1969 (1988)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Ernest Thompson

Writer (WGA):

Ernest Thompson (written by)

Release Date:

18 November 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

The year the country split apart and a generation came together.

Plot:

Two friends, Ralph and Scott live in a small minded town at the onset of the Vietnam war. While Scott's brother enlists...

Plot Keywords:

Bridge | Friend | Freedom | Vietnam War | Death

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Robert Downey Jr.	...	Ralph Carr
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Scott
Bruce Dern	...	Cliff
Mariette Hartley	...	Jessie
Winona Ryder	...	Beth
Joanna Cassidy	...	Ev
Christopher Wynne	...	Alden
Keller Kuhn	...	Marsha
Steve Foster	...	Marshall
Mert Hatfield	...	Coach Heart
Welton Tootle	...	Junior Roberts
Don Devendorf	...	Reverend Hardy
Dr. Robert Louis Stevenson	...	Dean Bonner
Jason Summers	...	Protestor
Scott N. Stevens	...	Hitchhiker

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Hardeeville, South Carolina, USA

Company:

Atlantic Entertainment Group

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The bus Alden gets on says Palmetto Tours on it. It would not be in Maryland, where the film is supposed to take place. South Carolina is the Palmetto State.

Quotes:

Scott: We have naked people giving us free food!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywood Vietnam (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Wooden Ships

If ever there was a film in search of a plot...

This tale of two teenage friends experiencing life in the last tumultuous year of the sixties is written by Ernest Thompson, the man who won an Oscar for writing On Golden Pond and who has done little of any real worth since. It is quite clearly an autobiographical tale, or at least a fictional tale woven around Thompson's memories of his own youth – which perhaps goes some way towards explaining its loose structure and almost non-existent plot.

Kiefer Sutherland plays Scott – presumably Thompson's alter-ego – a naïve and idealistic 19-year-old who joins college with his best friend Ralph (Robert Downey Jr.) to avoid being drafted into the army and shipped out to Vietnam, the fate that has befallen his older brother. The film focuses on the boy's experiences during their last summer of innocence, but nothing much really happens. They go to San Francisco, sit in a bar, then come straight home again. Ralph o.d.'s on LSD, while Scott falls in love with his (Ralph's) younger sister, and grows increasingly adrift from his war-hero father (Bruce Dern) over the war in Vietnam. Watching it, you get the impression that this must all be heavily evocative stuff for writer/director Thompson, but for the rest of us it's all pretty dull. You sit there waiting for something meaningful to happen, something interesting that might at least make you give a damn about the people involved. You wait and you wait and, five minutes from the end credits, Thompson pulls out some 'inspiring' and 'uplifting' bilge that is truly horrible to watch. I really mean that – it's horrible. I couldn't believe it was actually happening – or that a screenwriter of any merit would expect us to believe that the characters' deeply ingrained convictions about a subject as complex as that which he has tried to tackle could be swept aside so superficially.

The performances are OK, and it's a shame more screen time wasn't given to Joanna Cassidy as the semi-alcoholic mother of Ralph and Beth (Winona Ryder) – despite her habit of hugging everyone. Unfortunately, other than Dern as Scott's uptight father – who, as the symbol of his generation's conservative ideals, becomes an increasingly ridiculous and estranged figure as the story unfolds – Thompson pays only cursory attention to the parents. Sadly, the kids don't really have that much to offer, and simply drift along the way kids do. I suppose Thompson got that right at least; but aimless kids are only good for minor sub-plots – not the focus of an entire movie.