We kick off Sex Month on The Problematic Gaze by diving headfirst into Alfie, the swaggering, unsettling snapshot of 1960s masculinity that still raises eyebrows today.
We explore how Michael Caine’s charismatic performance—paired with that infamous fourth-wall-breaking narration—pulls us into Alfie’s world, even as his misogyny and emotional detachment push us away. We unpack the film’s origins in Bill Naughton’s play and Lewis Gilbert’s direction, while confronting its most jarring elements: the casual disposability of women, the cutting language, and the harrowing illegal abortion sequence that still lands with force.
But we don’t stop at the screen. We place Alfie squarely in the contradictions of 1966 Britain—Swinging London’s promise of liberation colliding with the realities of Harold Wilson’s Britain, economic uncertainty, the shadow of the Aberfan disaster, and the ongoing shifts of decolonization. Against a backdrop of chart-topping music and cultural change, we ask whether Alfie reflects this moment in time—or critiques it.
By the end, we’re left wrestling with a film that is as compelling as it is uncomfortable: bold, bleak, and still deeply problematic.
You can watch Alfie on YouTube. Click here
GAZER HOMEWORK: Next week we turn our lens to 1974's sec comedy 'Confessions Of A Window Cleaner'. Click here to watch on YouTube
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