Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (1971)
Directed by Jeffrey Young / Jeff Young
Genres - Drama |
Sub-Genres - Period Film |
Release Date - Sep 15, 1971 (USA - Unknown), Sep 15, 1971 (USA) |
Run Time - 90 min. |
Countries - United States |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Richard Farina's late-1960s "alienation" novel Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me was given a belated, and somewhat anachronistic, screen treatment in 1971. Though set in 1958, the original novel spoke most loudly to the post-Beat Generation hippies of the next decade. The film spoke to no one, except perhaps a few ageing hipsters who couldn't shake off the past. Barry Primus plays the central character, a sixties activist in the making on an uptight college campus. Amidst the jive-talk and the scrungy clothing, the film contains a few obligatory sex scenes, indicating perhaps that it was this element of beatnik life that most attracted the filmmakers.
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Keywords
life, rebel, rebel-without-a-cause, society