Almost too relevant for its own good, this is a hauntingly realistic interpretation of life in the 60s. It consists of draft dodging techniques, clues to the Kennedy assassination and making low budget porn. Following three friends, you really get a sense of what it was like to be a guy in his 20s at the brink of the Vietnam War. It’s a subject that you don’t often see that much in film, but this does it so well that I don’t see the need to do it anywhere else. Brian De Palma presents a very experimental looking film that takes the camera places it doesn’t usually go. With a series of jump cuts, odd focus changes and panning, you’re being given a lens that wasn’t typical of the time period. It also happens to be Robert De Niro’s first starring role and an amazing one at that. Jon Rubin is an intellectual peeping tom that uses his manipulation skills to lure girls and film them stripping nude.

A fascinating time-capsule from Brian De Palma, featuring Robert De Niro. The pair had previously worked together in 1963 on a film called "The Wedding Party", which still hadn't been released theatrically by the time "Greetings" came out in 1968. You can tell how dated this film is by listing its primary interests: draft-dodging, the Vietnam War in general and conspiracy theories surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. In fact, just about the only topic the film deals with which hasn't dated is that ageless concern of young people the world over, getting laid. There's no discernible plot or a particular point being made here; it's just an irreverent, episodic, freewheeling, ballsy poke in the eye to the prevailing sacred cows of the time. De Palma's thematic interest in voyeurism can be traced back to De Niro's character in "Greetings", Jon Rubin, who would be further developed in the superior sequel, "Hi, Mom!" a couple of years later. Gerrit Graham is very funny as an obsessive critic of the Warren Commission, and there's a great scene where he meets a paranoid eyewitness to the JFK assassination in a bookstore: "There's a plaster cast of the pillow that was used to smother my aunt!"