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Watch Online / Halftime: Five Yale Men at Mid-life (1989)
Desc: Halftime: Five Yale Men at Mid-life: Directed by David Sutherland. For many men, midlife transition is a period of emotional turmoil rooted in the disparity between what they have become and what they had dreamed of becoming. Halftime takes a candid look into the lives and emotions of five Yale graduate men at midlife. The program profiles five men from the Yale University class of 1963. A Hollywood producer, a psychotherapist, a prosecutor, a former executive of a large upstate New York corporation and a Nebraska bank president struggle against the taboo of males openly discussing their emotions, as they confront such turbulent issues as career failure, infidelity, virility and homosexuality. Halftime emerged from a questionnaire sent to all members of the Yale Class of 1963 in preparation for its 25th reunion. From 800 questionnaires mailed, 500 were returned. Some 200 classmates agreed to be taped for national television, and from those the final five were selected. David Sutherland says, "The program focuses on what these men are feeling in this current chapter of their lives." Each of the five men was videotaped at home, at work and at play, among family and friends. Each then individually came to New Haven, Connecticut, for in-depth, eight-to-nine-hour interviews by Dr. Daniel J Levinson, whose pioneering study of the male life cycle was reported in his best seller, The Seasons of a Man's Life. All of the interviews were taped. Finally, the five returned to New Haven, met for the first time and spent the weekend talking openly with each other about their emotions. There, they candidly discussed issues that they never shared with their friends, spouses, and sometimes even themselves.