MOVIE REVIEW: MY GENERATION [as part of the Mini British Film Festival]

Shane | 2 November 2018 | Reply

MOVIE REVIEW: MY GENERATION [as part of the Mini British Film Festival]
Directed by David Batty
Starring Michael Caine, David Bailey, Paul McCartney, Twiggy, Roger Daltrey
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
9/10

Co-produced and presented & narrated by British icon Sir Michael Caine, My Generation looks at the cultural revolution that emanated from 1960’s England and swept change right around the world through the worlds of fashion, music, art and film.

Sourced from over 1600 hours of footage and involving over fifty new interviews with key figures of the times, this isn’t a film pitched at the faded glory days of septuagenarians, but a fascinating and hilarious look back the social changes of those times, changes which still affect us hugely today.

Set to a soundtrack of some of the most sensational hits of the day and fascinating and evocative archival film footage, the likes of Roger Daltrey, Twiggy, Paul McCartney, David Bailey, Joan Collins, Mary Quaint and many other iconic names of the Swinging Sixties delve into the birth of the ‘teenager’, free love, modern fashion, popular music and the dismantling of the archaic class system.

“Anyone with talent could be a part of it,” says Caine, and it’s an observation that lends the realisation that at that time it was an almost punk, anti-establishment movement. “The people in London were the most glamourous and famous people on the planet,” he notes.

But the dream of peace and love and freedom was never going to be that easy a Camelot to assume. The Swinging Sixties, like so many other cultural revolutions, all came crashing down in a violent drug hangover.

Caine is philosophical about the end of the era. “Never look back in anger, always look forward in hope – and never, ever dream small!” he insists.

It’s worth remembering after watching this gem that yes, we are still enjoying the positive repercussions of these times today, but we also still battle many of the same – in some cases worse – negatives, still deeply entrenched in the establishment. The battle is far from won.