A Small Circle of Friends (1980)

Harvard in the 1960's: a time of social upheaval and student unrest. Three students bond together, challenge the system and begin to lose their ideals.

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writer:

Ezra Sacks

Stars:

Brad Davis, Karen Allen, Jameson Parker

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brad Davis	...	Leonardo DaVinci Rizzo
Karen Allen	...	Jessica Bloom
Jameson Parker	...	Nick Baxter
Shelley Long	...	Alice
John Friedrich	...	Alex Haddox
Gary Springer	...	Greenblatt
Craig Richard Nelson	...	Harry Norris
Harry Caesar	...	Jimmy
Nan Martin	...	Mrs. Baxter
Daniel Stern	...	Crazy Kid: Draft Inductee (as Dan Stern)
Jason Laskay	...	Dorm Proctor
Jamie Squire	...	Karate Student
Mary Margaret Amato	...	Girl in Shower
David Hollander	...	Editor of 'Crimson'
Frank Rich	...	Assistant Editor of 'Crimson'

Storyline

Harvard in the 1960's: a time of social upheaval and student unrest. Three students bond together, challenge the system and begin to lose their ideals.

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Plot Keywords:

harvard | 1960s | anti war protest | hairy chest | college life | 

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Taglines:

A Small Circle Of Friends...learning to live in the turbulent sixties! [AustraliaTheatrical]

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 1980 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Amigo é para Essas Coisas

Filming Locations:

Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Small Circle of Friends Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The soprano that sings Steinman's score at the midway point (when Nick leaves Jessica following his fight with Leo) is director Rob Cohen's sister who was trained in opera.

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Goofs

Students are seen dancing to the Rolling Stones record "Street Fighting Man" moments after President Lyndon Johnson's television address in which he announced he was not running for reelection. However, that speech was delivered on the last day of March 1968, while the song had not even been recorded yet and was not released until the last day of August 1968.

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Quotes

Alice: [watching the draft lottery on television] Only men would come up with a draft lottery that uses balls.

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Connections

Features The Big Sleep (1946)

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Soundtracks

"Theme for the Masses"
Harry Palmer

User Reviews

they shared everything. why not each other?

The most resonant element of director Rob Cohen's film is the music score by Jim Steinman, which includes the melody that was later recorded as Total Eclipse of the Heart. Otherwise this tale of a supposed menage-a-tois between Harvard university students Brad Davis, Karen Allen and Jameson Parker is as dramatic as the cartoon opening and closing sketches. The screenplay by Ezra Sacks attempts coverage of the Vietnam era from 1967 to 1971 from a student activist point of view, but the tri-romance hardly seems from the same era since it isn't until towards the end that there is any suggestion of bigamy. There is also even less suggestion of homosexuality interest between Davis and Parker. When the 3 finally go into the same bedroom, the camera is left outside and the door closed. Their lack of involvement in activism is paralled with the radicalisation of a Texan boy scout who comes to Harvard at the same time and ends up a terrorist, and highlighted by a campus riot that comes out of nowhere. Even the Vietnam connection as a comment on the relationship and vice versa doesn't work. Sacks opens with Parker reuniting with Allen in "the present"before we start flashbacking to 1967, with Davis' absence pre-empting the outcome, and Cohen supplies matching love scene montages. Davis' has steam so apparently is more erotic and ends abruptly, whilst Parker's is set to Chances Are and ends more positively. Sacks has 2 lines I liked - a technique of breaking into a glass window "I saw it on I Spy or was it The Untouchables", though Cohen repeats it, and "Only men would come up with a draft lottery using balls". Utilising period TV and photographic images - the assassinations of the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King - and a series of bad wigs, the only sense of reality and truth comes in a moment when someone sings the Star Spangled Banner to TV closure. Davis has the impossible charming/wild man role, not helped by his looking older than the others, and the best he can do is stare child-like for vulnerability. Allen doesn't have a strong screen persona so it's easy to think one is watching Amy Irving or Janet Margolin or Brooke Adams. Of the 3, Parker probably comes off best even when saddled with a Colonel Sanders look. His character's basic dullness is probably the reason he needs to be reunited with Allen. Even when the competition is Davis, anyone that prefers to experiment with rats rather than go to an Ingmar Bergman film is definitely worth reconsidering as a partner. Watch for Shelley Long as a photographer, and Daniel Stern, billed as Dan.