DVD Review: Berkeley In The Sixties

I’ve been fascinated by the 1960s since I was in my early teens. First, admittedly, it was the music, particularly the San Francisco bands and the British invasion. And then I became interested in some of the politics. (I’m truly happy to have been born in the same city as Abbie Hoffman.)  I’ve seen many documentaries about the 1960s, and have read extensively about the period, sucking up as much information as I could. And yet Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley In The Sixties presents a lot of footage I’d never seen before.

The documentary opens with a bang. It opens with footage from a demonstration in May of 1960, with the police turning the hoses on the protestors and dragging them down flights of stairs, all to the sound of Little Richard’s “Keep A Knockin’.” The demonstration was a protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the film gives us footage inside the hearing where one witness says to the committee, “If you think I’ll cooperate with you in any way, you are insane.” How wonderful is that?

John Searle, one of the demonstrators, says (in one of the film’s many interviews): “Now the whole thing might have died down except for the fact that the committee made a film.” This was something of which I was unaware. And this documentary shows us a bit of the film, Operation Abolition, which I’d never seen. That film worked against the committee’s wishes and intentions, and actually radicalized many people, who then went to Berkeley.

And that’s the documentary’s opening. Just in those opening moments I’d seen new footage and learned a few new things about the 1960s, which of course set my expectations very high for the rest of the film. And those expectations were met.

The film documents the protest movements at the University of California at Berkeley, including the civil rights movement, the freedom Of speech movement, the anti-war movement, and the women’s liberation movement, and does an excellent job of showing how they were all related.

There are many interviews with those that were involved, including Susan Griffin (a SLATE member), Mike Miller (founder of SLATE), Michael Rossman, Jack Weinberg, Jackie Goldberg and Bobby Seale. What’s wonderful is that the film includes footage of these folks from the 1960s. For example, we see footage of Jack Weinberg in 1964 in the back of a police car, while demonstrators surrounded the car so it couldn’t leave. That’s actually some amazing footage, with a microphone set up on top of the police car so that people could address the crowd. Jack says he ended up sitting in that police car for thirty-two hours. We also see footage of Jackie Goldberg being interviewed in 1964 regarding the Free Speech Movement.

Again, as interesting as the interviews are, it’s often the archival footage that makes this documentary so strong. There is footage of that bastard Ronald Reagan attacking the Berkeley movement when running for Governor of California. There is some strange footage on a bus tour through San Francisco, with the bus driver reading from a script while driving. Geez, that’s a bit dangerous, as he points out the hippies. There is some great footage of the Grateful Dead performing “Viola Lee Blues” (I’m a huge fan of their music, so I particularly appreciated this scene).

The footage outside the induction center is incredible, and includes some stuff I’d never seen before. Also incredible is the footage of the helicopter spraying a peaceful demonstration while the cops (in gas masks) don’t allow the protestors to leave. That is some of the most angering and disturbing footage I’ve seen, and once again, it’s footage I had not seen before. What’s great is that this documentary doesn’t give just brief snippets, but allows the footage to play for a while. One of the protestors expresses the impotence they felt: “I don’t think we stopped one inductee…I don’t think we made one bit of difference that day.”

And that’s another thing I really appreciate about this film – the candidness of those interviewed about their own shortcomings and those of the various movements. The film celebrates the victories, but gives a more rounded and honest account.

Special Features

The DVD contains a lot of great bonus material. First, there is a lot of archival footage, labeled “Archival Gems.” These are unedited archival clips that were not used in the film. Each clip is preceded by a short description. Most of this stuff is great, including a shot during the Free Speech Movement Victory Celebration that is actually really funny. There is a shot of a Hells Angels press conference, in which Sonny Barger speaks against the anti-war demonstrators and confuses “guerrilla” and “gorilla.” I love the shot of Ken Kesey being interviewed at the entrance to the bus, Furthur. The bit with Robert Mitchum surprised me, as I never knew he was insane. He says, “If they don’t learn, kill ‘em. If they won’t be peaceful, kill ‘em.” Holy moly. The bit with Ronald Reagan didn’t surprise me at all, as the more I learn about him, the more I understand he was completely despicable, through and through.

The special features also include several deleted scenes, including more with that bastard Ronald Reagan who says in a speech, “They are a small minority of beatniks, radicals, and filthy speech advocates have brought shame on a great university.” He then goes on to rail against a dance and rock and roll and so on. It’s weird. The deleted scenes also include more from the interview with Bobby Seale, who talks about how they chose the name Black Panthers. And there is more footage from Chicago, 1968, including some news footage I’d never seen before. The deleted scenes also include the film’s original ending.

There is also a photo gallery, as well as the original theatrical trailer.

Berkeley In The Sixties was directed by Mark Kitchell, who more recently directed a documentary on the history of the environmental movement, titled A Fierce Green Fire (which has also been released on DVD through First Run Features). Berkeley In The Sixties was released in 1990, and released on DVD in December of 2002.

DVD Review: All Is Bright

All Is Bright is such an interesting and unusual film, unusual in its pacing, its subject, its characters. It’s thoughtful and funny and even heartbreaking at times, and it features excellent performances by Paul Giamatti, Paul Rudd, and Sally Hawkins.

All Is Bright begins with Dennis (Paul Giamatti) walking into town after having been paroled (no one has cared enough to pick him up). He stops to sleep in a church, and for that shot the film’s score stops, as if to let him sleep. He reaches his destination at night, and there is an excellent shot where he sees his daughter through the window, then turns to the next window. As the camera pans over, we see a woman standing there, already aware of his presence (and none too happy about it). It’s a really nice shot, and the rest of the scene is just as strong. He’s about to knock, but she stops him by raising one finger. The film is silent at this point. She writes a note, and holds it up to the window: “I told her you were dead.”

She has him wait until their daughter is asleep and then comes out to him. She tells him he’s been dead for more than a year. It also comes out that she has been dating his friend, Rene, and is planning on marrying him. When he tells her he’ll stop being a thief for her, she responds, “What would be left of you?” And when he asks how he died, she says: “Cancer... You suffered. A lot.”

What a scene. It’s totally sad, intense, and funny in a deliciously screwed up way. And it establishes the character of Dennis so quickly and so firmly. Paul Giamatti has a way about him that makes you immediately empathize with whatever character he’s playing. You want things to turn out well for him, but for some reason it’s always so enjoyable to watch as things go wrong for him.

And things certainly go wrong for him in All Is Bright. When he learns there are no jobs to be had in his Canadian town, Dennis is forced to turn to Rene (Paul Rudd) for work, and Rene agrees to take him with him to sell Christmas trees in New York.

They set up shop on a street corner in New York, essentially living in the truck while they attempt to sell all of the trees they’ve brought. Dennis has to put up with the cold, with lack of sales, and with his wife calling his friend. He’s a man at the bottom who is trying to get back on track.

Helping him is Olga, played by Sally Hawkins. She is particularly wonderful in this film as a woman who works for rich dentists and befriends Dennis after purchasing a tree. Paul Rudd is quite good too, keeping Rene from being an obvious villain character. After all, we are set up to dislike his character, and yet he does make us feel for him. And we do see the friendship between him and Dennis. And it is partly their relationship that really draws us into this film.

The DVD contains no special features.

All Is Bright is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 19, 2013 through Anchor Bay.

DVD Review: The Colony

The Colony is a post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film, in which survivors of a new ice age band together against the elements, and against each other. It stars Kevin Zegers as Sam, the unlikely hero; Laurence Fishburne as Briggs, the conscientious leader of Colony 7; and Bill Paxton as Mason, a man who served with Briggs and now is perhaps going a bit mad.

The opening shots are of an underground bunker, eerily empty of people. Soon we become aware of distant sounds of distress, and then suddenly see two people running from someone or something. It cuts to the exterior of another bunker, where Hal, a sick man, is brought out into the snow. Against the protests of Sam, Mason executes Hal to keep him from infecting the rest of the colony.

This is a great way of establishing two of the main characters, as well as the situation they are up against. Sam gives us a bit of the background in voice over: “In this place, we live in fear of the common cold. The last flu wiped out twenty people in less than a week. So now we’ve got rules.” This is great, because we have more information than the characters. While they’re afraid of something so common, we know also there is something larger out there for them to fear. Sam’s voice over ends with the line: “But it’s not the cold we have to worry about – it’s each other.”

This group receives an S.O.S. from Colony 5, and Briggs leads a small team to check on those folks. Sam and a young, eager man volunteer to accompany Briggs. It’s a two-day journey for those three to reach the other colony, and they spend the first night inside an old helicopter, giving Sam and Briggs a chance to let us in on a little more of the characters’ back stories (and letting us know that they will have to stay there again on the way back).

When they reach Colony 5, there is blood in the snow leading to the entrance. And then there is a long ladder leading down inside. That’s frightening enough right there, because you know they’re going to have to climb back up – and you can only go so fast on a ladder. Once they get inside, the film gets a whole lot scarier. We know this is the place of the opening shot, where those two people were chased. We just don’t know yet what it was they were afraid of.

A knocking sound leads the three to a supply room, the door of which has been repeatedly banged and scratched at, as if someone or something was quite eager to gain access. Inside, the team finds a terrified survivor. They ask him, “Is anyone else alive?” He responds, “Define alive.” In addition to that cryptic response, he gives them hope by showing them a message the colony had received from someone who had fixed a weather tower, breaking a hole through the cloud layer.

But soon the Briggs and the other two learn what it was that frightened that couple in the beginning of the film, and need to make a hasty retreat themselves.

The film creates a wonderfully frightening atmosphere – the dangerous cold temperatures, the isolation, the fear of sickness, the claustrophobia of being underground most of the time. And then adds to that an extreme case of people losing their humanity. The film’s weakness is its reliance on CGI shots for most of the exteriors, some of which just don’t look believable.

Bonus Feature

The DVD includes “The Colony: Behind The Scenes,” which features interviews with Kevin Zegers, Bill Paxton, Laurence Fishburne, Charlotte Sullivan, Jeff Renroe (the director) and Pierre Gill (the director of photography). Laurence Fishburne says he hasn’t done anything this physical in a while, and that is one of the reason he said yes to this project. And we see a lot of the green screens used, and just how small some of the sets actually were. What’s more interesting, however, is the underground location shooting. This feature is approximately ten minutes.

The Colony was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 15, 2013 through RLJ Entertainment.