Days of Eight

"Days of Eight" is set in 1968, in Dorchester, MA. The Vietnam War was at its peak and Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated. Boston was a city in turmoil, torn apart by racial strife and senseless acts of violence. 17-year-old Danny McSweeney is a good kid treading a fine line between standing up for what he believes in and maintaining his street cred. He's also helping his mother raise three kids after their father, a war veteran who struggles with his demons, went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back. His older sister Chrissy has made some foolish mistakes, like getting pregnant out of wedlock. His younger brother Frankie roams the streets with his friends, unsure of which way to turn and who to follow. Danny and his friends are in their last year of high school, ready to enter adulthood. For them and other kids in Dorchester, there are too few options and too many challenges: the threat of being drafted, drugs creeping into the neighborhood, hippies and longhairs changing the ways of the world, racial unrest, and riots in nearby Roxbury. After Danny and his friends crash an invitation-only party, a fight breaks out with kids from another corner, igniting a dangerous rivalry. In retaliation, one of his best friends is jumped after school, leading to his hospitalization and the need for revenge. Following an afternoon of ice skating with some friends, Danny helps a woman broken down in her car, leading to a job at a gas station. There, he earns self-respect and an honest paycheck. Devoted to his job and spending less time on the corner, he meets a local girl and learns about family, fatherhood, and the value of church. Things are going well until Danny is wrongly accused of stealing from work and loses his job. Thanks to a local cop, his name is cleared and he gets his job back. Despite his efforts, things unravel again, as the consequences of his and his friends' earlier actions catch up with Danny in a violent act of retribution. Undaunted, he does his best to stay on a straight and narrow path until his fate is cast once again.