Film Love presents Robert Kramer's and John Douglas's Milestones
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Among the watershed works of 1970s American cinema, Robert Kramer’s and John Douglas’s sprawling 1975 Milestones occupies a unique place. An epic of everyday life, it balances dozens of characters and seamlessly blends fiction, documentary and re-enactment in telling the story of ‘60s radicals grown up, mourning the sense of hope that defined their youth and trying in their own ways to move forward. They traverse the country roads and highways across the U.S. as they try to rekindle lapsed friendships or reboot family arrangements.
An octogenarian playing herself teaches her daughter (and us) about immigrant experience in 1930s New York. A pregnant woman prepares to become a parent amid her insecurity about the future, eventually giving birth onscreen among a large group of friends, in the film’s joyous climax. A young man emerges disoriented from his jail time for activism; a returning Vietnam vet faces a crisis of belonging; and various communes and collectives struggle with their identities and tensions. Milestones introduces each of these situations and more in its own time, with great trust in the audience, weaving an increasingly engrossing tapestry of an entire extended milieu of friends, lovers, and acquaintances adrift.
Milestones is often compared to the ensemble pictures of Robert Altman, especially Nashville. It certainly belongs in that company, along with Martin Scorsese’s ambitious mid-70s works, Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, and Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep. But Kramer and Douglas had a vastly different relationship to their characters. They had themselves come out of ‘60s radical movements, from the Newsreel filmmaking collective to various armed revolutionary communes, and they populated their cast with other movement participants. Worlds away from the naturalistic post-Method acting then dominant in American film, these performances have a lived-in quality and achieve a consistent authenticity that, together with the film’s flow between documentary and fiction, give Milestones an almost magical sense of grace.
The struggles of parenting, finding work, life after jail or Vietnam, and – especially – how to live out radical ideals as white people in a country with a deep legacy of oppressive racism, all weigh deeply on these characters. Yet through its makers’ unrelenting compassion and empathy, Milestones manages to avoid despair without denying its constant proximity. A brave and inspiring film, and an essential work of American cinema.
Milestones (Robert Kramer and John Douglas, 1975) 195 min, digital projection
The Plaza Theatre
1049 Ponce DeLeon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30306 | 470-410-1939
www.plazaatlanta.com
Tickets: https://www.plazaatlanta.com/movie/film-love-milestones/
ROBERT KRAMER’S AND JOHN DOUGLAS’S MILESTONES is a Film Love event. The Film Love series provides access to great but rarely seen films, often important works unavailable on consumer video. Programs are curated and introduced by Andy Ditzler, and feature lively discussion. Through public screenings and events, Film Love preserves the communal viewing experience, provides space for the discussion of film as art, and explores diverse forms of moving image projection and viewing.
An octogenarian playing herself teaches her daughter (and us) about immigrant experience in 1930s New York. A pregnant woman prepares to become a parent amid her insecurity about the future, eventually giving birth onscreen among a large group of friends, in the film’s joyous climax. A young man emerges disoriented from his jail time for activism; a returning Vietnam vet faces a crisis of belonging; and various communes and collectives struggle with their identities and tensions. Milestones introduces each of these situations and more in its own time, with great trust in the audience, weaving an increasingly engrossing tapestry of an entire extended milieu of friends, lovers, and acquaintances adrift.
Milestones is often compared to the ensemble pictures of Robert Altman, especially Nashville. It certainly belongs in that company, along with Martin Scorsese’s ambitious mid-70s works, Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, and Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep. But Kramer and Douglas had a vastly different relationship to their characters. They had themselves come out of ‘60s radical movements, from the Newsreel filmmaking collective to various armed revolutionary communes, and they populated their cast with other movement participants. Worlds away from the naturalistic post-Method acting then dominant in American film, these performances have a lived-in quality and achieve a consistent authenticity that, together with the film’s flow between documentary and fiction, give Milestones an almost magical sense of grace.
The struggles of parenting, finding work, life after jail or Vietnam, and – especially – how to live out radical ideals as white people in a country with a deep legacy of oppressive racism, all weigh deeply on these characters. Yet through its makers’ unrelenting compassion and empathy, Milestones manages to avoid despair without denying its constant proximity. A brave and inspiring film, and an essential work of American cinema.
Milestones (Robert Kramer and John Douglas, 1975) 195 min, digital projection
The Plaza Theatre
1049 Ponce DeLeon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30306 | 470-410-1939
www.plazaatlanta.com
Tickets: https://www.plazaatlanta.com/movie/film-love-milestones/
ROBERT KRAMER’S AND JOHN DOUGLAS’S MILESTONES is a Film Love event. The Film Love series provides access to great but rarely seen films, often important works unavailable on consumer video. Programs are curated and introduced by Andy Ditzler, and feature lively discussion. Through public screenings and events, Film Love preserves the communal viewing experience, provides space for the discussion of film as art, and explores diverse forms of moving image projection and viewing.
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Where is it happening?
Plaza Atlanta, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave NE,Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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