968

A trippy, anarchic comedy about a retired mobster pulled back into crime. Otto Preminger's acid-fueled weirdness is genuinely disorienting and funny, a genuine relic of millennial-crisis filmmaking.

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Student Nurses

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Medium Cool1969

Both capture the exact moment when '60s idealism crashed into '70s disillusionment, using young people navigating personal life against national turmoil as the frame.

A formally experimental film that embeds a love story within the 1968 Democratic Convention chaos in Chicago. Haskell Wexler blurs documentary and fiction, creating a work about media complicity that's both urgent and heartbreaking.

But The narrative dissolves when real convention violence erupts. The film abandons its characters for journalism, which is the point—but that doesn't make it easy or satisfying to watch.

Alice's Restaurant1969

A rambling, funny, deeply '60s film about counterculture life and Vietnam draft resistance. Arthur Penn captures the era's optimism and absurdity with real affection, and it's refreshingly non-judgmental about its characters.

But There's no conventional plot, just a series of episodes. The pacing is deliberately slack, and if you need narrative momentum, you'll find it tedious.

Midnight Cowboy1969

A bleak, unflinching portrait of survival and exploitation in New York City. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are devastating, and the film's refusal to sentimentalize poverty feels urgent even now.

But It's genuinely depressing and treats sexual exploitation as brutal fact, not entertainment. The film's vision of human connection is almost nonexistent. Not for escapism.

Easy Rider1969

The ultimate counterculture road movie, a meditation on freedom, capitalism, and belonging. Visually stunning, with a perfect soundtrack and a fatalism that defines an era's anxieties.

But The second half deflates into formlessness, and some moments—particularly around women—haven't aged well. It can feel more like a mood than a story.

Carnal Knowledge1971

An unsentimental, often darkly funny examination of male sexuality and relationships. Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel create complex characters, and Mike Nichols's direction is ice-cold and precise.

But The film's misogyny is the subject, not a flaw, but it's relentless. Some will find it more punishing than insightful, and the ending is bleak without offering much comfort.

Johnny Got His Gun1971

A harrowing antiwar film about a WWI soldier rendered quadriplegic and mute. Dalton Trumbo's directorial debut is formally inventive and genuinely disturbing, a fever dream of suffering and loss.

But It's exhausting and deeply depressing. The film offers no escape or relief, and some of the dream sequences are more grotesque than clarifying.

The Stewardesses1969

A 3D exploitation film about flight attendants and their romantic escapades. It's genuinely weird, technically ambitious for its budget, and a fascinating artifact of early-70s softcore ambitions.

But The acting is barely present, the dialogue is nonsensical, and the plot is nonexistent. You're essentially watching a very dated music video with nudity. Some will find that refreshing; others won't.

Summer of '421971

Both center young women as subjects of their own desire rather than objects, but Summer of '42 does it through the softness of memory rather than the urgency of the present moment.

A nostalgic, tender film about adolescent longing and memory. It captures the ache of being young without judgment, and its emotional honesty—especially around the female lead's vulnerability—is quietly powerful.

But By today's standards, the age gap at the film's emotional core is deeply uncomfortable. It's also aggressively sentimental, and if you don't connect with its particular nostalgia, it feels thin.