The Age of Commercialism

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Several of the most interesting details in this PBS survey of a turning point in U.S. history are those that cut across the grain of expected stereotypes.Thus early on we see YAFFERS (members of the right wing campus group Young Americans For Freedom)dancing to the new trendy go-go style music,for the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.And we learn that the Free Speech Movement,which had been started at the left-leaning University of California at Berkeley by students "radicalized" from their experiences that summer in Mississippi,received support from Youth for Goldwater.The show also references how TV series that fall,such as Bewitched and the Addams Family,reflected the new kinds of family being explored in the culture.The high point of the documentary is the Civil Rights organizer Dave Dennis,seen in his fiery youth and also now aged.

While 1964 was the year I was born, the reason I really watched this was because it was a show from "The American Experience"--one of the best television series of the last several decades. Their shows are of extremely high quality and always fascinating--and are well worth your time.Among the many topics that were covered in this two-hour show were: the murder of three civil rights worker in Mississippi, the Goldwater campaign, the spread of the Vietnam war, the Civil Rights Act of 1964*, feminism and President Johnson and his Great Society. All of this was very interesting but what was sometimes interesting was what wasn't mentioned. So, while movies like "Send Me No Flowers" was mentioned, oddly, "Dr. Strangelove" was not. And, while the presidential campaign was mentioned, oddly, they never mentioned 'the ad'--the very famous ad with a little girl playing in the flowers who dies from a nuclear attack caused, apparently, by Goldwater! Still, I could understand some omissions, as it's impossible to do a perfect job in encapsulating an entire year in only tow hours! Very good.*By the way, one mistake the show DID make was about the Civil Rights Act. They seemed to say that it was less popular among Republicans and they stood in the way of its adoption. While Goldwater didn't vote for it, Republicans clearly did--at about 80% in both the House and Senate while Democrats voted about 65% in favor of the bill. The retired history teacher in me thought I should point this out in the review.