Robert Downey Sr.| 1969 | USA | 1h24m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles.
PUTNEY SWOPE is a savage satire of American capitalism, advertising, and racial politics, made at the height of social upheaval in the late 1960s. When a marginalised Black employee is accidentally elected CEO of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, the result of a cynical boardroom joke, no one believes the outcome will be taken seriously. The company scrambles to present itself as progressive and enlightened, without ever expecting real change. Chaos ensues.
The film was written and directed by Robert Downey Sr., father of Robert Downey Jr. aka Iron Man, aka Sherlock Holmes. Downey Sr. worked far outside the studio system, favouring improvisation, provocation, and disruption. In one of the film’s most notorious choices, the title character is dubbed by Downey himself, a deliberately jarring move that refuses comfort or easy identification.
If you’re a fan of Mad Men, this film offers a fascinating counterpoint. Both are set on Madison Avenue in the same era, but where Mad Men treats advertising with gravity, nostalgia, and psychological depth, PUTNEY SWOPE tears the industry apart with mockery. The suits, the slogans, and the self-importance are all here, stripped of elegance and exposed as performance.
On release, the film was divisive. Some embraced it as revolutionary satire, while others rejected it as offensive or incoherent. What has kept PUTNEY SWOPE alive is how clearly it anticipates modern identity politics. Diversity becomes branding. Inclusion becomes copy. The parallels to contemporary debates are hard to miss. Today, the film stands as a cornerstone of American underground cinema, still funny, still angry, and still uncomfortably relevant.
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi.
HOW TO FIND US: Enter via Atoneli St above Carrefour. Take the stairs on the left behind the jewellery stand. The cinema entrance is one flight up in the stairwell.