Much more than the style of wayfarer sunglasses has come back to us from the 1960s.   Indeed, the decade which for too long has been associated solely with hippieness and drugs was actually one of most grittily beautiful (and politically scary) times in modern history.  From this cauldron came, perhaps unsuprisingly, some quite admirable cultural trends.   Looking deeper into the Western world's current preferences, it would seem that, like a classic pair of wayfarers, we've donned the '60s again.  Consider what I deem the most resolute carry-overs from the 1960s to the present, proof that a bygone era can be revamped with authority:   

Fidel Castro

The American public, and, it seems, the Cuban central government, both thought this fatigue-wearing emblem of anti-Americanism would recede into the background as his younger brother Raul took over. But remember who we are talking about here. Fidel (below) not only practically incarnated the Cuban Revolution back in 1959, but he also withstood challenges to his authority by both Kennedy and Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. He also built his state on intimidation, torture, and a cult of personality. Some things haven't changed, as evidenced by his still-prevalent influence in Cuban affairs. As in the ‘60s, American policy towards Cuba is really still the same: we love your cigars, but not your system. For my take on Cuba’s legacy since the Revolution, go here.

            

Spy Films Engage with Realism Again

The 1960s was a time in which two momentous changes happened in spy films: audiences first experienced James Bond onscreen (below, left), while other artists seriously critiqued that glamorized picture of espionage, delivering their own first-rate masterpieces in the process. It was a wonderfully creative time for the genre. As the emphasis in the Bond films centered more and more on fakeness, do-it-all gadgets, and sexually-explicit character names, one writer set off a trend that would place the Cold War espionage battle of shadows in its realistic, gritty context. That man, of course, was John Le Carre. In Le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, published in 1963, the hero, Alec Leamas (below, right), is not a tuxedo-clad dandy like Bond, but a rough-hewn, experienced hand who bravely goes into the moral vortex of the East-West conflict. The 1965 film version stars Richard Burton as Leamas, in what is perhaps one of the finest roles of his career. That film signaled the first time that Hollywood was concerned about exploring the psychological side of spying, and it seems that in the last ten years the studios have drawn on this theme again, with excellent results.

             

The popularity of the Bourne trilogy (below, left) finds the hero, like Leamas in another era, caught up in a web of deceit involving brutal efficiency, intellectual sophistication, and moral dilemmas. James Bond has undergone a transformation, too, with the entrance of Daniel Craig into the starring role. Craig’s Bond (below, right) takes part in the espionage dialectic created during the 1960s, combining the gentlemanly (and some would say, unrealistic) traveling spy with embittered professional who gets beat up and thrown into the gutter once and a while. The result has been a synthesis of the two characters that ultimately makes for a more believable Bond. And Craig plays the part in a creative fashion that is, quite honestly, refreshing after the efforts of Pierce Brosnan, who was just trying too hard to look the part of the English spy. Craig's character, on the other hand, embodies Englishness: reserved, loyal,  abrupt, and underhanded. We can thank the ‘60s for initiating the artistic debate that made this modern Bond a reality.

                

European Actresses Are Worth Their Salt Again

In the 1960s, European actresses like Sophia Loren (below, left) and Brigitte Bardot were known for their talents as well as their exotic postal codes. Now, Penelope Cruz (below, right) is an Oscar-winner, Marion Cotillard has starred alongside Johnny Depp in a film on John Dilinger, and Audrey Tautou plays Coco Chanel. Which reminds this Foreign Correspondent why he took a liking to the countries Over There in the first place.

            

How I Learned to Love Drinking at Work, or Mad Men

AMC’s award-winning show Mad Men is a statement on classiness. The sets evoke 1960s Madison Avenue style, and the term “smoke-filled room” takes on literal meaning. Shows set in the modern era are finding the executives of Sterling Cooper worthwhile inspirations, as Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold demonstrated with a daytime office beverage in an episode of Entourage. Don Draper (below) would be proud.

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Kevin Karp is The Smoke-Filled Room's Chief International Correspondent. Keep up with his reports here.