American 70's - Ces années-là

Compared to The 60's (1999), The 70's was a piece of television genius. Although there were some historical innacuracies, I was impressed overall at the way that the film makers were able to portray the heartache and disbelif felt within the USA and around the world during the decade that shaped the way the world looked at itself.

I am, however, concerned about the fact that the next mini-series to be produced, in order, will be The 80's :)

The major events and hit songs of the decade are viewed through the eyes of four protagonists who graduate from Kent State University in 1970. The four are played by Vinessa Shaw, Brad Rowe, Amy Smart and Guy Torry.

People look down on this television production from 2000 because the story threads that link the various events are brisk and lack depth; but if the writers offered more depth it would be a 4-5 hour movie. Besides, I felt like I knew the characters by the end; they're not one dimensional and are all likable in one way or another.

Sure, there are some dubious melodramatics and acting, but "The 70s" entertainingly accomplishes what it sets out to do - highlight the significant happenings of the decade, starting with the Kent State shootings of May 4th, 1970, and on to Watergate, feminism, disco, the Guyana cult tragedy and so on, all to a soundtrack of 70's radio hits.

On the female front, Shaw is intelligent and winsome whereas Smart is flighty, but alluring. They coulda done more with them, but they do enough. Rowe comes across as a low-budget Brad Pitt while Torry is a compelling choice to represent black culture, his wife too (Leslie Silva).

The film runs 2 hours, 50 minutes, and was shot in Southern California with historical footage from all over the USA.

GRADE: B-

To describe this mini-series (The 70s)as a Pathetic attempt by NBC to boost ratings by target marketing this pathos-driven, banal drivel to the older Melrose Place/late baby-boomers crowd would be too kind. The acting is, well, ordinary at best. The chosen actors are laughably WAY too old to play college kids, they look exactly like they were pulled from the set of Ally Macbeal or Melrose place; their actual ages are a range of 25-32 which is not very convincing. The artful cinematography reminiscent of the dreamy-eyed Forest Gump is the best feature of the movie series. Finally, the sentimental baby-boomer oriented whining is annoying and the shameless Pathos runs amock here, A la "Saving Private Ryan", confounded by a trite and hackneyed series of 'themes' and life-lessons that only a 3yr old would miss, further burdened by a smattering of revisionist history (key your eye open and your history text nearby and watch for it)... Anyway, find something else to watch, ANY History channel show would be far, far more fullfilling.

This Mini-Series would have been a lot better without the entire production being a shameful promo for the soundtrack. Many times I could not even hear the dialog or many of the news clips from the 70s because of these shameful plugs. It was so obvious. The shame of it all, is that if you can get by this ruthless music promotion; The film was pretty good. Basically you had 4 people,of a clique, that protested the Vietnam war at Kent University. National Guard, tragedy and the film flows from there. Basically the film explores the different roads the 4 main characters take on life's journey. Exploring their individual political ideologies,hopes, dreams , tragedies and just life in general. In this clique we had upper middle class brother and sister, lovelorn female friend and young prideful black male. The stories meshed interwoven with actual trials and tribulations of the decades news. The premise was wonderful , the acting so so and nonstop loud music drowning out the substance of the film was annoying. Even though the film was barely average,it is still watchable. Just do not expect Shakespare.

I'll be honest. I enjoyed this mini-series. Maybe because I didn't live through the real thing. I was born in the glorious eighties, so this may be the reason that I am the ONLY person who found this series 'watchable.'

I can't comment on the history too much, so that just leaves the acting, music, and writing. The acting was a little touchy but still good. Touchy because the four main characters are somewhat newcomers to acting, but they still did a nice job. Smart, Rowe, Torry, and Shaw worked well as a team and were good overall. Other supporting actors and characters were alright.

Hooray for the music! I love music from the sixties and seventies, so this worked out well. Nothing better than listening to disco for four hours. (What is the runtime?) Seriously, the mixture of some of the greatest songs were nicely put together.

The writing was okay and the story lines that followed the four college students were well thought out. Quite a few twists and turns for Smart's character but I could still handle it. Rowe's role with the Watergate scandal was a little hard to take. It briefly covered it but after a while into it, it became really dull. Torry's performance as Dexter was nothing great, nothing terrible. He buys a theatre, ends up in the hospital, and so on. There could have been a little more effort put into this character but no more screen time. I'm liking it, so don't bore me. And Shaw's Eileen was the best of the four. I liked the problems dealing with her parent's divorce, the lawsuit against what's-his-name, and her ups and downs with Byron.

Like I said, I can't comment too much on the era itself, but I will say that the settings and props were well put together. I love the wardrobe. Also, the added in little actions referring to the seventies was kind of funny. (streakers, masks of Nixon, reference to Mary Tyler Moore, and the list goes on)

After watching non-stop promotional ads on NBC for this mini-series, I looked forward to watching it. I didn't expect anything too big, since what the outcome of 'The '60s' was. But I was still happy and content with how it started and how it ended. (I definitely enjoyed this more than 'The '60s'.)