It sounds as though a number of people found Ernest Thompson's "1969" a flat or even shallow look at the Vietnam era.* As someone born long after the '60s, I can only view it from today's standards. It does a good job showing the Vietnam War's effects on families, and how people made efforts to avoid the draft. My mom knew a boy who tried to escape to Canada to avoid the draft, but got ratted out and sent to Vietnam, where one of his legs got blown off. Obviously, it's hard to watch a movie about the '60s nowadays and not notice the similarities between the Vietnam War and the assorted wars of the past two decades.
Viewed from that perspective, it's an okay movie, with good performances from Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy (Dolores in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and Margaret on "Six Feet Under").
*Similarly, my mom's friend considered "Forrest Gump" a trivialization of the '60s.
Viewed from that perspective, it's an okay movie, with good performances from Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy (Dolores in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and Margaret on "Six Feet Under").
*Similarly, my mom's friend considered "Forrest Gump" a trivialization of the '60s.