A Small Circle of Friends

Movie that takes place at Harvard University in Cambridge MA from 1967 to 1971. Three students are starting at Harvard. Nick (Jameson Parker)-tall, handsome, muscular and serious; Leo (Brad Davis) a rebel who lashes out at everything) and Jess (Karen Allen) a sweet, serious and intelligent woman. Both Nick and Leo fall in love with Jess at various times and the film follows them through the four years at school and we see them change--in good ways and bad.

This was filmed in Cambridge back in 1979. I remember because I grew up in Arlington--a town that borders Cambridge. I know what Harvard Square and Harvard University looked like back then and it was really great to see it captured on film. Also we see the great Orson Welles Cinema that was in Cambridge--a wonderful art house theatre that burnt down in 1985. I remember catching in a totally empty movie theatre in Boston back in 1980. The fact that it was locally filmed was advertised to the hilt--but nobody came. I can't see why because I LOVED it. I found it totally believable with interesting characters and situations. Seeing it again now all these years later I'm not as totally impressed with it as before. I found the situations and dialogue clichéd and too many unexplained events--WHY was that building chained shut at Harvard and the lottery wasn't explained either. Also, sadly, Parker is a terrible actor. He's tall, handsome and muscular but says every line with a blank look on his face. I seriously didn't know HOW to take some of his dialogue! Still, I DO like the film and recommend it. Allen and Davis give GREAT performances; it moves quickly (I was never once bored); the scenery is beautiful; the music score was incredible (it includes an instrumental of "Total Eclipse of the Heart") and it all ends in a totally unrealistic but happy ending. A must see for any Massachusetts residents who love Boston and Cambridge. Also future stars Daniel Stern and Shelley Long have small roles.

This film, and the principal people involved with it, have long held a special place in my life as I was an extra during the riot scene at "Harvard"(nee Bridgewater State College). While I don't have a truly memorable role in the finished film(although many close friends of mine do and were featured on two of the lobby cards from the film), I am part of the cluster of people on the main building's upper balcony(a most unsafe act as that creaky and once condemned balcony held about 15 of us at one point). Shooting went from 6 PM until 6 AM on a very rainy evening. All the rioters, with the exception of the principal actors, were student extras who raided their older sibling's closet to get the historical costumes. Real Boston MDC riot police were used, some of whom had been at the riots in the 60's. First take was particularly chaotic and bloody as students fought with the police who, acting upon instinct, violently did the same. Being part of the student press covering the event(with a story which, based on our notes, was picked up by AP), I got the opportunity to meet and greet the stars shortly before nationwide opening of the film. Filmed opened on a Wednesday and closed the following Tuesday. A great financial disappointment which truly hurt a burgeoning career for Cohen. Other brief notes: there are two familiar Steinman thematics running throughout the film. The first did become TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART while the second became a #1 hit for Air Supply, MAKING LOVE OUT OF NOTHING AT ALL. The reason that the film ended up at BSC did have to do with Harvard's exam schedule. As it turned out, this was the final scene in the film to be shot, leading studio execs to frantically find a suitable location in order to stay on shooting schedule and budget. Also, the "paddy wagon" seen rocking during the sequence(and featured prominently on one of the lobby cards) was actually rolled over onto it's roof during the first take. The student riding the vehicle is William Hoffman. Truly looking forward to seeing the DVD(first time the film, long out of print on VHS, will be in widescreen) and hearing Cohen's commentary on the while experience.

I was in school then. This is the only movie ever made that got it right. 30 feet a part would be kids who were fighting the war and kids who wanted no part of it. Transformations from innocence to dissident happened overnight. Karen Allen is the best actress ever and why the hell isn't she working every day? This came out in 1980 and I thought there would be many more like this but nope---just this one.

It was a sweet time and every time I visit campus today, it's like a graveyard. Dull, calm, sane. I miss the charge that was in the air the 4 years I was in college, it's not there. Neither is the ambient sound track. Now everyone has speakers in their ears, not their dorm windows!

Fun, well-done film about college life in the 1960s, a volatile time. The U.S. still had the draft, so that was one concern. Jameson Parker was probably best known for his role on Simon and Simon. (had some wacky adventures in his personal life.... check it out on wikipedia!) Co-stars Brad Davis (played gay roles before it was common to do so. sadly, Davis died quite young in real life.) and Karen Allen (Indiana Jones and Animal House) are students, who all get to be close friends. Also a thirty year old Shelley Long. War protesting, antics, and love affairs along the way. Good, for the most part. sometimes overly-dramatic and preachy, but good stuff. the short, symbolic scenes really catch the various sentiments of the time. the anger over the vietnam war, and the roles played by presidents johnson and nixon. and some very pretty piano music. Directed by Rob Cohen. made an interesting mix of adventure films and television series. Written by Ezra Sacks, who had only written two other things made into film.

The most resonant element of director Rob Cohen's film is the music score by Jim Steinman, which includes the melody that was later recorded as Total Eclipse of the Heart. Otherwise this tale of a supposed menage-a-tois between Harvard university students Brad Davis, Karen Allen and Jameson Parker is as dramatic as the cartoon opening and closing sketches. The screenplay by Ezra Sacks attempts coverage of the Vietnam era from 1967 to 1971 from a student activist point of view, but the tri-romance hardly seems from the same era since it isn't until towards the end that there is any suggestion of bigamy. There is also even less suggestion of homosexuality interest between Davis and Parker. When the 3 finally go into the same bedroom, the camera is left outside and the door closed. Their lack of involvement in activism is paralled with the radicalisation of a Texan boy scout who comes to Harvard at the same time and ends up a terrorist, and highlighted by a campus riot that comes out of nowhere. Even the Vietnam connection as a comment on the relationship and vice versa doesn't work. Sacks opens with Parker reuniting with Allen in "the present"before we start flashbacking to 1967, with Davis' absence pre-empting the outcome, and Cohen supplies matching love scene montages. Davis' has steam so apparently is more erotic and ends abruptly, whilst Parker's is set to Chances Are and ends more positively. Sacks has 2 lines I liked - a technique of breaking into a glass window "I saw it on I Spy or was it The Untouchables", though Cohen repeats it, and "Only men would come up with a draft lottery using balls". Utilising period TV and photographic images - the assassinations of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King - and a series of bad wigs, the only sense of reality and truth comes in a moment when someone sings the Star Spangled Banner to TV closure. Davis has the impossible charming/wild man role, not helped by his looking older than the others, and the best he can do is stare child-like for vulnerability. Allen doesn't have a strong screen persona so it's easy to think one is watching Amy Irving or Janet Margolin or Brooke Adams. Of the 3, Parker probably comes off best even when saddled with a Colonel Sanders look. His character's basic dullness is probably the reason he needs to be reunited with Allen. Even when the competition is Davis, anyone that prefers to experiment with rats rather than go to an Ingmar Bergman film is definitely worth reconsidering as a partner. Watch for Shelley Long as a photographer, and Daniel Stern, billed as Dan.