very hard to follow from the start with no background knowledge of the story, do I need a degree in American Political history to watch this? debating turning off and only 10 minutes in now, wanted to love this film, it's making it difficult for me. Doesn't exactly ease the viewer in to the story
shareKnowing something of the history might help, but you can get that in five minutes from reading Wiki. Watching a few films set between 1920 and 1970 would also help with the general culture-awareness. Or simply read the Wiki page on the song 'We Didn't Start The Fire' by Billy Joel.
Beyond that, no, you don't need to know that much. Just relax and let the story unfold. It's one of those that jumps back and forth in time a bit, so just try and pay a little attention and you should be fine.
For the record, I know sod-all about US history ;-)
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Eastwood did a nonlinear bio of Charlie 'Bird' Parker and it worked there.
Here it rather got in the way of the story.
Its that man again!!
Non-linear storytelling is nothing new. Have you ever seen a Christopher Nolan film? He uses the technique of starting at the end often. I actually enjoy a film in that styling...not knowing what the hell is going on, and then slowly putting the pieces together as it circles back to the end.
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