SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

heathfilmore It's difficult, and somewhat unfair, to judge any artistic work based on the prejudices and attitudes of today, yet one can't go back in time and judge them from those of its own era. The best one can do is critique from known and accepted principles, in this case, a film, on acting, story and execution. On acting, it's hit and miss. The best actor is evened out by the worst, so it's a wash. On story, it's an idea, not a plot; a rambling series of incidents portraying the time--to that, it's a disjointed mess. Sad instead of poignant; whimsy instead of humor; bathos instead of drama. On execution, well it is Arthur Penn so it does have a certain flair, a certain style, yet it never catches hold; the themes are muddled and unclear; the characters are at times more pathetic and irritating than involving; oddly joyless. The editing is also haphazard. If Penn was going for "a statement" he instead created "a comment;" a cinematic throat-clearing. It's fine to make a film that creates more questions than answers, but the viewer is left to puzzle things out that shouldn't have been a puzzle, which just creates more mud. In the end, AR is of its time, one long past, and in hindsight perhaps best left on the shelf, for as the one thing the film does show is that "the hippie dream" was born in false freedom, filth, suspect mysticism and beliefs, and ended--like the movie--in confusion, sadness, heartbreak, and an eventual acceptance of society norms.

fredupchurch I remember like it was last week. We all went to the old Visualite Theater in Charlotte and saw it. I have nearly no memory of it at all, except the song and Arlo G. singing and the Woody characterI recall nothing else at all about the plot or how it was directed.I just stumbled across the movie watching TCM.Next Sunday ! plan to ask our minister to re-apply our vows. Wife and I have been through a lot of stress and uncertainty lately.

Hitchcoc Having listened to record a few hundred times, I was intrigued to see this movie. It turned out to be a visual representation of the song. The throwing away of the garbage in Stockbridge, the draft physical, the big dinner, and all that. It's a series of vignettes culled from the song. Arlo is really quite good. He has kind of a dizzy look about him. In a kind of Marx Bros. mentality, things fall apart around them but nothing ever seems to get to them. Of course, the most outrageous part is the effort of the police to find evidence against Guthrie and the litterers that shamed the investigation of the Kennedy assassination. It's a fun, relatively unmemorable movie that only means something to us sixties guys.

Milan This film is a high point of the alternative 60's cinema, that marked the end of that decade through films such as: "Head", "Trip","Bonnie & Clyde", "Blow-Up", and most notably "Easy Rider". This portrayal of rock'n'roll, free wheelin' lifestyle, is differently put in each of these movies, but Alice's restaurant is special. This is the movie not out of the novel or a short story, but out of a song, popular "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie, and it plays well on screen too. It's tripy, it's funny, and funny in a way that only life can direct it to be, it's political, but gently so, and it's making a point. A point about life, a point about music, a point about society and war, and most importantly a point about drugs. This picture is one of it's kind, and it will never fade with age. Arthur Penn did a good one here as well, and it probably came out the way it did because of Penn and Guthrie, and their unique talents combining. Brilliant!