American 70's - Ces années-là

Dont waste your time with this pathetic NBC attempt to boost lagging ratings, it is very much a Hackneyed rif-off of Forest Gump-type rememberances and pathos driven, late baby boomer sentimentality. Yuck! Even the actors are B A D, way too old to play college kids; not to mention the annoying and obvious 'Ally MacBeal'-'Melrose Place' type personalities and pretty bourgeoisie faces here. Vapid and Insulting. Click over to History channel instead.

For those who have no idea what the 70's were all about, this is a good try to a good insight. Not totally accurate because of the limitations of the story, the movie manages to give an overall view of the era but does not accomplishes its purpose.

I am not in the habit of nasty reviews. I understand that it is very easy for me to sit in the back row and criticize than it is to do any of this. I usually try to find that one gem or aspect that, I can praise. Sometimes there is an actor or a scene, or character or even a song who will rise above mediocrity and show me something. Unfortunately, I cannot find any gold nugget in this one.

Okay, first of all, the 70's are a tough decade to categorize. Many different things were happening in different places. To do an epic on the 60's or 40's or many other time periods is far easier. Suffice it to say this was an extremely ambitious and arduous task to say the least. Whether it could be done in a 4 hour period would a huge labor.

Having said all of the preceding, this mini series failed on almost every level. The plot was pretty lame. The writing was so bad that, it was down right funny. The characters were so shallow and one dimensional that I was laughing and groaning at times.

We could say that the acting was bad but, it would have taken an amazing cast of the best actors in the world to make this dog hunt. This cast just did not have the chops to pull this one out. Even so, the acting was absolutely, plastic and depth-less.

The only recommendation, I would make is for people with film ambitions, acting, writing or directing to watch this and take careful notes so that you know what not to do. This could be worth it just so you could avoid these mistakes.

For anyone else, I would not waste your time.

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.

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-