Cheap Kent State (Video) (James Goldstone) Price

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Customer Reviews of Kent State

When I saw this on TV in 1981, I was deeply moved like many viewers....but for reasons beyond the usual. My first reaction was 'This will never be rerun on network TV; it hit too close to home in it's condemnation of the real forces behind the tragedy that happened there'. It was one of the very few TV movies that actually told some real truths and didn't sugarcoat the hard realities.

It is not without its flaws, but watch it to see what happened at KSU and watch it to see how, though VERY rare, mainstream TV movies can occasionally hit home....and the fact it was not rerun and is basically out of print...maybe too close to home.

Flawed but powerful
I am a high school history teacher. I occasionally show the last 40 minutes of Kent State to my U.S. History and American Studies classes. That is the part of the film that is most faithful to the historical record as I understand it, and it is one of the most powerful sequences I have ever viewed on network television. My students' responses to the video have often included tears, and always the question WHY? No one goes away unmoved.

That said, I think much of the rest of the film is questionable. While portions accurately convey anti-Vietnam street action, the video has a lot of inaccuracies and sometimes betrays its roots as a TV mini-series. For instance, in an attempt to win as wide an audience as possible, Kent State jettisons most of the political background of the antiwar movement and focusses on the generational conflict. (No one watched it anyway; it rated about 70th out of approximately 75 shows during the week it was first shown in February, 1981. No doubt this was because the subject's a downer.)

I am nonplussed by the vehemence of the review below. While I did not attend KSU itself, I participated in antiwar protests at the University of Iowa, and the crowd scenes in the video are faithful to what I remember. Given that Kent State was filmed in Alabama, I thought the producers did a creditable job in recreating the look of the KSU campus. (Which I have visited many times.) Kent State books by William Gordon and James Michener both mention stabbings by the National Guard, and Michener's talks about a motor cycle gang. (Of course, the books could be inaccurate, but it's not as if the film's producers made these incidents up out of their heads.)

In sum, the closing sequence of Kent State is moving, first-rate television, as well as a powerful teaching tool. Despite the flaws in the rest of the film, the end makes the video more than worth the price of admission.

A fictional SPOOF about the shootings at Kent State.
Personally, I was very interested in viewing this video. I was at Kent State before, during, and after, the time of the shootings (1968-1975). I am VERY familiar with the University and the City of Kent. As a student, I was at the Commons on May 4th, during the time of the shootings.

This video depicts a university and a town that neither resembles, nor honors, either Kent State University or the city. FACTS: There were no motorcycle gangs in Kent. Co-ed dormatories were not introduced until 1971-72. The video places a lake in the middle of the Commons area where the rallies took place. (There is no lake on the Kent State campus.) The R.O.T.C. building was not burned down by the citizens of Kent.

The video also shows students being stabbed as they ran from the National Guard. There was never a report of anyone being stabbed in real life.

I can remember attending closed meetings addressed by out-of-state S.D.S. leaders. (There was no mention of outside influences in the video.) As for the depiction of the radicals... Ellen Barkin doesn't change ANY of her clothes during the entire length of the video. That's 4 full days! We may have been radical, and buzzed, but we periodically bathed, and changed clothes.

This movie will appeal to history buffs that are interested in seeing how actual and significant events can be altered by the media to satify the self-served. A docu-drama should have SOME historically integrity; this video has none.

"Kent State" will also be of interest to those who actually witnessed the events that took place during those balmy days in May of 1970. A few beers, a bowl of popcorn, and a whole lot of laughs.

Two Peace-Signs DOWN for this movie.