Customer Reviews

The '70s [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One shouldn't expect too much from what was a made-for-tv miniseries, with no real big names, but altogether it was a very good involving story. It followed the course of the decade from start to finish very nicely, encorporating in music and actual footage of the historic events together with the respective storylines of the four main characters. Still, it just doesn't seem quite as gripping and involving as the prior movie 'The '60s,' where there seemed to be more character development instead of, like this movie, seeming to focus a bit more on a lot of historic happenings and making as many of them a part of their lives as possible, instead of just choosing ones that would have naturally fit with whom the characters were. The plot seems to suffer a little because of this. There also seemed like there were more gaps of time than in 'The '60s,' with a few years passing between events a couple of times without letting the viewer know what year it was now supposed to be or how much time had passed.

I found this movie along with another titled The '60's in a bargin bin at a swap meet. I paid 2 dollars for both. I enjoyed them so much I would have paid full price. I wondered if there was a third movie titled The '80's but Studio 54 was as close as I could find. Being born too late to remember the 60's, The '70's actually did spark memories for me, specifically cult fanatics and all the runaway teens who joined them. Vinessa Shaw is an absolute doll, I've had the hots for her since Hocus Pocus. She really needs to be a lead character hero a la Lara Croft.... Rent all 3, The 60's, The 70's and Studio 54 and spend a weekend revisiting 3 decades of excessive excess.

Though this movie would definitally not be a blockbuster if it was released in a movie theatre rather than on tv; that doesn't make it any less of a movie!
I think this movie was great! I loved the music; and the cast, as well. Anyone who is going to doubt this movie before watching it is CRAZY! It's really a great movie; and teaches people (particularly teenagers) things that they would normally be bored by (i.e. the Watergate scandal)! And I think that anything that gets kids interested in the history of the U.S. is wonderful.
I think this is a great movie for people of ALL AGES, and I would definitally recommend it to anyone!

This was a much better movie than I expected. After the tepid reviews it recieved while on NBC I didn't expect much and was pleasantly surprised. This miniseries follows 4 young Kent State students throughout the '70s decade as their lives change and they grow apart and eventually back toward one another.

While the four characters are cliches, it would be difficult for this movie to show all apsects of the decade otherwise. We follow all four- there is Dexter, the African-American who deserts the National Guard after Kent State and moves to urban LA, where he becomes a part of urban renewal and opens a theater playing popular "Blacksploitation" films like Shaft and Cleopatra Jones. Elieen is the Barnard grad who moves to NY to follow a boy but has her heart broken and becomes involved in her own career and the feminist movement. There is Byron, Eileen's boyfriend, who goes from young Republican involved in Watergate to environmentalist and Alaskan pipeline oil worker. And finally there is Christie, Byron's sister and Eileen's best friend, a college drop-out who parties on the disco scene, dabbles in modeling and winds up in a San Francisco cult.

This miniseries is a good bet if you want to learn a bit more about the decade and seeing it sans commercials is great! I was a little bit disappointed nothing was said about the beginning of punk rock, but I guess you can't have it all! Enjoy!

as someone who grew up in the 70's and 80's i was very impressed with this movie(as i was with the 60's). i remember watergate,disco and practically everything else in between. the 70's was a great time and this movie brings that across and is great for anyone who can remember the decade and great for anyone who can't. get the dvd and enjoy!

I saw this movie a long time ago when it appeared as a miniseries for two seperate days on a regular TV channel. As a teenager, I was intrigued at this insight into the 70's, which is told through the experiences of four regular college kids. I never saw the movie again for the next 10-12 years, but it remained on my mind on some key memories that were hard to forget...until I ordered this movie through Amazon, and much to my delight, got to relive the entire movie once more for an exciting 2 and a half hours!
One student is a Negro who attends Kent State in Ohio, but also is a member of the National Guard, to avoid service in Vietnam, and also to help pay for his tuition. But when he's called into service against the antiwar mobs that first set fire to the ROTC building, he experiences the deaths of 4 college kids at the hands of fellow trigger-happy weekend warriors and he deserts the Guard, buys a movie theater that he attended as a kid, and as time goes by, turns it into a Black Nationalist headquarters for certain meetings. He dates and later marries an older woman with a child, who lost a husband in the war, and is also betrayed by a close friend, resulting in his near-death and his nice Mustang being totaled. Yowch!

Amy Smart plays another of the college girls, who loses a boyfriend at Kent State as well, and she leaves college, kind of puttering around through life with numerous jobs, and finds a new boyfriend who manages a recording studio, coming to blows with him later on and realizing her grief when she comes to apologize to him and finding out that he killed himself as an OD on drugs. It takes a while before she can recover from that, but in her true belief in trying to express herself, she joins a wacko cult, which brainwash her to the point where she doesn't know her own name, or her parents. Her own friends are forced to kidnap her from the cult house, and try to reprogram her back into her old life.

This girl's best friend is Eileen, who drops out of Kent State after that bloody day of May, 1970 and moves to New York City, hoping to put her skills to work there. Her new roommate is one of those kooky feminist-rights women who holds meetings in their apartments and also backlashes Eileen on the first day upon realizing that Eileen's mother is still a homemaker by choice. Eileen is soon dismayed at the decision of her parents to divorce and avoids her mother when she takes on a new boyfriend, taking the side of her father in the result. Unable to find a job opening at her true calling, she reluctantly takes on the job as secretary in an advertising firm, hoping to raise up in the ranks while giving her boss many good ideas on certain assignments, which he takes the full credit for. After years of this going on and losing the open position of the job she earned to another candidate who is scarcely qualified, she files a lawsuit for sexual indiscrimination against the company, and despite a heartbreaking testimony of a fellow secretary who had been in that position for over 20 years, she loses the lawsuit, but finally gets her dream position in the end with another company.

The last character is the guy who plays Amy Smart's brother, and is also secretly in love with Eileen the entire time. His parents are dismayed at his idea to quit law school, but are overjoyed when they find out his job offer is taking him to work for the government in Washington. He plays a huge part in giving out plans of the Democratic Headquarters Building to government officials during the election of 1972, which soon becomes a scandal in the Watergate crisis, and he is soon subpoenaed to testify hia involvement in Watergate, thereby losing his job as an aide in the White House after Nixon resigns. Unable to grasp this with his reputation, he soon finds himself in exile out as an oil pipeline worker in Alaska and protests the government spills that affect wildlife out there in Alaska. Several times, he tries to get with Eileen, without much success, but they get married, which is the last scene in this movie.

I enjoyed it very much and will be referring it to my friends and coworkers!

There was no more turbulent era, except for the late 60s, than the free wheeling, drug drenched disco 70's. The decade started with the Kent State incident, and the Lt. Calley Mai Lai Massacre and ended with Jimmy Carter's reign of mismanaged government.
The 70's mini series is fun to watch if you lived through the era, as I did. The dialogue is straight out of SNL and the wardrobes reminded me of my mis-spent youth.
However, it does not, no fictionized series could, capture the the heart and heartbreak of those times. Although I am a veteran, I protested the war in its later years, because I believed that it was wrong and because it was "the social thing to do." Fueled by drugs rock music and a sense of being lost in a futile future, the early to mid 70's was a tough time to think responsiblity. However there was an overiding galvanizing effect for youth groups, pro-establishment or anti-establishment, and a polarizing effect against the status quo.
By the late 70's Disco music and Saturday Night Fever became the mantra, the search for love and peace a distant memory.
This mini series is worth watching because it tries to cover the 70's by focusing on a group of friends and wathching the transitions occur as the social events unfold around them. They became the conduits for the events.
The acting is okay, given the hokey plot lines and dialogue. The thrill to this series is reliving an era that started with the we generation and ended with the me generation. You had to have been there.

This isn't a bad movie. There is not much of a plot, but it does highlight many historical points as you travel through the decade. One of it's misgivings is that it trys to incorporate too many historical events of the 70's directly in to the lives of the 4 main characters. This loses the plot and makes the storyline somewhat unrealistic. It also lacks any well known cast members. One big plus are the great music hits performed throughout the movie. The black and white actual news footage is also a nice touch and adds realism. Aside from being a bit long (170 minutes); this movie is an enjoyable stroll through a decade that brought us war, peace, tragedy, and wonderful music.

I am often told I should have been an activist in the 1960's and 70's. and now I believe it after seeing this show.

My favirote character is Eileen and her feminist friends. The mass media (which has done a wonderful job distorting feminism) actually does a wonderful job acknowlleging that yes equality does not mean anti-man. Obviously my favirote historical vingetts (dispersed throughout ala Forrest Gump) are those about the feminist movement. I also thought it was cool her parents accepted her politics and they essentially became a feminist family.

Between the anti-war movement, feminism and environmentalism, this was a really awesome mini-series. I also liked the black panthers community rejuvination and empowerment, but could not stand Kristy the blond party girl . Even though it problaly happened to people living during this time, I can't believe it would take her an entire decade to get her head on straight. If modeling was her fall back career, we never learn what she actually hoped to do with her life.

Even though I (thankfully) am not a conservative Republican, Byron's saga really hit home too. His political idealism fades when he discovers Washington DC is not quite as moral as expected. Considering I am nearing graduation and looking for jobs, I have always interpreted this as a cautionary tale to excercize a healthy amount of skepticism about life. On the plus side, he knew about Eileen's feminist politics and this did not make a difference to him, so kudos to that character.

I saw this movie on TV, and it was very good. I wish I grew up during the 70's. I learned a lot about the time era, and I highly recommend it. I want to soundtrack, but Amazon is not helping me find it? well just see it! :-)