How could this film get the sixties so totally wrong?

Rating: 2/10 (14 November 2009)

As someone who lived through the sixties I have to say that my disappointment in this film is based on more than the fact that the plot had no coherence, the acting was out of control, and the film just was not funny. No, this movie just did not get the entire idea of a decade that had a very precise innocence and tragedy. The "love" generation was not made up with a bunch of lecherous men having sex with everything that moved. That came later. It was a generation of dreamers, not schemers, spiritual not material, and visionary not lechery. This movie was obviously made by a screenwriter and director that were creating something that only could be understood as the view of a older or even later generation. Sure, girls walked around without bras and people made love. But more importantly, at its height, the decade portrayed was characterized by meditative moments, deep friendships, and an emerging equality between men and women that has had an impact to this day. So this movie seemed to miss all of that. It also missed the tragedy of over indulgence (the price was high) and a sudden end that was not even a little humorous but really awful and preventable and terribly painful for quite a few. These film makers created a film that reflects not only a total insensitivity and understanding of all of this, but a willful disregard for the true glory and pathos of the greatest decade in contemporary music history. That's sad.