Post by Her 69 Eyes on Dec 31, 2010 23:48:50 GMT -5
MVZ MMC: December 2010
Head (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1968)
Head (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1968)
The Monkees -- Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork -- didn't really enjoy being labelled the Prefab Four back when their TV series was all the rage in 1966. With the help and support of Bob Rafaelson (co-producer, co-writer and director) and Jack Nicholson (co-producer, co-writer, and, if you look closely, bit player), the Monkees expressed their displeasure over being packaged for popular consumption in the non sequitur masterpiece Head. At least, it seems that the film is an indictment of the merchandising of pop stars. It's hard to tell at times, because Head literally has no plot; it is instead a patchwork of loopy sight gags, instant parodies, "camp" cutups, musical numbers and wry inside jokes. Clips of such old movies as the 1934 Karloff-Lugosi epic The Black Cat pop up every so often, as does an impressive lineup of pop-culture icons: Victor Mature, Annette Funicello, Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa (he's the one leading a cow) and Ray Nitschke, as well as such movie-trivia "answers" as Timothy Carey, Vito Scotti, Teri Garr, Percy Helton, Logan Ramsey, Carol Doda, and pre-Divine cross-dresser T.C. Jones. The best bits include a lengthy Golden Boy parody which does double duty as a lampoon of the network's efforts to create "personalities" for the individual Monkees, and a psychedelic buck-and-wing performed by Davy Jones. One gag, in which Micky Dolenz blows up a Coca Cola machine, is usually excised from TV showings. Head did zero business when it first came out thanks to poor distribution, but it has since become a fixture of midnight-movie showings and campus cinema classes.
I started hating this movie a few minutes in. I've never found much pleasure in these sort of psychedelic, LSD-inspired pictures - I find them indulgent and dreadfully boring. Shortly into Head, I was under the impression that I knew everything that the film had to offer - triple, sometimes quadruple exposures and a barrage of colors. As the film went on, however, my defenses were broken and I began to embrace it. It's an insightful, highly inventive work, whether the filmmakers were sober enough to realize it or not.
The film perfectly captures a certain early-twenties baby boomer sensibility. The 1950s brought the golden age of television, and growing up in that era you had the first generation of people whose experiences were closely intertwined with what was on the television. The media - particularly Hollywood - now invading the home was completely uncharted territory. In the late 60s, these kids who had grown up with television sets were now demonstrating how their experiences had been shaped by what they had watched. In the film, multiple genres are exploited and stars are demonstrated as larger-than-life personas (as we see with a small appearance by western star Victor Mature, who is literally a giant). Additionally, there's a Marlon Brando parody, as well as a number of clips from films like The Black Cat and Gilda, and so on.
I'd imagine that a similar entertainment would play well today. It has the same sort of self-referential humor that we see in many modern comedies and sitcoms. The audience of young adults at the time must have felt like they were the co-authors of the work - the film is an anti-establishment, rebellious satire with a sharp edge. Even at it's worst, Head is a valuable historical document of a very particular mindset.
Look out for the aforementioned Victor Mature, in addition to a hammy performance by Paths of Glory star Tim Carey, and a series of cameos by the cast of Easy Rider, Frank Zappa, and a young Teri Garr.
My MMC History:
12/31: Head (Rafelson, 1968): 3.5/5
12/31: Le bonheur (Varda, 1965): 5/5
12/31: Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966): 4.5/5
12/31: Alphaville (Godard, 1965): 2.5/5
12/16: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Aldrich, 1963): 3/5
12/14: The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963): 3.5/5
10/30: Blood for Dracula (Morrissey & Margheriti, 1974): 4/5
10/30: Flesh for Frankenstein (Morrissey & Margheriti, 1973): 3/5
10/30: Eyes Without a Face (Franju, 1960): 3.5/5
10/30: Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960): 5/5
10/29: Onibaba (Shindô, 1964): 4/5
10/14: Near Dark (Bigelow, 1987): 3.5/5[/url]
10/13: Vampyr (Dreyer, 1932): 5/5[/url]
10/06: Daughters of Darkness (Kümel, 1971): 3.5/5[/url] [/size]