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I graduated from high-school in 1968. Guys in the neighborhood, my friends, cousin, older brother, everybody it seemed, was being drafted. I joined the Army Reserve in 1969 to dodge the draft. (I wasn't college bound at the time.)

Most everyone I knew made it back okay or didn't go to Vietnam. No one really close to me died, but I knew some that did. Some who did go to Vietnam, came back a little screwed up, some a lot. Many laughed about killing civilians or atrocities against the enemy. It alway seemed like an exaggerated, overly macho, nervous king of laugh. But it was okay, it was 'pay-back' in their minds.

I was in basic training during the walk on the moon and Woodstock in 1969. I'm glad I didn't go. I wish that some of the guys I went through basic and advanced training had not gone. I met some really great guys there (I hope they're all okay.) I still can't understand why so many volunteered.

My father was a World War II veteran with a purple heart who fought in Europe. He didn't believe in the Vietnam war and he wasn't ashamed to say so (maybe because he was a father). I watched the death counts on the 6 o'clock news with him, through my junior and senior high school years. I knew it would be over soon and I wouldn't have to be involved, but it wasn't, and it was possible that I would be.

I listened to the A.M. radio stations each night before I went to bed listening again to the death counts, and to dedications from young girls to their boyfriends and young husbands. They always played 'Soldier Boy' and 'Mister Lonely' as they read the dedications. It made you feel sick.

I've yet to see any movie that really conveys the true feelings of that time, but I do see a lot of parallels to what is going on today in the Middle East today. A lot of young guys that are being convinced of the same concepts of 'my country, right or wrong', 'love it or leave it', and of course 'pay-back'.

This movie did try. At least it made me think about making a comment. It sends a good message, but lacks the true feelings of the times, i.e., total confusion and desperation.

This is a very strange movie but not in a very bad way.Some of the acting is poor and could have been much better.I liked most of the movie but the story is off the road and rather "drunk".1969 is a good movie to view by yourself.A lot of 80's films such as this one are corny but good at the same time.

I admit that I rented this because of Miss Ryder's name on the cover. However, this isn't really a Winona-Ryder-movie, she is secondary to the plot. Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Downey Jr. play the main characters, two irresponsible kids at the end of the 1960s, trying to avoid getting drafted or growing up. However, it didn't really touch me. The anti-war message could have been stronger if the war had felt more present. As ususal for a movie about kids, their parents are portrayed as being clueless about how things have changed since they were young. Scott's father seem to be thinking 'Whatever happened to the 1950s?' all through the movie.

The overall point of the film may be a little obvious but it appears the story may be semi-autobiographical. What saves this movie are the acting and the characters which never lapse into stereotypes. Kiefer Sutherland plays Scott, a very different character than many of his previous roles. Rather than playing the adolescent leader-rebel (as in "Stand by Me"), Sutherland takes the role of a somewhat soft-spoken intellectual hippie-type who is into literature and leaves but not into drugs. His best friend, Ralph, played by Robert Downey Jr., is exactly the opposite. Ralph likes women and psychedelic drugs but doesn't understand any of the other aspects of the hippie culture, which included reverence for certain high literature. He isn't sure who Camus is. For him, the drugs and staying out of Vietnam are all that matters. Downey's sister, Beth (Winnona Ryder), eventually becomes a significant part of the story as the film progresses.

The film doesn't have much of a coherent plot and may be described as a character study of its leads. The setting is a small town in Maryland where Scott's brother, Alden, is about to leave for Vietnam. He is one of the first from this nameless town to be drafted into the war and the locals, including his family, seem perplexed by the whole affair. In an uncomfortable scene, Alden tries to make amends with his younger brother Scott who says the war is "b.s." Their father (Bruce Dern) who feels strongly that his sons should fight as he did in World War II reprimands Scott for his disrespect. Luckily, Dern's performance is not over-the-top and it works. After a rather strange farewell, Ralph decides that neither himself nor his friend Scott should allow themselves to get drafted. Scott begins to explore the young peoples' counter-culture movement of the late 1960's while Ralph seems only interested in exploring the drugs. They attend college, mostly to avoid the draft, but Ralph lapses in his studies. During their first summer, they decide to go on a road trip.

A good movie, by no means a great one, but high marks for all the leads and supporting characters, particularly Bruce Dern as Scott's father and Mariette Hartley as the mother. It seems this movie was missing something that was present in the writer's brilliant play "On Golden Pond". I can't quite put my finger on it, but the film made its point all too soon. I think I wanted an additional profound revelation besides the idea that Vietnam was a bad war.

I only watched 1969 late night one night because the title indicated to me that it might be a film dealing with the issues of the time in the year with sincerity or promise, or even as a documentary. I didn't know how the film would go after the first couple of scenes I saw, but Bruce Dern seemed formidable enough to keep a watch. When the credits started to roll though I thought to myself, "what a cliché ridden disaster this became, why did I stick with it?"

I guess I stayed tuned because the actors seemed promising enough- Dern in a supporting role as a hard-nosed father, his son in the lead played by Kiefer Sutherland, his cocky best friend played by Robert Downey Jr., and his beautiful sister played by Winona Ryder. Sutherland's character, Scott, decides he doesn't want to go to Vietnam like his brother, so he enlists into college with Downey's character, Ralph, and the two begin to discover what they've been sheltered from- free-love, drugs, and soon enough sex.

Some of these early scenes seemed to look kind of silly, but I enjoyed the (partly obvious) soundtrack and thought if I stayed with picture (instead of flipping to a different, better movie) it might pay off in the second or third act. I got proved wrong, as line after line and moment after moment seemed to lower my expectations, and the characters headed towards an last scene that made me want to puke in my lap.

The probable cause of the pits in this movie come from writer/director Ernest Thompson. I don't know who he is really, and I haven't seen any of his other efforts as a filmmaker, but it looked as though he was either tapping into his own by-the-numbers first account of the turmoil that went with coming of age in that year, or was tapping into the memories of other baby boomer yuppies who still try to think back to when they wanted freedom before gluing themselves into the "me" generation.

The players tried to do what they could, a couple of scenes had some laughs, and I grinned at a line or two from Downey Jr. Yet I couldn't get over how much the movie hit its well intentioned points home with near propagandizing techniques. To sum it up, this is absolutely the soapy, "made-for-television" version of what life was like in 1969. If you want the truer, earthy version(s) see Woodstock or Easy Rider - those two may be folklore at this point for that generation, but at least they work as being entertaining thirty-four years later to the following generation. Grade: D

It sounds as though a number of people found Ernest Thompson's "1969" a flat or even shallow look at the Vietnam era.* As someone born long after the '60s, I can only view it from today's standards. It does a good job showing the Vietnam War's effects on families, and how people made efforts to avoid the draft. My mom knew a boy who tried to escape to Canada to avoid the draft, but got ratted out and sent to Vietnam, where one of his legs got blown off. Obviously, it's hard to watch a movie about the '60s nowadays and not notice the similarities between the Vietnam War and the assorted wars of the past two decades.

Viewed from that perspective, it's an okay movie, with good performances from Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy (Dolores in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and Margaret on "Six Feet Under").

*Similarly, my mom's friend considered "Forrest Gump" a trivialization of the '60s.

Granted there wasn't much of a plot to 1969 and the acting was fair, but nevertheless I thought the film did accomplish something important. It made you realize that this kind of "drama" - coping with the aftermath of a Vietnam KIA - played out in tens-of-thousands of homes throughout the country during the '60s and '70s. The sum of all that pain and anguish makes me cringe. I served in South Vietnam from the summer of '68 to the summer of '69 in the USMC and I am glad to see this kind of message portrayed in a movie. It keeps alive the suffering endured by family and friends from that time. Maybe that sounds morbid but I think it's important for the here and now to acknowledge and remember that suffering. We can use it to give us perspective on how fortunate we are to be able to flourish and live to a ripe old age. For me of course it has special meaning. I could have ended my life at 19 and would have missed so much.

But that's what happened to so many. A horrible shame.

Hoping to dodge the Vietnam War draft, two teenagers enrol in college, and when study proves too demanding they drive across the country encountering free love, drugs and the hippie movement in this odd little film from the pen of On Golden Pond's Ernest Thompson. The film has several dramatic moments that rival 'Pond' in their intensity, most notably an altercation between co-lead Keifer Sutherland and his gung ho older brother who is excited about being drafted. The tension in the air between Sutherland and Bruce Dern as his war veteran father is well conveyed too. The film trips up though whenever it tries to inject comedy into the story. At its lamest, there is an extended sequence in which co-lead Robert Downey Jr. runs about an auditorium in his underwear after turning up stoned to his sister's graduation ceremony. It is also hard to know what to make of an early played-for- laughs sequence in which the friends hitch a ride with a much older man who only has one thing on his mind. The drama here is really good though, with both leads as well as Winona Ryder in support having their fair share of strong moments. The return home sequences are especially memorable in this regard, but with Thompson trying to make his film equally as funny as it is moving, the results are a little mixed, even if the film leaves a favourable impression overall.

I saw this movie for the first time recently and after seeing some of the comments saying this movie was good, I had to speak up. I thought it was a horrible waste of time. The story was weak (I wasn't even sure of the intention of the plot), and poorly told. It seemed to jump around too much with no flow. It seemed to be a bunch of cliche scenes with little relation to an overall story line. The acting was mediocre and the points of the movie were cliche and done over-the-top. I was disappointed that I had actually sat through the whole thing. The sound-track was okay but conveying the feel of the 60's just didn't happen at all.

As the child of a hippie, I can fully "get" this film. Downey is brilliant as Raplh, the drug taking friend of Scott (Sutherland), I guess life CAN imitate art. Scott's overbearing father is played equally well by veteran actor Bruce Dern. And the girl who wants to save the world is played nicely by Ryder. However, the movie is truly fueled by Sutherlands performance. His portrayal of a borderline hippie comming of age is heart warming and endearing. I don't think there is another actor who could have done this role. The fims content is heavy and the acting is really good, but it is Sutherland performance that makes this fim so good. Not to mention a kick-ass soundtrack featuring bands like Cream, Canned Heat, CSNY, and of course, the king, Jimi Hendrix. I truly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in a good tale about growing up hard.

I give this one ****!

I had to pay a premium for an ex-rental copy of this in the early 90s as i'm pretty sure it never hit UK retail.

Firstly i love 70s road movies, and whilst this is neither set or filmed in the 70s, the film more or less is following the main characters as they move around from town to town.

Next up is the incredible cast of Robert Downey Jr, Keifer Sutherland and Winona Ryder, who's part fit the bill perfectly and the acting is all very natural.

Story-wise its not an epic lets face it, heck its not even the next level, but its a kind of just watch and enjoy what these guys get upto kinda flick as they try and evade the call-up for the war. And it kinda works for the most part. That being said it does miss something that i can't quite put my finger on, maybe its just the linear story leaving me short.

I did enjoy it slightly more when i was younger for the rebellious characters, now i'm older they weren't as bad as i thought, but i still enjoyed the film, plenty of laughs throughout, well worth a watch.

Small town America, 1960s. Two friends, Ralph and Scott, are opposed to the Vietnam War and are determined to not fight there. This disappoints Scott's father, Cliff, and alienates Scott from him. Ralph and Scott leave the town but return when Scott's brother is declared MIA in Vietnam. This gives Cliff and Scott a chance to patch up their differences.

Entertaining. Not very profound: covers ground that has been covered before, and is a tad idealistic. Still, good story, with good performances.

Features Robert Downey Jr and Kiefer Sutherland in their early careers and Winona Ryder in only her 4th movie (previous was Beetlejuice, next was Heathers...). Great supporting cast: Bruce Dern, Joanna Cassidy, Mariette Hartley.

Excellent soundtrack.

Mediocre film about two young men coming of age in the title year. The acting is fine, obviously, considering the cast, but the script and direction pummels every point home with all the subtlety of a good Pete Townshend guitar smash. P.S.- - any scene in any film that uses the opening stanzas of the Hendrix version of "All Along the Watchtower" gets your adrenaline flowing. Didja ever notice that? (It happens once here)

The title, 1969 gives off such a dynamic vibe but the end result is disappointing. Made in 1988 when films depicting the Vietnam war were all the rage this is sub par if you compare this with Born on the Fourth of July that would be released a year later.

Kiefer Sutherland plays Scott. Robert Downey Jr plays his best buddy Ralph. Both have left college and are making their way back home, a small Maryland town. Scott is more introverted, softly spoken and clever. Ralph is more boisterous, loud, does crazy thing and into drugs. As it was almost common at the time there is a scene of Downey Jr running around with just his underpants on.

Once they get home Scott realises that his older brother is on his way to Vietnam. You get the feeling he will not be coming back. Their father (Bruce Dern) a World War 2 veteran seems supportive of his son going to Vietnam and ashamed of Scott's opposition to the war.

Scott and Ralph decide to go on the road rather then await to get drafted. This means exploring the hippie movement of the town with sex, drugs and rock n roll.

Once they get back home Scott learns that his brother his MIA. There is tension is his parent's marriage. Ralph ends up in jail when he sneaks into the draft board office and tries to destroy his file in order to avoid the draft. Scott falls for Ralph's sister Beth (Winona Ryder) which also causes resentment with Ralph.

The film is rather aimless, lost too much in nostalgia as depicted by the film's soundtrack. The film itself is not as amusing or interesting and neither are the characters. Downey's Ralph reminded me of a lot of other characters he played at the time.

If you want to watch a bittersweet film about teenagers in the Vietnam war era you will get more mileage out from a classic like Big Wednesday.

The best performances are from Bruce Dern and Mariette Hartley who plays Scott's parents. Dern tones it down a bit as the patrician father rather all at sea during changing times.

On the surface, the film is about two friends: one straight, the other into drugs etc. The film explores their relationship. Then there is the dysfunctional families and how they impact on the boys. The backdrop is the vietnam war, the death of family members, and the draft. All these issues intertwine closely making the film complex.

The acting is excellent. A film to be watched

Ernest Thompson, "On Golden Pond"'s playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter, wrote and directed this career-killer starring Robert Downey Jr. And Kiefer Sutherland as goof-off older teenagers in 1969 who have enrolled in college just to avoid the draft. Thompson wants to let us know right away these best friends are straight boys, so we get the proverbial rebuffed gay pick-up (Downey calls the horny driver a "f***ing homo"). Meanwhile, Sutherland's brother has joined the military for service in Vietnam and the guys have a heart-to-heart chat the day before he pulls out ("So, are you gettin' any?"). This may be one of the most dishonest and worst-written major studio films of the 1980s. The plastic is so thick, even the veteran performers (Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy) are left choking on the artificiality. Wait until you see the bus pull over so the soldier can get out and wave goodbye to his mom... NO STARS from ****

i can see why some people dislike this movie, but i enjoyed it.

good stuff: music (CSNY, Canned Heat, Creedence), costumes, subject, issues dealt with, cast! young Winona, Keifer & Robert Downey Jr., plus the van and cars, conflict btwn generations

bad stuff: melodramatic, simplistic, like a TV movie or Walt Disney.

there was a 1999 'mini-series' (2-part) on cbs i think that was a lot like this. ie; it's more a TV movie than an Easy Rider or Platoon. If you go in with the 'TV' mindset i'm sure you'll enjoy it if you like this subject and/or era -- the Vietnam War and its effects on American families.

i only knew of this era thru documentaries and books, but living in America in 2003, there are real war-tearing familial similarities that are only likely to get more exaggerated. seeing a portrayal, even a 'TV movie' version, just helps a little bit.

Not even close to a decent TV Movie of the week. Robert Downer, Jr. is not an actor. He is just someone who appears to be in love with himself in front of a camera (cue any scene from "Back to School"). No wonder his life fell apart. Maybe he finally realized what a fool he was. The music almost seemed as if it was there in a desperate attempt to rescue a POS movie. It didn't work. Kiefer Sutherland is the only one I will give any nod to in this depressing mess.

My son and I were in this movie, filmed in and around Savannah in November of 1987. We were in my Mother In Law's 1970 dark brown Plymouth, driving by the bus, just as her son, standing outside the bus, is saluting his Mom, Mariette Hartley. She was jogging up a bridge, near Hardeevile, South Carolina. Her line was, "Don't Die. Don't Die",as he heads off to Vietnam. Mariette later patted my son on the head, telling him how cute he was as a 10 year old boy. She declined to pat me on the head because I wasn't as attractive as my son!

After this window of Fame, they cut our part out. So, I'm still one Pathetic Loser! Being around those stars was fun and they were all very friendly, not caught up in their own success.

Thom Brooks Brooks Insurance School SABL Baseball Savannah, Georgia