Karen Allen Books

I first saw this story on the discovery channel and could not wait to read the book.
I was so glad to find a copy on Amazon.
This story is true and very sad you will feel as if you are in that raft with Debbie and Brad they were lost at sea for about 5 days and had to fight off sharks and stay alive. It started out with 5 John Mark Meg Debbie and Brad.
only Debbie and Brad made it. This book will keep you reading well into the night to finish.
It is a great read!

I received this book today and have read it in one sitting, just couldn't put it down. It is both a fasinating and horrific true story of this womans fight for survival in the open seas. It is written in an easy to follow style. Definately worth the read!!

Heard ALBATROSS: THE TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN'S SURVIVAL AT SEA by Deborah Scaling Kiley and Meg Noonan . . . it is the tragic tale of what was supposed to be a simple boat trip that wound up as a nightmare . . . several of the crew members perished; what was more interesting to me was the story of how the survivors made it.

I've read other "how I survived at sea" books before . . . this was the first one, though, that I've come across written by a woman . . . what I'll remember: when your instincts tell you something, listen . . . Scaling Kiley, unfortunately, did not.

I liked her special introduction at the beginning of the cassette tapes . . . I also liked the work of Karen Allen--a talented actress that I don't see nearly enough--who did an excellent job with the narration.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I had seen Deborah and Brad's story on "I Shouldn't Be Alive" series, where they showed re-enactments and now and then broke away to the two actual survivors telling their story. I just knew she had written about this, so I looked it up on Amazon.

The story is told in very colorful prose. I could hear the sailboat slicing through the water, could see the pewter waves and dark sky. I could almost feel the sharks bumping the underside of the rubber raft with their rough skin.

Debbie is brutally honest, which adds to the credibility and interest of her story. She opens up and really lets us into her ordeal, and adds extra bits of information and impressions, like when she had her head under water looking for sharks and saw the beauty of the school of doradoes. So descriptive, I could see it.

This is also a story of triumph, as Debbie deals with strong emotions in the months and years after the tragedy. I'm glad she pulled through it all and wrote the book. I recommend this book for teens as well as adults.

ALBATROSS is a gripping story of survival and agonizing death at sea--the sinking with the loss of three lives of the yacht TRASHMAN off the Carolina coast. The author pulls no punches and tells a tale of human suffering, weakness, and malice that left this reader shaken by its bluntness, realism, and intensity.

The story is told in a direct and clear manner that inescapably draws one in to its nightmarish hell. Besides a sea story it is also a story of a young person's stuggle with her own demons.

Why read such a painful book? One important life lesson that we must learn from this account is not to leave port unprepared. In some ways, I would urge all boaters to read this book just to have that lesson hammered in. As a boater I came away with the deep conviction that I don't ever want to come anywhere near going through anything like what the crew of TRASHMAN went through.

As presented by the author, the tragedy was entirely the result of the incompetence, alcoholism, and carelessness of the captain and other crew members. I must confess, however, that when I reflected on the author's tale I could not help wondering how objective it was. She is so unremittingly critical--bitterly critical--of John and Mark that I began to doubt the clarity of her vision. I would love to get the account of the other survivor. There are several mysteries about the tragic sinking of TRASHMAN that remain troubling and unresolved.

Nevertheless Debby's tale is one that will move in and rearrange your mental furniture, especially if you are a boater or have ever been to sea in a small boat.

I bought this book about 4yrs ago and read it to my kids ever since.....My children love this book and are now reading it to me. We have even laid outside and counted the stars ourselves...

My mom knows the author and he gave it to me. He even autographed it for me. I read it over and over and can imagine I am one of the cousins. I always wanted a sister or girl cousin my age. It would be really fun to try to count all the stars at night and lay there looking up and just having fun like the girls in the book. I really like it and would recommend it to my friends.

Very delightful book. The quality, from the illustrations to the storyline, is first-class. A must reading for children.

Jane and her cousin Madison are two young girls who embark on a backyard adventure as they try to answer the night sky's greatest challenge -- numbering the stars in the sky. Karen Fulton's artwork fully complements Marky Allen's gentle and entertaining picturebook story. There Are 508 Stars In The Sky is enthusiastically recommended reading for any child who has ever gazed with wonder at the stars in the heavens and wondered the same thing as Jane and Madison!

I read this book and could not put it down. The rhythm and rhyme reminds of DR Seuss Marky Allen is a new DR. Seuss! The words in the book are very easy to understand. This is a book for a child who is learning to read. He or she will be able to read the book alone and understand it easily. The book shows that children have amazing fantacy and they can do anything such as count the stars in the sky. The pictures are happy and bright. As a teacher this is a book I will highly recomend to parents. This is also a book for children who find reading hard, the fantacy in this book will make them keep on reading. Finally this is a book for children with learning disabilities the combination that it is easy to understand with the bright pictures and colors will make the children to use their imagination and fantacy and teach them an excellent habit. The habit to read.

This book truly helped me cope, and eventaully cure my chronic back and foot pain. I highly recommend anyone with pain to buy this book.

This is a wonderful new book by Dr.Mark Allen Young,a respected leader in the field of rehabilitation medicine. Dr Young has assimilated a great deal of information about the causes of chronic pain in women along with valuable information for the patient on how to improve these symptoms. Written in a succinct, user friendly style, I was particularly impressed with the author's evalaution of the pros and cons of alternative medicine (including nutraceutical) options for pain management.
This book should be especially beneficial for patients needing information and options, when they continue to have symptoms of pain, despite following "physician orders". The book is highly recommended.

After about 2 weeks of trying Dr. Youngs methods I was pain free. I wish I had bought this book sooner. This book is packed with complementary, holistic and traditional remedies for almost any type of pain you can think of.

Finding relief from pain is sometimes a desperate struggle. Often it seems that some physicians and other health care practitioners take the easy way out and will throw low level narcotic relief at you with the hope that you will just go away. Its cheap, easy, and eff... well two out of three isn't bad. At other times they will deny your pain experience, and invalidate your suffering, especially, if you are a woman. The very complexity of the pain experience is often ignored.

WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is both amazing and helpful. The authors discuss traditional methods of pain relief and control as well as alternative methods. The explanations of both vitamin and herbal aids for pain relief and the many other methods are elegantly expressed in plain, simple language that can be understood by anyone.

WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is a masterful work about pain relief for women for this new millennium.

Dr. Youngs new book "Women And Pain..." led me to a life which someone like me would only dream of: a life with no pain. This book is the best book I ever bought. I suffered from migrains and back pain for over 7 years and the pain vanished after about 2 1/2 weeks of trying Dr. Youngs methods, I tried almost every other method out there and this is the only one that worked!

My daughter loves this book. It shows that friends don't have to be the same or like the same things.

I loved this book. I read it to 6 different classrooms (grades K and 1) All of them enjoyed it. The two girls, one white and one black, talk about their friendship. Sometimes they like that same things and sometimes they don't. But they are still best friends. I have also purchased this for our church library. It teaches the best way to be a friend without being at preachy. The illustrations are delightful

I read this book because I was considering using it in a college level diversity issues class that I teach for teachers and those preparing to be teachers. Once I read it, I knew that I would have to use it; I couldn't put it down! It was like a great novel. Hankins reminded me of the importance of truly listening to students and knowing them. That is an important message for teachers at any level. Plus her meditations on journal writings as data for qualiative research are fascinating. I recommend this book for anyone who could use a little inspiration.

Any teacher, from pre-service to veteran, would be greatly served by reading this book.

The marks of a great teacher are those that cannot be taught in even the best of teacher ed programs. These are the qualities of compassion, empathy, and sincere love for one's students. The author possesses these qualities; she shares them with the reader time and time again in the text.

The book is part reflection, part narrative. Through reflection/narrative, we enter into the lives of several first graders. At times, the horror of what children live through is overwhelming. At other times, Ms. Hankins' tender and creative methods of teaching the children are what leaps from the page (you find yourself wondering if you would ever have been able to think of such ingenious strategies for soothing the troubled 6 year old).

What stands out, though, is not the heartbreaking stories (although they are unforgettable), but how Ms. Hankins was able to better inform her teaching, and therefore better serve her students, by reflecting on the everyday occurrences in the classroom. Highly recommended book.

A Tutorial and Workbook for the Homeopathic Repertory is a guide for learning the structure, content, and use of the repertory, geared for beginning to intermediate students. Now being used as a required text for leading homeopathic schools in the United States and England, [circa 1994] this book is a step by step explanation of the homeopathic repertory, building an understanding of the repertory and including exercises and sample cases to allow the reader to develop skills in the use of it. Written in an amusingly informal, easy to comprehend style, Karen Allen has created a valuable tool for learning and using one of the standard homeopathic tools: Kent's Repertory.
--- from book's back cover

Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.

Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.

This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.

Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.

It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.

Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.

A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.

This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.

To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.

Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.

Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.

This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.

Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...

The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...

Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...

Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...

The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...

Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...

If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...

Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.

Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.

This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.

Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.

It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.

Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.

A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.

This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.

To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.

Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.

Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.

This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.

Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...

The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...

Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...

Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...

The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...

Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...

If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...

Received DVD quickly in the mail in excellent condition. Because this is an old release I was worried that the picture guality would be less than perfect, but I was happy to see that the color was vibrant, picture was clear and the sound was very good.

Everything from the acting to the plot, is really bad in this movie... I bought it out of the reviews I've read.. still I was very disappointed..

Very good acting and writing. Cool story of the New York life ,back in the day.

Bought this DVD for my husband. He had been searching and searching for it in stores, when I found it on Amazon I immediately bought it. Great price - Received DVD in good condition. Husband absolutely loved it.

Set in the Bronx in 1963, The Wanderers focuses on the life of several young gang members coming of age. On it's surface The Wanderers may seem like nothing more than a sytlish little ditty. But watch closely and you'll find this movie is an existential masterpiece.

Ken Wahl plays Richie, the handsome and charismatic leader of The Wanderers gang. Ken juggles his friendships, loyalties, girlfriends, and struggles to maintain his Italian gang's position in the neighborhood. The Wanderers face threats from The Wongs (the Chinese gang), The Baldies (the greaser gang), an Irish gang and a black gang. But while all these gangs fight eachother, they fail to recognize the real threats to their ethnic enclave are the end of the decade and existential angst.

Always on the edge of this movie is the threat of the Duckie Boys gang. The movie never identifies the ethnic identity of the Duckie Boys. Instead the viewer experiences them as a silent and secret hoard of white men emerging from the fog with calm, placid and psychotic smiles on their faces. The Duckie Boys seem to number in the hundreds-a creepy mass of nameless individuals. In a pivitol scene, The Wanderers and the Blacks have gathered at a football field for a throwdown-they see the enemy in eachother. But on the edge of the field the Ducky Boys quietly gather, waiting to strike. Black, Italian and Chinese band together to fight this hoard of angry and psychotic white men which seem to represent urban America-the America that threatens to swallow them all, force them to assimilate and leave behind their ethnic identities.

The threat of the end of an era is cleverly disguised in Nina (Karen Allen), a hip and beautiful hippie chick. Richie is enthralled with her, but is bound to his Italian girlfriend. He feels Nina's pull and in a climatic scene they end up in the back of Richie's car and then are discovered. Ultimately Richie returns to his girlfriend and is forced to marry her. But Nina never really leaves his mind. We see Richie at his bachelor party and he glimpses Nina on the street. He follows her to a club where Bob Dylan (the real Bob Dylan according to the movie credits) is playing "The Times They Are A Changing". Richie doesn't go in to talk to her, returns to the bachelor party and is swallowed up by the Italians. Indications are he is going to be a "made man", married to the daughter of a mafioso but their way of life is ending. The 1970's are approaching. Nina will no doubt go on to be a hip east villager and Richie will settle into the role he is forced to play by life's circumstances, never entering modern society. We are left feeling like Richie's generation will be the last of it's kind.

This movie achieves violence without being violent. Viewers taste threat and never quite know where it is coming from. The characters and acting in this movie are superb. The plot is subtle and unique. It isn't your modern gang movie where drugs and guns and violence are the fireworks of an otherwise extremely dull movie.

Received DVD quickly in the mail in excellent condition. Because this is an old release I was worried that the picture guality would be less than perfect, but I was happy to see that the color was vibrant, picture was clear and the sound was very good.

Everything from the acting to the plot, is really bad in this movie... I bought it out of the reviews I've read.. still I was very disappointed..

Very good acting and writing. Cool story of the New York life ,back in the day.

Bought this DVD for my husband. He had been searching and searching for it in stores, when I found it on Amazon I immediately bought it. Great price - Received DVD in good condition. Husband absolutely loved it.

Set in the Bronx in 1963, The Wanderers focuses on the life of several young gang members coming of age. On it's surface The Wanderers may seem like nothing more than a sytlish little ditty. But watch closely and you'll find this movie is an existential masterpiece.

Ken Wahl plays Richie, the handsome and charismatic leader of The Wanderers gang. Ken juggles his friendships, loyalties, girlfriends, and struggles to maintain his Italian gang's position in the neighborhood. The Wanderers face threats from The Wongs (the Chinese gang), The Baldies (the greaser gang), an Irish gang and a black gang. But while all these gangs fight eachother, they fail to recognize the real threats to their ethnic enclave are the end of the decade and existential angst.

Always on the edge of this movie is the threat of the Duckie Boys gang. The movie never identifies the ethnic identity of the Duckie Boys. Instead the viewer experiences them as a silent and secret hoard of white men emerging from the fog with calm, placid and psychotic smiles on their faces. The Duckie Boys seem to number in the hundreds-a creepy mass of nameless individuals. In a pivitol scene, The Wanderers and the Blacks have gathered at a football field for a throwdown-they see the enemy in eachother. But on the edge of the field the Ducky Boys quietly gather, waiting to strike. Black, Italian and Chinese band together to fight this hoard of angry and psychotic white men which seem to represent urban America-the America that threatens to swallow them all, force them to assimilate and leave behind their ethnic identities.

The threat of the end of an era is cleverly disguised in Nina (Karen Allen), a hip and beautiful hippie chick. Richie is enthralled with her, but is bound to his Italian girlfriend. He feels Nina's pull and in a climatic scene they end up in the back of Richie's car and then are discovered. Ultimately Richie returns to his girlfriend and is forced to marry her. But Nina never really leaves his mind. We see Richie at his bachelor party and he glimpses Nina on the street. He follows her to a club where Bob Dylan (the real Bob Dylan according to the movie credits) is playing "The Times They Are A Changing". Richie doesn't go in to talk to her, returns to the bachelor party and is swallowed up by the Italians. Indications are he is going to be a "made man", married to the daughter of a mafioso but their way of life is ending. The 1970's are approaching. Nina will no doubt go on to be a hip east villager and Richie will settle into the role he is forced to play by life's circumstances, never entering modern society. We are left feeling like Richie's generation will be the last of it's kind.

This movie achieves violence without being violent. Viewers taste threat and never quite know where it is coming from. The characters and acting in this movie are superb. The plot is subtle and unique. It isn't your modern gang movie where drugs and guns and violence are the fireworks of an otherwise extremely dull movie.