” target=”_blank”>“Berkeley,” opening Friday, Oct. 12, than just a bunch of doped up college kids with shaggy hair protesting the war, having sex, and making groovy music.
Actually, there isn’t a whole lot more than that.
The heavily autobiographical film is the work of Bobby Roth, an accomplished television director who is currently working on the hot TV series “Prison Break.” His real passion, however, is filmmaking and Roth has managed to sneak away from the corporate studios several times to create his own independent films. “Jack the Dog” and “Manhood” were based on the death of his father and his sister’s murder.
“Berkeley” is like a prequel to those stories. At its epicenter is Ben Sweet, a soapy clean Jewish kid from a middle-class immigrant home who is sent to college to get a practical education and avoid the draft. Poor Papa Sweet (played by Henry Winkler), he had no idea what he was getting into when he sent his only son to Berkeley in the middle of the 1960s student revolution.
Sweet is played by Roth’s boyishly handsome son, Nick. The awkward but endearing Sweet grows out his hair, joins a rock band, drops acid and beds a few free thinking daughters of the revolution while the anti-war protests rage around him. Although he participates in the demonstrations and sit-ins, Sweet seems more baffled than inspired by the movement. The character lacks conviction and passion and consequently taints the movie with the same lackluster hue.
Much more heated was the Q&A discussion that followed the preview screening, during which a middle-aged man repeatedly asked “What the fuck are WE going to do?” (about the Bush administration and the Iraq war).
Another audience member asked Nick Roth, who attends UC Berkeley as his father did, why he thought there is such a marked absence of student protests against the current war. Someone shouted, “Because there is no draft!” Nick’s response was vague – something about how his friends at Berkeley thought the 60s anti-war movement was awesome, but he couldn’t explain why no one was moved to replicate it.
Opening Oct. 12 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in West Hollywood and Laemmle’s Colorado One in Pasadena.
