tommyhubbs
Joined Aug 2017
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tommyhubbs's rating
I remember this terrible moment very well. It was a beautiful Summer day. A happy time. School was out. The Padres were winning. The Olympics were in L. A.
Great movies were out that year! Ghostbusters. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Gremlins. Karate Kid. And the Music happening too. The Jacksons Victory Tour was on! Prince, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" was on the radio all the time. We had MTV and VH-1 playing music videos 24/7.
The weather that summer was superb. Mission Bay was happening every Summer day. I was 17. What a great time!
And then this. This surreal, awful afternoon. I knew nobody involved and had not been in that McDonald's, only driven past it. But it was a punch to the gut. A hard one. The collective gut of San Diego. We had not felt such despair since September 25, 1978. The raw emotions we all had. One had to be there in San Diego, Summer 1984 to understand. It was devastating.
I don't believe we'd had a mass shooting of that magnitude in this country since the Texas Tower shootings at the University of Texas, 18 years before. What we have become so sadly accustomed to now, as if the death toll were just ball scores read off, was a mouth-dropping horror back then. This was a BAD, BAD day.
I always wondered if someone would make a feature length movie or documentary on this. After all, there had been one about the UT shooting. Years went by. Nothing. Many in the South Bay had never even heard of this event when it came up in the news on an anniversary date or in simple conversation around a cocktail party or some Chula Vista backyard BBQ. "Really? How awful! When was this?" was an often heard response.
Then came along 77 Minutes. It was a shock to learn it was even happening. I wondered what it would be like. Many did. The Producer has some positives here. The production values are solid if unspectacular. The usage of newsreel is just fine. Impactful. Historical. He paints the story as it unfolded and does well. The concept of "77 Minutes" having elapsed, as it is presented in the film, is chilling and surprising. And meaningful. Taking us inside, horrific as it is, an evil necessity. People should know what it is really like. The absolute devastation. The death. The horror. The interviews with those involved are solid, but only good because of who is being interviewed. Fantastic people, survivor, witness, Police, media...all who lived it.
What makes this documentary a failure is Minn himself. His childish, belligerent agenda lacks insight, intelligence, professionalism and, therefore, credibility. It is amateur and high school first-year student paper at best. He is creepy. He invokes a racial element for no compelling reason.
Minn would have been better off doing the production values and letting a skilled interviewer do the questioning from a studious and objective point-of-view, without pre-conceived notions based on nothingness. Carlos Amezcua would have been perfect, telling the story as a narrator through his own experiences that day and then having "conversations" with the others. This was what would have worked.
All else was fine. The concept, the storyline, the production values. Even the "old school" graphics were ok as they reflect what we saw on TV, fairly closely, in those times. It gave the documentary historical, period flavor.
What ended up happening was Minn made this and whatever ails him upstairs, all about him. It should be called "77 Minns".
Great movies were out that year! Ghostbusters. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Gremlins. Karate Kid. And the Music happening too. The Jacksons Victory Tour was on! Prince, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" was on the radio all the time. We had MTV and VH-1 playing music videos 24/7.
The weather that summer was superb. Mission Bay was happening every Summer day. I was 17. What a great time!
And then this. This surreal, awful afternoon. I knew nobody involved and had not been in that McDonald's, only driven past it. But it was a punch to the gut. A hard one. The collective gut of San Diego. We had not felt such despair since September 25, 1978. The raw emotions we all had. One had to be there in San Diego, Summer 1984 to understand. It was devastating.
I don't believe we'd had a mass shooting of that magnitude in this country since the Texas Tower shootings at the University of Texas, 18 years before. What we have become so sadly accustomed to now, as if the death toll were just ball scores read off, was a mouth-dropping horror back then. This was a BAD, BAD day.
I always wondered if someone would make a feature length movie or documentary on this. After all, there had been one about the UT shooting. Years went by. Nothing. Many in the South Bay had never even heard of this event when it came up in the news on an anniversary date or in simple conversation around a cocktail party or some Chula Vista backyard BBQ. "Really? How awful! When was this?" was an often heard response.
Then came along 77 Minutes. It was a shock to learn it was even happening. I wondered what it would be like. Many did. The Producer has some positives here. The production values are solid if unspectacular. The usage of newsreel is just fine. Impactful. Historical. He paints the story as it unfolded and does well. The concept of "77 Minutes" having elapsed, as it is presented in the film, is chilling and surprising. And meaningful. Taking us inside, horrific as it is, an evil necessity. People should know what it is really like. The absolute devastation. The death. The horror. The interviews with those involved are solid, but only good because of who is being interviewed. Fantastic people, survivor, witness, Police, media...all who lived it.
What makes this documentary a failure is Minn himself. His childish, belligerent agenda lacks insight, intelligence, professionalism and, therefore, credibility. It is amateur and high school first-year student paper at best. He is creepy. He invokes a racial element for no compelling reason.
Minn would have been better off doing the production values and letting a skilled interviewer do the questioning from a studious and objective point-of-view, without pre-conceived notions based on nothingness. Carlos Amezcua would have been perfect, telling the story as a narrator through his own experiences that day and then having "conversations" with the others. This was what would have worked.
All else was fine. The concept, the storyline, the production values. Even the "old school" graphics were ok as they reflect what we saw on TV, fairly closely, in those times. It gave the documentary historical, period flavor.
What ended up happening was Minn made this and whatever ails him upstairs, all about him. It should be called "77 Minns".
This episode was the first Dragnet in color, appropriately. It is a cool little episode and a lot of fun. Just don't take it too seriously. Don't be all Friday about it and just go ahead and let your hair down and get groovy.