Cheap Berkeley in the Sixties (DVD) (Mark Kitchell) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Berkeley in the Sixties

Nice
I would like to tell you a little bit about the documentary by Mark Kitchell entitled Berkeley in the Sixties. This film is a great synopsis of the 60s civil rights and counter culture movements based out of UC Berkeley. The film was released in 1990 and contains interviews with everybody from members of the Black Panthers to Country Joe and the Fish. It starts at the beginning of the sixties with the events that would eventually lead to the first protest to the hippies and Peoples Park and so on, interviewing people even into the late 80s. The film kept my attention and was very educational.

---

Wackos?
A great overview of the student movement. (You can take "movement" however you want - orchestral or more primal). I was so inspired to see the historical sites I went to Berkeley over the weekend. In addition to all the positives the movement brought (according to the film's main players), the wreckage is pretty bad. Kids and burnouts smoking dope on the sidewalk and selling headbands and reggae red, black, and green hats. Capitalism at its finest. My favorite? A teen with a sign "It's my Birthday - need money for drugs." Wow man! Great guerrila theater :-). This would be more galling with the clock wound back and Kruschev poised on the edge of West Berlin (and possibly WW III) and probing elsewhere. (Yes, there actually were bad commies). I'm probably taking the counterculture's gains for granted, which is a testament to their lasting achievement. This film covers these achievements very well. I paerticularly liked the Berkeley movement viewed in the context of mainstream politics of the day (McCarthy, RFK, Chicago '68, Reagan). The extras are great too. This is the best view I've seen of the era and movement (where most of my PolSci Professors seemed to come from - ha). But since I was rooting for Reagan by the end, does that make ME a wacko? I really admire the folks in this film. The era's left are given a voice and humanized in a good way. Even the most theoretical-minded ("wacko") former students are brilliant in the recent interviews. They are inspirational in ways that standard pols are not. Kudos!

---

Required Viewing
Any student of the 60's / Vietnam War must see this movie. Also must see "Hearts and Minds",
For those who have seen both, it's interesting that Mario Savio in this movie and George Coker in "Hearts and Minds" look so much alike they could be brothers - yet so ideologically apart - metaphor for America at the time!

And if you really want to get into the dark side of humanity, see "No Substitute for Victory" - John Wayne's low grade but effective propaganda movie.