Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

ZacAttackFeelsGood So there's a lower middle-class family in Chicago who live a very conservative existence. Well, what happens when their oldest son goes to Vietnam, their youngest son becomes a civil rights activist, and their daughter gets knocked up? The '60s happen, and this mini-series shows the family's trials and tribulations during a truly extraordinary decade.What I loved about "The '60s" is that the story is not unlike the normal stories that one would hear about families from back then. The 1960s were a confusing time, with people taking sides and going against everything they were ever raised to believe. The individual stories of the characters keep the big picture interesting. I couldn't wait to see Part 2 when Part 1 ended.Great acting performances by all, especially Jerry O'Connell for his depiction of a Vietnam Veteran who goes in a patriot and comes out a basket-case.I recommend "The '60s" to anyone who wants to see a realistic depiction of one of the greatest eras in United States History. You definitely won't be disappointed.

Pepper Anne It's been a long time since I've seen this movie and I only watched it once when it premiered on TV. But I do remember that it was just like about twenty other movies about family's lives in the 1960s I had seen around the same time, most of them reruns on Lifetime TV.The typical family arrangement goes like this. There is a father, mother, sister, and two brothers in one family. They're usually at each other's throats about the war. This is usually a white Midwest family. The father is the aggressive, ultra-masculine type who usually forbids his wife to vote for Kennedy or to go to work. The wife is usually timid, bet is the neutral force and go-between among the family as the children, once they get older, have great difficulty reasonably communicated with their passe dad. And the kids usually come in threes. That is, the daughter during this period usually gets pregnant and leaves home to join a hippie commune to indulge in some sort of meaningless psychadelic destraction. There is usually one son--the father's favorite--who enlists in the war, to go off to Vietnam and come back an opponent of the war (if he doesn't die in the war as he does in about half of the stories) to the dismay of his father. And third, is usually either a homosexual or against the war from the start and is, either way, banished from the family by decree of a stubborn father.Because the characters are supposed to be the padigram of the entire 1960s American political spectrum(or lack there of), you also have the struggle of the black family, usually a son and father who are engaged in a desperate civil rights battle somewhere in the inner city, usually Detroit. The father is still a great believer in the doctrines of Martin Luther King and his civil disobedience philosophies while the son, of a new generation of minorities struggling for equality, is fond of the "By Any Means Necessary" approach of Malcom X. These are the two archetype families of the 1960s made-for-TV dramas that you have these days, each pretty much being unrecognizable from one another and all meant to tell you the same thing. The decade created a lot of turmoil and confusion, and especially tension among families. You were dealing with a lot of things--the war, the civil rights era, and so forth. I don't know why every decided to make a big deal out of this particular movie. "The 60S" really doesn't offer anything that wasn't done before in the numerous films just like it. I think it just got all the rave because the cast is more well-known than the CBS reject movies you'd see on Lifetime TV or whatever.

timotea For some strange reason, I end up finding this movie on VH1 when I have a long ironing session. It is entertaining enough to keep it on. Since I've watched it a couple of times, I thought it would be interesting to detail some of the less thought of continuity aspects of the series.I agree with most user comments regarding the lack of character development/screen time of the African American characters, especially Emmet. We find him rioting in South Central L.A. at the end of the first part, and ten minutes into the second part, he's a Jimi Hendrix look-alike in San Francisco. Ten minutes later, he's a Panther. We know the Herlihy's live happily ever after, but don't get any kind of closure from his character at the end. And what happened to the mother?Another puzzling detail is how Michael and Brian smoke pot using a rather large device inside the house, where their father (with his straightforward, military antics) could have easily found them. Sure, the girl gets kicked out for getting pregnant, but the guys can smoke on the kitchen counter. On non-continuity issues, Josh Hamilton looks way older than what the character calls for; he must have been already in his thirties when the movie was being shot. Jordana Brewster is actually in college now, making her 16 or 17 at the time the film was made. Ick. I didn't really feel any chemistry between them, and the dialogue had a high degree of cheesiness to it ("What did you forget?"... "My heart"... Oh please!)I think that NBC tried to cover as many bases as possible in four hours. It is debatable whether they should have dealt with fewer plotlines and events and try to make a better move, or whether it turned out okay to treat many circumstances with limited depth.

choosenfaith I enjoyed the plot, The cast did a great job. If you ever seen Woodstock. This is in your ball park. The soundtrack is just as good as the movie. Julia Stiles proves that she is a great actress, Jerry O'Connell once again has proven his talent as an actor. This is one not to miss. If you did you wish you hadn't.