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Rating: The Sixties and cinema. It may be obvious, but the most genuine and sincere cinematic testimonies of this historical moment are really from those years. Moreover, today's critics and public opinion are particularly harsh toward those films, often judged as naive, confused, and outdated (easy to say, forty years later!). Among them, "Getting Straight" (1970) by Richard Rush should be noted.
At the dawn of the youth protests of the late Sixties, New Yorker Rush immediately shows a sympathetic interest in the new ideologies of the time: as early as 1968, he made "Psych-Out" (with young Jack Nicholson and Dean Stockwell), a tribute to flower power and in particular to the psychedelic eldorado of Haight-Ashbury. Two years later, he abandons the apologetic tones that characterize this feature film and, with a more lucid and detached approach, shifts the focus to the issue of student revolts.
Harry Bailey (Elliott Gould) is an English literature student about to graduate. Brilliant and non-conformist, he dreams of teaching in middle schools, as he considers it an environment not yet contaminated by the decay spreading in universities, and he interns at the same institution he studies, in a class of problematic students. Unfortunately for him, his preparation turns out to be quite challenging: his classmates reproach him for not being more committed to the protest cause, while the teachers pressure him to adopt their outdated teaching methods and viewpoints. Moreover, the young man leads a tumultuous and stormy relationship with Jan (Candice Bergen), a beautiful but easily influenced girl: at times, she wants to marry and find a comfortable bourgeois nest, then she feels fully involved in the student rebellions, and finally, in a temporary separation from Harry, she gets swayed by an arrogant gynecologist who proposes an improbable financial speculation. Constantly torn between natural idealism and the urgent need to build a future, he opts for the latter and prepares at all costs for his degree. But during the discussion, just as clashes between students and institutions rage outside the building, a heated confrontation with a stubborn external commissioner revives in Harry the free and unconventional spirit that he has struggled to keep in check lately...
Highlighted by a dazzling performance from Gould (the scene of Harry's final outburst in front of a terrified commission is one to remember!) and a direction by Rush that has rapidly matured, especially when compared to the honest but somewhat naive direction of "Psych-Out," the film naturally balances between comedy and drama, managing to alternately make one smile and reflect. Even today, it is difficult not to feel solidarity with a character like Harry Bailey: is it better to always adhere to one's ideals or to be willing to sacrifice at least some to get ahead? Good question. If many films from that era, like the aforementioned "Easy Rider" or Michelangelo Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point," clearly lean towards the more instinctive rebellion, this one shows that the truth lies, if not in the middle, then two-thirds of the way. For this reason, I don't understand those who criticize it as outdated. Personally, I don't even think it's right to call the work "poorly aged" when it praises the spirit of the time in which it was conceived, as it needs to be contextualized. Moreover, I find it even more praiseworthy for a work to draw from the historical and social context in which it was created to offer an intelligent and balanced reflection. "Getting Straight" falls into this second category: there is no glorification of drug use, free love, and the more banal pacifism. On the contrary, at this point it is necessary to mention another character in the story, not very functional to the development, but symbolically significant: it is Nick (Robert F. Lyons), Harry's hippie friend, a young man who spends his days doing everything to avoid the draft and smoking joints, the archetype of the parasite who unconvincingly embraces pacifist ideals to shirk his responsibilities. A sharp characterization that surely makes one smile but also reflect. Equally interesting is the figure of Jan (a nod also to Bergen), who seems to represent that multitude of young people incapable of thinking with their own heads and therefore always in search of a guide, a leader, a slogan to proclaim.
Thinking carefully, these characters are not so anachronistic after all. Nor is an important lesson that underlies this compelling film, namely the invitation to use one's cultural knowledge actively and personally, without being influenced.
"I'm not here to learn, I'm just here to get my degree" (Harry).
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