Teen pair learn about friendship

Press, 6 October 1989, Page 30

Teen pair learn about friendship

The story of two small-town teenagers who learn through love, death, family and war what friendship and freedom mean in the United States is told in “1969,” which will start at the Westend today. It is Easter, 1969, and Scott Denny (Kiefer Sutherland) and Ralph Carr (Downey), lifelong best . friends and neighbours, hitchhike home from university to find Scott’s older brother (Chris Wynne) shipping out to Vietnam with his Marine unit Scott clashes with his hawkish, conservative father (Bruce Dern), while his mother (Mariette Hartley) confronts the situation by numbing herself emotionally. They all find that the events of 1969 have an unavoidable magnetic force, throwing them up against the passions of the moment. From the bloody campus protest and brutalising police to the trek across parts of the country in their leaf-painted van, Scott and Ralph are forced to deal with times of change. The complexities of the era are many, and are reflected in a son who vehemently disagrees with his father’s politics and rigid outlook on life and his parents’ sorrowful, empty marriage, which is further strained when their older son is reported missing in action. The year 1969 creates panic and fear in Ralph, who drops out of university and is faced with the prospect of being drafted. The obsession with his fate distorts his lifelong friendship with Scott.

For Scott, Ralph, and their families, 1969 was a time when ordinary people acted upon their passions. Ultimately, Ralph’s intense fear of being drafted leads him and Scott to break into the Selective Service office to steal his personal file in an effort to sabotage the draft. But before the film’s finale, the spirit of the 60s takes hold in a passionate and moving moment — when the boys and those around them become their own kind of heroes.