Once upon a time Ernest Thompson wrote On Golden Pond and it made $120 million. Then he wrote 1969and decided he should direct his own vision. And wow, what a terrible trip!
This is the story of two small-town friends who, as the shadow of the Vietnam War looms ever larger, do the sensible thing: they drop out, dodge the draft and live life to the full. Kiefer Sutherland plays what was, back in 1988 anyway, a Kiefer Sutherland type and Robert Downey Jr., plays his pal, a guy who back then would have been described as an Emilio Estevez type, but nowadays can be safely seen as a Downey Jr. type.
For example Kiefer, quite frankly, is a very poor excuse for a hippy - he doesn't take drugs, get laid or wear bell-bottoms but talks strangely nonetheless, repeatedly insisting that 'we are leaves' (that, like, blow in the wind, man). Downey, meanwhile, gets laid, does wear bell bottoms and drops acid, which instantly makes him behave like Benny Hill running around in his underpants, and he deservedly goes to jail.
Bruce Dern, looking shockingly aged, as well he might, is one of their bewildered parents into whose lives we are also forced to glimpse. His boy Kiefer decides to split to Canada with his chick but turns back just in time for his Vietnam-slain brother's funeral, where he makes a speech about peace and leads the entire town of some 20-odd people to the jail where they free Dopey and everybody hugs each other. So that's how they ended the Vietnam war!
The main problem with all this searching for America in 1969 stuff is that the budget and aims are so obviously small we don't see anything that was going on around these embarrassing people to interest us in them or the period. Sorry, Ernest, but two cops and five kids, do not a student demo make. For those who delight in ridiculously bad movies this is essential viewing. But Thompson, who was 19 in 1969, should know better.