Génération 65

It's the summer of 1965 in Los Angeles. And a group of photogenic high school students contemplate their lives and their futures in this nostalgia flick aimed mostly at baby boomers. Teenage angst, emotional turmoil, and general confusion comprise the fuel for a plot that centers largely around a colorful burger joint called "Pops Paradise".

Hollywood has been down this cinematic road before, many times. The screenplay here is conventional. Characters tend toward stereotypes. The kids are idealistic; the school principal is unrealistically belligerent and unsympathetic; and Pops has the requisite cool jiving disc jockey. The script's dialogue is fairly poor in that there is very little subtext.

Even so, the film has terrific 1960's production design. One of the main characters drives a black 1957 Chevy, the vehicle icon of that era. And, many scenes occur at Pops wherein a parade of old cars slowly encircles the front entrance. Clothes and hairstyles are typical for that era. Overall quality of acting for the ensemble cast is acceptable. Kelli Williams, in particular, gives a nice performance as a budding flower child.

Arguably, the best element of the film is the rock'n roll music. "One Fine Day", "California Dreaming", "Mama Said", "Barbara Ann", "Loco-Motion", and The Diamonds' "Little Darlin" are among the great songs, together with the title song by The Drifters.

Although the film's screenplay is sub-par, elaborate production design and some great oldies but goodies give "There Goes My Baby" great 60's atmosphere and the realistic feel of a turbulent era that now seems far off and illusory, in retrospect.

i love this movie for many reasons....but one of the major reasons,is it gives 2 character actors a chance to play opposite there usual bad guy/heavy personas. actor paul gleason,known primarily,as the asshole principal in 'the breakfast club' and the slithery badguy,clarence beeks,in the eddie murphy/dan ackroyd comedy 'trading places',plays one of the girls parents in the film 'there goes my baby',as a meloncholic tender father figure. whereas,actor j.e. freeman,better known as the homicidal homosexual hit-man,'the dane' in the coen brothers,'millers crossing' and the volatile dangerous,'marcelus santos'[sp?],in David lynch's 'wild at heart',played in 'there goes my baby',ricky scroeder's thoughtful compassionette working class father. p.s. to whoever said,that 'there goes my baby' was a 1965 song,they were wrong,it was a 1959 song by 'the drifters'. sincerely and without to much pomposity i hope,the surly greaser.

I was a junior in high school in 1965. This movie brought back so many wonderful memories of that time. I saw this movie for the first time this year (2003) on HBO. As soon as the movie concluded, I went to Amazon.Com and ordered the DVD of this movie. I loved the entire movie. The music was great and the story was good with wonderful characters. I actually 'knew' some of those folks way back in 1965. I was one of them myself. I will watch this DVD many times and I am sure to enjoy it each time. I do think you needed to be high school age in 1965 to TRULY enjoy and appreciate this movie!!

So,much like Steve-O who just posted his review today,I just last night (3/31)@ 11pm watched this film. Unlike Steve,I like it quite a bit more.

Although I will agree that,yes,we've gone down this memory lane before at the movies and truthfully I'd never even heard of it. It was pretty entertaining but this particular plot was done on a stronger level in the TV movie "The 60's" a few years back and as mentioned "American Graffitti". Still,I think it could be a good introductory film for young people to watch as a way to teach them about this era.

A great plot idea to set it around the closing of the favorite high-school hang out,complete with one of those fun but at times annoying DJ's (The Beard),who used to talk in rhyme! Places like "Pops" stand as a symbol of the innocence of the previous era that was soon to be lost.

Now,Rick Schroder is a good actor,not great like say Johnny Depp or (I can finally say without laughing)Leonardo DeCaprio. He's almost first billed but doesn't do as much as I though he would. His emotional breakdown at "Pops" was done quite well along with the scene with his character's father.

Pirate is he school's delinquent who is always at odds with Principal Maran (they call him moron of course). The actor who plays the principal is okay but should have played it a bit stronger. Pirate,for being a delinquent,sure is a quiet one...at least until later.

The early days of Vietnam protest and the Watts riots are recreated very well also but are not as graphic,as done in other films. I found it a bit odd to put "Turn-Turn-Turn" by The Byrds over the riot scenes. Could they not find an appropriate song by an African-American act?? I could say the song might be lyrically relevant but musically,it's too light for such scenes.

In the middle of this a young man named Morrisey burns his draft card and is,roughed up by the police and then later hangs himself. The scene that comes later of Pirate and crew (no joke intended)burning the statue in front of their school,is truly the strongest scene in the whole film. I would say the Watts riots as first,but again,The Byrds song kind of waters that scene down.

The young ladies in this movie are good at portraying the females of the time,who are the last generation to grow up with "finish school,find a man,get married & have kids". The actresses do an admirable job and the emotions from them really felt genuine to me.

The music is great of course because,hey,these are classics. Although some have been used countless times before in movies.

Overall it's not a bad little film but I do once again agree,it could have been so much more for a movie depicting the beginnings,of the most turbulent of times,in our country's history. By the way,this movie was filmed & then shelved in 1990.

8 stars because...again..a stronger sense of the mood of times,as they were,would have made it a 10 star. (END)

"There Goes My Baby" (title of a 1965 song) is one of the many movies that deals with the end of an era in this case: the American innocence established between the end of WWII and the murder of President Kennedy. The movie shows us the last day and evening of the class of '65 where the boys and girls are together before they take off to the real world i.c. college, tour of duty in Vietnam, discovering the real America by car, becoming a music-star or a member of the flower-power movement in San Francisco... Each of these students have their hopes and dreams. Each character represents a different aspect of the American society. At the end of the movie not many dreams have come true. The difficulty of this kind of movie is that there are several students that are being followed so each story is very thin spread during the course of the movie. There is no real depth of caracter or background. The movie never explains why these students act the way they act or what their motive is to do something. Nevertheless the performance and drive of each actor is superb especially Dermot Mulroney, Rick Schroder and pre-E.R. Noah Wyle. They are all very convincing in their role and they glue very well together. A great asset of this film is the use of the music from 1965. Dialogue is not needed because the songs of that era say it with more passion and determination than any scripted dialogue could ever do. This movie is a-must-see for everyone who wants to know how it was in 1965 when America lost her innocence. After seeing this movie it seems that the golden sixties were never that golden and the youth had as much trouble as they have today! Highly recommended.