1968. A Year of War, Turmoil & Beyond

Description

In January 1968, a surprise attack by the North Vietnamese, known as the Tet Offensive, convinced many Americans that the war was not going to end very soon. Large scale opposition flared against theJohnson administration and its policies. Federal troops put down race riots while bitter protests erupted on campuses in the USA. In Paris that May, there was a “social revolution”. In Germany, a student movement driven by Rudi Dutschke reached fever pitch. The optimistic “Prague Spring” provided fuel for the Soviet invasion later in the year. Two extraordinary champions for change, Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were both brutally assassinated. The Mexico Olympics provided a big moment for 1968 with Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ black gloved fists at the ceremonies. Barbarellacaused a stir in the cinema. HAL the beginning of the computer age in Kubrick’s 2001 and Charlton Heston’s dramatic realization in Planet of the Apeswere also signs of change. Aretha Franklin hit the scene with Think. Mary Hopkins iconic hit Those Were the Daysdominated the airwaves across the world, and the anthemic Born to be Wildby Steppenwolf and Arthur Brown’s Firea backdrop to the times. A search for meaning in space developed with the first full picture of the Earth coming back from Apollo 8. The world was changing. The space age was arriving and the dawn of a new era was upon us. Interviewees include: Joe Boyd, Music Producer; Will Hodgkinson, Times Music critic and writer; Bonnie Greer, Author and Journalist; Neil Norman, Music and Film critic; Derek Malcolm, Film Critic Cannes Film Festival; Tim Weiner, Pulitzer winning reporter and author on the FBI; Richard Gid Powers, US author and Journalist.

Runtime

46 min 35 sec

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Geography

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