Humanities & Classics 3270
|
|
Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
    |
|
The movie Big Chill raises a lot of questions about what has happened to eight classmates who graduated from the University of Michigan back in the 60s. The movie was co-written and directed by Larry Kasdan, a 1970 graduate of the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan was one of the campuses that was very much invloved in the social-political movements of the 60s decade. The first draft board sit-in and the first anti-Vietnam War teach-in took place in Ann Arbor, which is alo considered the birthplace of Students for a Democratic Society. In this movie Kasdan's characters not only try to come to grips with the suicidal death of a friend, but they also take a close look at their own past, present, and future.
In the October 31, 1987 edition of The Nation, Ellen Perley Frank writes about "The real "Big Chill" in Michigan"--a for-real reunion of 1960s Ann Arbor activists. Frank writes: "Maybe Kasdan and his friends traded in their ideals for their careers and fat bank accounts, but most of the Michigan graduates I know have bitterly criticized Kasdan for popularizing this image." A statement written for the whole reunion states: "We have come to understand that attaining the goals of a just, peaceful, equitable, and ecologically sound society requires a lifetime of commitment." Frank's article also includes the following quotes from individual members of the group telling how "many veteran activists have adapted their policies to a more sedate life and the needs of their community":
"I have not lost the values I acquired in the sixties. I have learned that the appropriate size of my sphere of influence is a lot smaller than the one I and we tried to work in during the sixties and seventies. Within this sphere, I do my best."
"We lived in a very special time. We picked up the world and moved it some place. The sense of possibility, the sense of anger we had then must not be forgotten."
"We ended a war and brought down a President. If we did that then, we could do much more now."
"Ann Arbor in the sixties was a transformation period for all of us. We leanred how to deal with authority on many levels. We learned how to speak up. There's no going back. Once you become assertive you don't just give it up."
"I am planning to continue the struggle to the end of my days on earth, and then plan to organize and radicalize the angels."