Monday, April 10, 2006
When Hippies Were in Flower
This is my Zip.ca review of Alice's Restaurant. The title, by the way, refers to the McGill Red & White Revue of 1968, which was sort of a "Hair" rip-off. I had a small role in the chorus.
I find it odd that this movie is categorized as a comedy. Although there are some funny moments - particularly in the scene at the draft board, especially Arlo's banishment to Group W for the crime of littering - this film is definitely more bitter than sweet.
What I found particularly interesting is that the pervading elegiac tone was there from the beginning. I saw this movie when it came out in 1969 and found it sad then. It's still sad. Consider that the movie ends with a wedding, but is preceded by a funeral and a death. And the beautiful, lingering final shot of Alice after her church wedding shows her to be decidedly less than thrilled.
The movie is based, of course, on the legendary Arlo Guthrie folk song, "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree", which tells the story of how he was rejected by the U.S. Army because he disposed of some garbage by the side of the road. It's a wistful and funny song, and an effective protest against the War - that's the Vietnam War for you young'ns. And the essence of these two incidents is retained in the movie.
But director Arthur Penn and screenwriter Venable Herndon make this plot secondary to the story of Ray and Alice, who are both surrogate parents for Arlo and other hippies, and themselves sort of hippies manqué. They also add a character who did not exist, a young man named Shelly who is trying to kick his heroin habit and who has a brief affair with Alice.
The overwhelming tone of the movie is one of regret: regret for the lost sense of community that existed briefly in the United States when Arlo's father Woody raised the spirit of the Depression poor; regret for the evanescence and perhaps unreality of the feeling of community that hippies and progressives longed for in the 60s; and regret for the squandered lives of young people lost in the changes of that time.
In its quiet, slow, and subtle way, this is a very moving film.
One small note: I remembered the sex scene between Alice and Shelly being much hotter than what appeared here. The DVD claims to be the "never before seen R-rated version, so I am puzzled. As for the 2001 commentary by Arlo, I only listened to about the first 10 or 15 minutes. He's an amiable and rather simple fellow, much as he was 30 years earlier; but he doesn't have much to say.
I find it odd that this movie is categorized as a comedy. Although there are some funny moments - particularly in the scene at the draft board, especially Arlo's banishment to Group W for the crime of littering - this film is definitely more bitter than sweet.
What I found particularly interesting is that the pervading elegiac tone was there from the beginning. I saw this movie when it came out in 1969 and found it sad then. It's still sad. Consider that the movie ends with a wedding, but is preceded by a funeral and a death. And the beautiful, lingering final shot of Alice after her church wedding shows her to be decidedly less than thrilled.
The movie is based, of course, on the legendary Arlo Guthrie folk song, "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree", which tells the story of how he was rejected by the U.S. Army because he disposed of some garbage by the side of the road. It's a wistful and funny song, and an effective protest against the War - that's the Vietnam War for you young'ns. And the essence of these two incidents is retained in the movie.
But director Arthur Penn and screenwriter Venable Herndon make this plot secondary to the story of Ray and Alice, who are both surrogate parents for Arlo and other hippies, and themselves sort of hippies manqué. They also add a character who did not exist, a young man named Shelly who is trying to kick his heroin habit and who has a brief affair with Alice.
The overwhelming tone of the movie is one of regret: regret for the lost sense of community that existed briefly in the United States when Arlo's father Woody raised the spirit of the Depression poor; regret for the evanescence and perhaps unreality of the feeling of community that hippies and progressives longed for in the 60s; and regret for the squandered lives of young people lost in the changes of that time.
In its quiet, slow, and subtle way, this is a very moving film.
One small note: I remembered the sex scene between Alice and Shelly being much hotter than what appeared here. The DVD claims to be the "never before seen R-rated version, so I am puzzled. As for the 2001 commentary by Arlo, I only listened to about the first 10 or 15 minutes. He's an amiable and rather simple fellow, much as he was 30 years earlier; but he doesn't have much to say.
# posted by Stephen @ 11:59 a.m. 
