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07 August 2007

HEAD, a.k.a., the 1968 movie in which the Monkees self-destructed their career and their image, with Jack Nicholson's help. →[More:]

I finally got to see HEAD over the weekend, after being a fan of the music from the film (ok, I like a lot of the Monkees' music, I admit it) ever since I was young. The movie is plotless, satirical, acid-soaked, and sometimes even angry. It was written by Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, who went on to collaborate on Five Easy Pieces and The Postman Always Rings Twice. It tanked at the time, of course- the Monkees were seen as a group for kids, and this movie wasn't made for kids. (I'm not sure WHO it was made for, other than the people involved, really.) Reviews at the time were mostly negative, but it has since come to be appreciated for what it is: a funny, indulgent piece of druggy cinema with a few cool pop tunes (some of which are linked below).

Some memorable scenes (wow, a LOT of this movie is on YouTube): Mickey Dolenz trashing a Coke machine in the desert, before being surprised by the Italian Army- who surrender to him and hand over their weapons. The entire band being mercilessly mocked by a waitress in a diner (a waitress played by a man, at that). Some amazing editing during Davy Jones' song-and-dance "Daddy's Song" (this suffers a bit from YouTube's compression, but will give you a taste). And of course, the first scene in the movie, where Dolenz jumps off a bridge and doesn't die, but rather, meets a bunch of trippy mermaids while my favorite Monkees tune "Porpoise Song" plays on the soundtrack.

And, the songs:

Porpoise Song
Circle Sky (live version) This is the version o song which appears in the movie, however, when the soundtrack was originally released, it only contained a studio version of the song where, you guessed it: none of the Monkees played any of the instruments.
Can You Dig It?
and finally, Daddy's Song. After the cool dance routine (linked above), Frank Zappa shows up along with a talking cow, and proclaims, "That song was pretty white."

post by: BoringPostcards at: 18:08 | 15 comments

The diner scene is all the more scathing when you consider Jack's moment in Carnal Knowledge.

The Columbo episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case" is said to pay a spiritual homage to Jack's screenwriting during the scene with Jamie Lee Curtis.

posted by Smart Dalek 07 August | 18:56

"Hey hey we are the Monkees,
you know we aim to please.
A manufactured image
with no philosophies."

"A misleading ad campaign (featuring a balding man's face and no mention of The Monkees), combined with a poorly timed release date (due to postproduction delays) of 6 November 1968, two months after "The Monkees" (1966) show was canceled, sabotaged this otherwise fun-loving crowd-pleaser at the box office. It made a meager $16,111 in ticket sales."

I saw it a couple months ago, mainly to give it a chance. I wasn't expecting much because I had already seen what Nicholson and Hopper had done with The Trip.

I guess though Nicholson learned something from that experience, because Head was in the same vein but much improved. I was surprised at how quickly the movie moved.

posted by mischief 07 August | 19:09

There was a brief period of LSD inspired movies, S.O.B. was another one to my mind.

Tom Jones seemed to have some kind of trippy sensibility underpinning it too.

Acid inspired movies: got any more anyone?

posted by StickyCarpet 07 August | 19:12

I remember loving this movie when I saw it in high school... haven't seen it since then, though, so I'd be curious to see what my reaction would be now. Great to see these clips in the meantime, though -- thanks!

And yeah, "The Porpoise Song" is amazing. "Goodbye, goodbyyyyye..."

posted by scody 07 August | 19:25

No, I left this one behind with my old mushroom trips; if I want to freak out, I'll watch Bunuel.

posted by chuckdarwin 07 August | 19:48

Acid inspired movies: got any more anyone?

Not necessarily acid inspired, but certainly in the same genre is The Magic Christian. The Terry Southern book it's based on is also a ton of fun.

I'm afraid I found most of Head terribly dull, though it has its moments.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 07 August | 20:03

The Trip was horrible. Done by Jack Nicholson. So bad it was almost funny.

posted by ethylene 07 August | 20:08

I saw a projection of the The Trip while at Penn State. I said to my friends at the end, "It's a good thing we're so stoned. If we'd been tripping, we'd been bored to tears."

posted by mischief 07 August | 20:17

What's funny is that while we were watching Head, my partner and I almost bailed out on it several times, but we sort of stuck with it just out of stubbornness. (It IS only 96 minutes after all.) But now I find I keep remembered stuff from it and laughing over it, and kind of want to see it again.

posted by BoringPostcards 07 August | 20:45

I'm actually a big fan of this movie. It's a weird flick -- a movie about an acid trip meant for stoners. The music is really fun; some great pop songs. My fave: Mike Nesmith's "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" -- Nesmith was a really good songwriter.

And it's really interesting looking at it as major "fuck you" from the Monkees to the tv folk -- they did everything they could in this movie to burn their bridges behind them after the show got cancelled.

Does it drag a bit at times? Yep, but some of the set pieces are just brilliant. And I still don't know what the hell Victor Mature is supposed to be doing.

posted by croctommy 07 August | 23:31

Love this movie. It's so hard to get people to give it a chance -- as soon as you say "Monkees mov--" they immediately tune out whatever it is you're going to say next.

posted by treepour 07 August | 23:50

i'd watch it. i think i might have.

posted by ethylene 08 August | 00:00

I saw it last summer - actually almost a year ago, it's funny - at Walk In Theater, which happens once a month behind my local bar: the indie dvd rental place screens movies on a sheet in the parking lot which is closed to cars and everyone brings chairs and blankets and drinks beer and eats hotdogs. Here's my review (scroll down to last two paragraphs.) It was painful but enjoyable: I went in never having heard of it, expecting to relive my crush on Mickey Dolenz and Mike Nesmith and instead found that I'd wandered into somebody else's acid trip. That was cool with me but there were a lot of parents with small kids in the audience and concomitant angry murmurs to the same effect.

posted by mygothlaundry 08 August | 09:38

Honestly, I think it's one of the better (non-performance, non-documentary) movies with rock stars in it.

posted by box 08 August | 10:17

MGL, your observation about how damn YOUNG the Monkees look was something I noticed, too. I mean, yikes.

I never had any Monkees crushes as a kid, but in the 80s I thought Mike Nesmith grew up to be kind of a hottie. Then many years ago, I kinda sorta hit on Mike Nesmith's son (Jason), who lives here in Atlanta, without knowing who his dad was. So at least I'm consistent.

posted by BoringPostcards 08 August | 12:06

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