MovieChat Forums > The '60s (1999) Discussion > Such a good movie - such an empty messag...

Such a good movie - such an empty message board!


I bought the dvd one year ago because it was cheap ($5) and I thougt it could be nice!
And wonder what: I love this movie!

The music is wonderful and the actors are great. I disliked Jordana in "The Fast and ..." (maybe because she slept with Paul Walker) but in The `60s she`s great.

Julia Stiles and the whole cast act so persuasive and great! I just love it!

They showed in a good way the different possibilities the youth had at this time (pro Vietnam -at least at the beginning-, against the war or being a flower child).

But then it showed that not everything at this hippie-thing was great because Katie hadn`t got money for her son.

They showed how enthusiasm for a war is slained by the reality with it`s horribleness.

And it showed how good ideas like peaceful protests can change into the madness of violence (Kenny died because of this process he passed through : peaceful meetings - active protest - seize university - conflicts with the police - construct bombs)

"Remember Ginsberg: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness!" (Sarah)


I wished we would have seen movies like this in school to understand this time and it`s problems - of cause they had to cut the events of these days, but it`s still a good overview about this period of war and peace!


Or what do you think?

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I thouhgt that is was a great movie with a great message.

"We're not against the soldiers, we're against the war."

In this world of mis-guided pride, I just wish that people would start seeing that nowadays.

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Yes It´s great!

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Just remember -- not all protestors were peaceful. There were several instances of soldiers being spit upon and having things thrown at them upon their return from Vietnam. It wasn't always the hero's welcome that Brian (Jerry O'Connell) received in the movie.
Pride in your country is not misguided... And any soldier deserves all the respect we can give them (whether you believe in the war or not), because they are risking their lives for the freedoms our country enjoys.

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those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. everyone should watch this movie, contemplate it and look at the current war we are in. viet nam was a horrible mistake, we interfered in something we had nothing to do with. iraq never attacked us. open up your eyes and see the truth
peace and love to all

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I am a high school teacher and I did use this in my classroom. You are right. It is so educational! Great movie! (check out also the documentary by Spike Lee -- 4 Little Girls -- I used it in my class too.)

"Bless the Crazy Cat Ladies"
"Egyptians worshipped cats... smart people still do."

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You guys are freakin' me out, man! How can you consider this to be great??? It's a horrible production of great material. The casting is amongst the worst I have ever seen (read my post about the 30 year old high school junior!), and there is no nostalgic feeling to this at any stage! I thought it was bad. 3 out of 10.

And as a teacher you really shouldn't waste class time showing this mess. Show a proper documentary instead.

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Dude, SilentJay, put down the crack pipe and step away very slowly.

I'm a big tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything.

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This was a great movie. Which person was 30 playing a high school kid? I couldn't tell, which to me, means they succeeded just fine.

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Josh Hamilton. And he doesn't only look at least 30, he actually WAS 30 during filming, as I found out later!

(Rest of message removed, because apparently I was in a bad mood that day.) :-)

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You're being rude, twerp.

Since you're the only guy complaining about an actor looking 30, I think you need to see the optometrist more than I do.

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Plus am i the only one who wants to point out that the movie spans like and 8 or 9 year period? They need to find actors that could play a wide range of ages.

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rofl @ 30 yrr old high school jr.

***
i got that Justin Bieber please believe it

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so, as i understand it, u thought this movie was horrendous but that superbeast was not totally horrible. how old r u, dude?

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well i would like to say that are right this was a great movie where did u get it i would like to have so i can pass the movie on for others to watch i thought it was great the acting was good and the struggle of the characters it reminds me of born on the fourth of july with tom cruise i love that movie also so good luck and i hope there are more sleeper movies like this out there.

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this movie came on last nite and I LOVED it! someone should MAKE a message board for this movie! (a seperate, bigger one!)

The camera can´t seem to get enough of what she holds in her eyes. Meryl Streep about Winona Ryder

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Is Micheal Rainbow supposed to be a boy or a girl? As a baby Micheal Rainbow is played by twin boys but as a toddler Rainbow is played by a girl. In the movie Katie at one time refers to Rainbow as a he but then why did they use a little girl to play her/him later?

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I thought that this thing was horrible. Or maybe not so much horrible, but in trying to be all things '60s, it strained credulity to the breaking point. Now, I only saw it once, and that was when it originally aired, so I may be getting some of this wrong, but here's what I mean--

The black family, having lived through the Civil Rights Movement of the early/mid '60s, moves to Watts, just in time for the Watts riots, and the beginning of the Black Panther movement. In both cases, they play not insignificant roles.

The Herlihy family. Where do I begin? One son goes to Vietnam, the other becomes a student activist, and the daughter runs away to San Francisco. Student activist son winds up at the Pentagon, where he ends up being the one putting flowers in the soldiers' guns, having started that [sarcasm]well-known[/sarcasm] '60s chant, "We're not against the soldiers/We're against the war". Hippie daughter, having become disillusioned with San Francisco, goes "back to the land" and winds up at the Hog Farm, just in time to accompany them to Woodstock, where, unbeknownst to her, her brothers are in attendance. In a crowd of half a million people, they are reunited for the first time in several years.

OK...I get it. They tried to hit all of the big events of the '60s. But to ask the audience to believe that two families were on the front lines of every significant event in that decade (and I swear to God, I thought there'd be a scene with one of them in the control room at NASA during the moon landing) is just ridiculous.

And don't even get me started on Kenny Klein, or the scene where activist boy and activist girl wander through the Village, conversing by means of Bob Dylan lyrics (and then just miss seeing him; never mind that Bob didn't live there anymore by then)...

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geez..it's just a movie...

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Dude if you think it's so horrible then why do you post on this message board. I know your only expressing your opinion and i'm cool with that but remember it was just a made for tv movie NBC aired in 1999. In my opinion this is one of of the best made for tv movies I have ever seen.

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I don't think this movie is an all that wonderful telling of the 60's, in fact I thought it was a pretty poor telling of the decade. A good 60's movie is Steal This Movie which told the story of Abby Hoffman, and actually did a better job of showing Hippies as more then just stoned and dancing around in the street. This movie was cliched and stereotypical in its representation of Hippies and very poorly covered the Black Power movement. The first part was well done, the 2nd part was incoherent mess that dragged the whole thing down. I've seen plenty of other movies that have done a much better job at displaying the 60's movements.

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So I saw this film. I asked my mom what she thought about it. She grew up in the 60's, was active with the BPP and was a self proclaimed Hippie. She sighed and said "Yeah, it was okay." That was all I needed. Ha!

To be honest, I also thought that this film was pretty stereotypical and cliched...and I was only born in '90. My mum educated me much on what went on then and I'm grateful to have her knowledge about such a pivotal time in history.

It's my house, and I live here.

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I know I'm late in this discussion, but Hendu13, I think what the makers of this movie were going for is exactly what you said (trying to cover all the significant U.S. events in the 60s). Now of course that is going to be a bit unbelievable, but they had to try it if they wanted to encompass ANY of the historical events covered. Don't tell me this is the first movie you've seen (even in terms of history piece movies) where you've had to compromise reality to enjoy the film. Now if you didn''t enjoy the film, that's great, we all have opinions and I'm not trying to change yours, but i'm trying to defend the film makers in this instance because I can at least appreciate what they were trying to do. I agree with you that the film was FAR from perfect, and there were several parts of the movie i think they should have cut out or at least changed. I thought the African-American family seemed to be thrown in there just to add an African-American perspective to the story (which I can appreciate also), but they ended up being a distracting sub-plot since the film definitely portryaed the Herlihys as the main focus of the story. I liked the movie, but could have loved it if was tweaked here and there, plus I think since it covered such a turning point in American history the film should have been much longer. If it was longer, then maybe the writers would have had more time to establish the African-American family in a more significant light. This could have also helped the film not to seem to jump around as much.

Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God. ~Author Unknown

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I may be in the minority, but I agree with a lot of what hendu13 had said.

I feel like this was a good TV movie, and it could be viewed in a class for history...for 8th graders! I had to watch this for 11th grade US History class back in '05, and well, of course everyone loves movie day in school, but even I thought it lacked some depth.

I feel like for someone who has NO prior knowledge on the 60s, this would be an okay jumping off movie. What a lot of people have said I agree with. They did over-focus too much on the Herlihy's, and not enough on the black family (see, I don't even know their last name) that had the boy, Emmitt become a panther.

I do think they did focus too much on Josh Hamilton's character, Michael, and of course the cheesy "we are not against the soldiers, we are against the war!" I was waiting for the soliders to shoot the protesters, and laughing at that!

Plus, they were all too old to be playing high schoolers. Don't get me wrong, Jerry Connell is very handsome, and has an awesome body, but he and Josh Hamilton looked way too old. Julia Stiles could sort of play a high schooler.

Anyways, the plot and character development was a little weak. I'm sure there are great movies about the 60s, this just isn't one of them. That said, I don't think this was horrible. It just wasn't very put together or accurate.

I also am surprised they did not show someone in the control room at NASA. ;)

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Personally, this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

While clichéd, cookie-cutter, and somewhat unrealistic, I find this movie to have the most important thing for any film: entertainment. I am enthralled each time I watch this movie from start to finish. It chronicles the most memorable and historic moments of the 60's. The families that happened to be a part of all of the monumental moments back then had to be done in a way; if the movie had switched to following different people in the film instead of staying to course with the same ones, there would be little to no character connection. Personally, I cared about these characters. I believe this movie was sweet, informative, and fun. I love that they incorporated actual footage from that time period. The actors were great, and the script was good. The movie is already about three hours, and I wish it were longer. The 60's will always be dear to me.

Everyone should watch All My Children.

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