The 60s (1999)
The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor, a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton.
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It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
An Exercise In Nonsense
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
I remember when this movie first came on back in 1999 and I was 16 and all excited because I had heard so many stories about the 60's from my parents, who are both Puerto Rican and came of age in 1960's New York. And my mother's reaction to this movie was why they had such an issue showing any Latinos in it at all? And that's a valid question, we were in the 60's, we were getting drafted and getting our heads blown off in Vietnam just like all the other American soldiers. Yet this movie won't take even a minute to acknowledge our existence beyond a few shots of Fidel Castro? Yeah its not like we were doing anything special in the 60's, Cesar Chavez was only leading a nation wide boycott against grapes and fighting for the rights of migrant workers. There were also the 1968 school walkouts, the formation of such groups as The Brown Berets and The Young Lords. Now I know they had a lot to cover, but really they couldn't take some time to at least mention Cesar Chavez, Jeremy Sisto and Josh Hamilton characters were suppose to be such activities, neither could mention they were joining the "nation wide" boycott against California grapes? Movies like Steal This Movie, RFK and even Panthers manage to all acknowledge the existence of Latinos and Panthers even had shots of The Brown Berets along with Hippies and College Students at a Free Huey rally. A movie about The Black Power Movement manages to show Latinos, yet a movie called The 60's treated us like we didn't exist, what's wrong with that picture? And even better was that Panthers came out a good four years before the 60's did.Thankfully the movie Walkout came out in 2006 and was the first movie to finally focus on the Hispanic experience of the 60's with the East LA public school walkouts. And then someone actually complained that Walkout didn't have any White people walking out of the schools or backing up the Mexican kids. Yeah there are no Latinos and barely any Asian beyond the deliver guy in this movie, so why should we have them in ours? Now personally I would love for their to be a real 60's movie that actually remembers that the whole country wasn't just White and Black. And that actually remembers that the biggest achievement of the decade was the joining of the all the groups in a time of war and racial tension. This movie was not it, not even close to it, it is a good nostalgia trip? I guess, but I like Steal This Movie way way better. When you make a 60's movie that can appeal to everyone experiences and then show how everyone truly came together despite all the resistance, brutality and war, then you've made a movie worthy to be called The 60's.P.S. But on the small plus side, the acting in this movie was really good, I thought the whole cast did great.
The "movie" (it was a TV series converted in movie for other locations) has lots of things about the 60s? Yes, plenty of nostalgia. The movie presents many historical facts about the sixties? Yes, too much. The movie has 60s aesthetics? Yes, a lot, mainly the music, which is great (the best thing in fact). The movie has a plot? No.This is the problem with the movie is that there is not plot. They try to link many important happenings of the 60s with the history of two families, but the characters are shallow and the drama is artificial. Incredible enough, the characters were the main protagonists in many important moments of the history, making it cliché.The movie is good for those who don't know a thing about the sixties and want to learn more about the culture and history, in a superficial way. Of course it gives a dreamy and magic representation of the decade, so it is advisable to consult and encyclopedia after watching the movie to get your feet back on the ground. Maybe those who lived in the 60s may like it for the nostalgia, but certainly will not like the absurd and exaggerations. Anyway, you can always excuse yourself by saying that you watched because the soundtrack, because it is worthy the time watching a movie with no plot.
"The 60's" is a superb movie. I believe that Jerry O'Connell played an excellent part as the soldier who went off to fight in the Vietnam War. Personally, I love learning about the 60's and everything around that time period, but I firmly believe that anyone can enjoy this movie.To summarize, the movie is great. The actors do a great job, and the movie tells a great story of the 60's in a historical manner.
This was a great, but not very in-depth, overlook of the sixties with examples in the hippie movement, Vietnam veterans, African-American freedom fighters, the intellectual radical left and traditionalists. Most of the actors gave solid performances, especially Jeremy Sisto. Very nice full-circle story. My only beef with the film was that, as usual in Hollywood films, the end trivializes the rest of the content.