The Year That Trembled (2002)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Very best movie i ever watch

The Worst Film Ever

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Important depiction of a time arguably as turbulent as our current. However, links (or even intimations of them) from past to present are lacking in this film. A faded standalone snapshot, the mood unimpassioned, (ironic given the manic, "trembling" tenor of those times). No room is made or left over for extrapolation or lessons learned--a great opportunity missed. Instead we're dished up startlingly superficial and hackneyed treatment of the era, ineffective character development, and lackluster performances from most of the cast. Further, the film is riddled with anachronisms and suffers from romanticism and historical revisionism--so it comes off as shallow and clichéd. Perhaps this film was made by people too young to understand the flavor of those times. If not, perhaps the filmmakers are part of a well-meaning but removed elite, who took their very best shot at depicting the lives and dramas of their characters, but the closest they could come was creating an approximated, somewhat patronizing, overly polite, "as-if" characterization--which naturally lacks passion, flow, human depth and complexity, and realism. In sum, it's like watching back to back episodes of the mundane NBC drama "American Dreams" (albeit, with a more liberal lean, fortunately), without the energy level. Just about that insightful, realistic, and compelling. In sum, clearly an earnest effort, tho emotionally blunted overall.

This movie was filmed in my hometown. Well, some of it was. During the filming, the town was in very high spirits -- a movie, on our streets! Hell, even I was happy, cynical as I may be. Jonathan Brandis? Yes, please.About two months ago, I finally found a VHS copy at the local library. And I watched it. And it went on. And on. And on. And on.The film has a semi-decent beginning, but the constant usage of "flashbacks" (which in this case are long, dreary segments of stock footage circa 1970) made me want to take a long nap. The acting isn't spectacular, but it's okay. Brandis in particular did pretty well.The dialogue is very cheesy at times. The plot is somewhat hard to follow, with characters you simply don't care about and begin to hate halfway through for getting a movie to their boring selves.It's sad when the only thing I got from it was "oh, look! That.. that street I played on when I was ten!" It's just an incredibly tedious experience. The settings are drab, the cinematography is boring, the story is sleep-inducing, the characters are .. uh, I don't know. I need another adjective.Watch something else. Unless below mediocre boring stuff is your cup of tea.

To me, this agreeable independent film is exactly what movie making should be about. There is a lot of heart in this story about an introspective young man and his friends dealing with the effects of an unpopular war on their small town lives. The film adaptation of the novel "The Year that Trembled" craftily inundates the peaceful setting of a farmhouse in a meadow with all the passions of 1970 anti-Vietnam War activities ranging from the serious to the inane. Reel footage from the period is artfully infused into the film, as are new characters whose presence and values help explain the legal, political and emotional moods of the era to those unfamiliar with that time. The result was a film that, although choppy at times, was most enjoyable.The characters were all well played. The only disappointment for me was that the part played by Casey (the book's eloquent main character) was diminished in order to develop the other roles.

"The Year That Trembled" creates a memory of a time of another generation... the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State University when four students were killed by Ohio National Guard, and the Vietnam war draft lottery that followed. Starring Martin Mull, Fred Willard and Henry Gibson in supporting dramatic roles, the story follows students who actively oppose the war, then are faced with the decisions of how to respond to their personal destiny with the war. A wonderful film that recalls a different time that we should never forget. Bravo to Jay Craven, Scott Lax and the filmmakers of "The Year That Trembled."