'68 is a 1988 drama film directed by Steven Kovacs. The film follows a full year of a Hungarian family living in San Francisco in 1968.
Plot
The father escaped the Soviet invasion of Budapest and now runs a Hungarian restaurant that is not doing well financially. The younger of his two sons is gay and struggling with coming out. His dad disowns him when he finally does. The older son is involved in the counterculture, gets kicked out of college, buys a motorcycle, starts dating a Maoist, and is also disowned by his father. The older of the sons runs afoul of an outlaw motorcycle club; the younger of the two sons gets drafted but is rejected because of his homosexuality. The older one joins his younger brother in a gay rights protest.
Major events of the year such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy are interspersed throughout the plot and depicted in the film using stock footage.
Cast
Eric Larson as Peter Szabo
Robert Locke as Sandy Szabo
Sándor Técsy as Zoltan Szabo
Anna Dukasz as Zsuzsa Szabo
Miran Kwun as Alana Chan
Terra Vandergaw as Vera Kardos
Shony Alex Braun as Tibor Kardos
Donna Pecora as Piroska Kardos
Elizabeth De Charay as Gizi Horvath
Jan Nemec as Dezso Horvath
Rusdi Lane as Bela Csontos
Nike Doukas as Beatrice
Neil Young as Westy
Frank X. Mur as Officer
Joel Parker as Protester
Paul Pedrol as Client
James Russel
Release and reception
'68 was first shown at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival during March 11–26, 1987. Ben Kallen praised Neil Young's cameo performance in the LA Weekly's collection of reviews, but found the film clichéd. The film was then regionally released on May 6, 1988. The film was also shown at the Deauville Film Festival in September 1988 in which Steven Kovacs was nominated for the Critics' Award. Reviewers found the movie to be nostalgic but lacking in substance. Michael Sragow of The San Francisco Examiner found the screenplay "over-stuffed" and "strident." Michael H. Price at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram praised the film's historical accuracy and camera work, but found the film tortured. Time Out says "Kovacs' episodic attempt to evoke the trippy, dippy and momentous days of '68... finally peters out in a bathetic happy resolution of sorts."