magnolia soundtrack billboard 200 chart history 1999

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Utilizing exclusive interviews with former patrons, employees, and family members, intercut with riveting, never-before-seen archival materials, “American Swing' brings this little-known epic of sex and excess to the big screen for the first time. For some, it is a time capsule that they are eager to forget. Debutantes got it on next to bus drivers, as movie stars gave secretaries the “starlet treatment.” For Levenson and others, Plato's was a utopia. For a mere $35, couples checked their judgments and pedigrees at the door of this clothing-optional Disneyland.

But Plato's welcomed anyone and everyone.

Previously, swinging was mostly an underground activity, engaged in primarily by the attractive and the well-to-do. The brainchild of former wholesale meat purveyor Larry Levenson, Plato’s Retreat quickly emerged as the epicenter of public sex for the “me” generation. Meanwhile, in the basement of the prestigious Ansonia building on the conservative Upper West Side, Plato's Retreat opened its doors to ordinary couples who came to dance, to swim, and… to swap. Downtown, at the spartan CBGB’s, punk rockers set out to destroy everything Pop. In midtown, the ultra-exclusive Studio 54 was a cocaine-fueled celebrity clubhouse. As the metropolis hurtled into bankruptcy, the city's nightlife hit unprecedented heights. The year was 1977 and New York City burned.

The film is a road trip movie, a historic document, and an environmental call to arms, but mostly a meditation on what matters most in life –staying true to one's own vision and values. Jeff's life takes a turn when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature and have come to Patagonia to help use their influence to help protect it. Along the way, Jeff encounters big surf, snowy mountains, a dangerous ocean crossing, pulp mills, cowboys, dams and more on his way to climb Cerro Corcovado in Patagonia. This gorgeous, historic, and inspiring new film from director & surfer Chris Malloy and his collective at Woodshed Films, documents the adventures of surfer and climber Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard (rock climbing legend and founder of Ventura-based Patagonia) and Doug Tompkins, on which they drove, mountain climbed and surfed their way to Chilean Patagonia.

Magnolia soundtrack billboard 200 chart history 1999