Deromanticizing the sexual revolution of the sixties agonies of 'love' as portrayed in Sunday Bloody Sunday

Exploring the challenges faced by both female and male individuals amid the social upheaval of the Sixties, British writer Penelope Gilliatt presents in the Sunday Bloody Sunday screenplay a counterimage to the romanticized mainstream portrayal of social change that is guided by the market for commercial benefits. The association of the social change of the Sixties and Seventies with romanticized words and images in popular culture, including feature films, documentaries, and advertisements, made the process of social change seem dreamy and flawless. Therefore, revisiting Sunday Bloody Sunday as a counter-mainstream image of the Sixties is a revisit of the social change. The film ruptures the positive meanings of "love" associated with sexual liberation and introduces a subverted set of meanings. Through a semiotic analysis of Sunday Bloody Sunday and an analysis of the context in which it was written and directed, this study uncovers some of the challenges stemming from the concept of free/open relationships, which is one of the outcomes of the sexual revolution. The focus of this study is on Alex and Bob's heterosexual relationship. The sign "love" in Sunday Bloody Sunday carries negative connotations that represent it as problematic, lacking, and agonizing through a series of signifiers discussed in the study. Sunday Bloody Sunday thus subverts meanings of liberation, emancipation, and sexual fulfillment that used to be associated with the sign "love" during the sexual revolution of the Sixties.