Hippie films
Last month British director Beeban Kidron (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) began shooting Hippie Hippie Shake, about the adventures of Richard Neville, the publisher/editor of a famed counter-culture magazine called Oz that caught the airy-fairy mood and merriment of late '60s London. (It actually published from '67 to '73.) Universal will probably open it sometime in the fall of '08.
Written by Lee Hall and William Nicholson and based on Neville's same-titled 1996 memoir, the film will focus on (a) the magazine's general ups and downs, (b) an obscenity trail that resulted from Neville (Cillian Murphy) and colleagues distributing a certain sexually explicit issue, and (c) the relationship between Neville and girlfriend Louise Ferrier (Sienna Murphy).
I'd love to see this Tim Bevan-Eric Fellner production do it right, but haven't hippie films always been a problem? Isn't there some kind of curse upon any film trying to reenact or reconstitute that old love beads-slash-Bhagavad Gita-slash- Moody Blues vibe? Isn't there something immensely difficult if not impossible in trying to make that incense-and-peppermints chemistry seem palatable by the standards of 21st Century culture?
Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, Oliver Stone's The Doors...what other films over the last 15 or 20 years have gone back there? Has any '60s-era film felt half as authentic as Control does in its recreation of early to late '70s England?
The potential for hippie-film awfulness is huge. I guess I'm thinking of stinkers like Ernest Thompson's 1969 and Rob Cohen's A Small Circle fo Friends, and Larry Kasdan's decision to chop off the flashback sequence in The Big Chill because (according to legend) everyone looked vaguely silly in their hippie haircuts and tie-dyed T-shirts.
Miller during Hippie Hippie Shake shooting last month
The most in-the-pocket depiction of '60s vibes and attitudes came from five films -- Blow Up, Easy Rider, M.A.S.H. (set in early 1952 Korea but totally informed by Los Angeles hipster attitudes of 15 years hence), Who'll Stop The Rain? and Platoon.
Note: In the above protest-march photo, three darker-skinned women of an apparent Middle Eastern heritage are visible. This in itself makes Kidron's film seem slightly inauthentic. People of Middle Eastern ancestry (Indian, Pakistani, Iranian) are quite numerous in greater London today, but their numbers were smaller in the late '60s plus the strictness of their family and neighborhood culture has always discouraged outside fraternization and cross-fertilization, particularly with those of an anti-traditional counter-culture bent, and particularly among women.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 21, 2007 at 2:48 PM
comment #1
Joe Leydon
says ...
I'd add Wild in the Streets and Alice's Restaurant to that list. Also, as a Baby Boomer, I found Across the Universe to ring truer (for all its romanticized fantasy) than many critics give it credit for.
Posted by Joe Leydon
at October 21, 2007 6:04 PM
comment #2
D.Z.
says ...
I liked the idea when it was called, "Crumb" and "The People vs Larry Flynt"...
Posted by D.Z.
at October 21, 2007 6:19 PM
comment #3
Mgmax, le Corbeau
says ...
"Larry Kasdan's decision to chop off the flashback sequence in The Big Chill because (according to legend) everyone looked vaguely silly in their hippie haircuts and tie-dyed T-shirts."
Not to mention vaguely 40.
Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau
at October 21, 2007 6:32 PM
comment #4
erniesouchak
says ...
"Hair" worked pretty well.
Posted by erniesouchak
at October 21, 2007 6:33 PM
comment #5
James
says ...
What? Four comments already and no one's made mention of the Sienna Miller pic above? Which, according to Jeff's caption is from the set of the movie (as opposed to a publicity still)?
You guys are more mature than I am. Or than Jeff, for that matter. (Don't worry, Jeff, someone's bound to take the bait.)
Posted by James
at October 21, 2007 7:32 PM
comment #6
Josh Massey
says ...
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and hippies irritate the hell out of me.
Hmmm... to see this or not...
Posted by Josh Massey
at October 21, 2007 7:42 PM
comment #7
R. Hunt
says ...
I've got to agree with the earlier comment on "Across the Universe" which I approached with serious hesitation but loved more than just about anything I've seen all year. It's hard for most films about "The Sixties" (which is to say, the idea rather than the actual historical period) to come off as much more than a lot of kids in wigs and loud clothes acting like street mimes high on laughing gas. But the Oz story is an interesting one (awful title, though) and I wish it the best.
Posted by R. Hunt
at October 21, 2007 8:17 PM
comment #8
BurmaShave
says ...
There are clearer and more frank pictures of Miller out there from this set. I'm just saying...
Posted by BurmaShave
at October 21, 2007 8:22 PM
comment #9
lionsfan
says ...
Richard Rush's "Psych-Out" is one of the most enjoyable hippie movies. Not very good, but very enjoyable, with Jack Nicholson and Adam Roarke as members of a band (apparently they only play instrumentals), Susan Strasberg as a deaf mute, Bruce Dern as his usual-back-then crazo and Dean Stockwell as a perfidious guru.
For something more obscure, and quite a bit better, perhaps "Two People" (I think that's the title without checking IMB at this hour) with Peter Fonda as a draft dodger returning home and introducing Lindsay Wagner. Also "Welcome Home, Soldier Boys," which had a young Joe Don Baker doing his best Brando imitation (and helping to wipe out all the citizens of a town called "Hope" at the end).
And for a summing up of the then prevailing zeitgeist, "More" for the European side of things (they should probably run it now in Ibiza) and "Werewolves On Wheels" for the American version.
Posted by lionsfan
at October 21, 2007 8:58 PM
comment #10
drgogol
says ...
Actually, there was quite often a multicultural dimension to the British '60s: one of the great radical figures of the era was Tariq Ali, Salman Rushdie lived on the Kings Road during the Granny Takes a Trip era (I believe he actually lived upstairs from the boutique), there was a British equivalent to the Black Panthers led by a radical named Michael X, Mick Jagger (to name one of many) had lots of mixed race girlfriends, and there were plenty of Caribbean and South Asian faces at protest marches in Whitehall and Grosvenor Square. It wasn't as fully integrated as today's London, or as the American Civil Rights movement, but there are *many* period photos of darker-skinned kids in full hippie regalia. It would be very possible to find authentic images from the period that bore this out.
Posted by drgogol
at October 21, 2007 9:41 PM
comment #11
christian
says ...
PSYCH OUT is a personal fave and is actually fairly honest given its AIP backing. Richard Rush directed with excellent Lazlo Kovacs imagery. Nicholson wrote some of it and his character is pretty complex, not unlike his future roles. A great theme song too.
Then there's SKIDOO...
Posted by christian
at October 21, 2007 10:15 PM
comment #12
scooterzz
says ...
the studios just couldn't 'get it'..... i'd look to 'putney swope', the cockettes, early warhol for the truest depictions.....
and, imo, 'across the universe' got it much better than 'hair'......
Posted by scooterzz
at October 21, 2007 10:45 PM
comment #13
Walter Sobchak
says ...
Yo christian..... I have the old laserdisc of Psych-Out (but alas no player)... I heard that the DVD cuts a bunch of stuff out for length... is this true?.... and what stuff was cut out?
And does nobody dig Wild In the Streets?
Posted by Walter Sobchak
at October 22, 2007 2:21 AM
comment #14
frankbooth
says ...
"Note: In the above protest-march photo, three darker-skinned women of an apparent Middle Eastern heritage are visible. This in itself makes Kidron's film seem slightly inauthentic"
I noticed this immediately. Details like this make a difference.
It's comparable to setting a film in the Seventies in New York, and having your lead actor refuse to wear a hairstyle appropriate to the era.
Posted by frankbooth
at October 22, 2007 2:56 AM
comment #15
rashbot
says ...
What's even more inauthentic is the fact that in the miller nude stills, you can see her "landing strip". I'm no expert, but I don't think that pubic hair trimming was a priority for hippies during this time period.
Posted by rashbot
at October 22, 2007 6:08 AM
comment #16
Dave
says ...
Great. More self-sucking 60's love.
Why did the Boomers have to create nostalgia? The most pointless social force in human history, and every generation since is trapped in its self-destructive embrace.
Posted by Dave
at October 22, 2007 7:26 AM
comment #17
Hallick
says ...
"What's even more inauthentic is the fact that in the miller nude stills, you can see her "landing strip". I'm no expert, but I don't think that pubic hair trimming was a priority for hippies during this time period."
Good point. I think the look girls sported back then leaned more towards "heli-pad".
Posted by Hallick
at October 22, 2007 7:35 AM
comment #18
George Prager
says ...
PSYCHO-OUT rules. I'm also a big fan of GETTING STRAIGHT (not on DVD) and how about THE LANDLORD (not on DVD).
I dig WILD IN THE STREETS, Sobchak
That's Dave playing the Speaker of the House:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=53UqNTDFi0w
And here's THE TRIP:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vt6TDSZSPiI
Posted by George Prager
at October 22, 2007 7:57 AM
comment #19
christian
says ...
Walter, I don't know if the laser version has the cut scenes, but let me borrow your copy and I'll find out. The vhs is uncut and features a montage of Strasberg changing clothes and there are some little extra bits of dialogue. Rush showed the uncut print at the New Beverly a few months ago. Apparently there's a longer version too.
GETTING STRAIGHT is another Rush fave.
And Walter, no wonder you love WILD IN THE STREETS. It makes the hippy kids a vicious destructive force. It's kind of an ugly satire with some great scenes.
"The most pointless social force in human history,"
Except that force has impacted your life in a hundred ways that you simply take for granted. Like freedom of expression in American film. Maybe soon we'll see some great movies deifying the simpe racist jingoism of the 50's or the fuck-you-just-do-it 80's...
Posted by christian
at October 22, 2007 8:08 AM
comment #20
nemo
says ...
Hell, Medium Cool, Midnight Cowboy and The French Connection capture the late 60s and early 70s better than any of these hippie films.
Posted by nemo
at October 22, 2007 8:35 AM
comment #21
nemo
says ...
As do Blowup and Last Tango in Paris.
Posted by nemo
at October 22, 2007 8:44 AM
comment #22
christian
says ...
MEDIUM COOL absolutely. Far as I'm concerned the best American film of the 60's.
Posted by christian
at October 22, 2007 9:25 AM
comment #23
Joe Leydon
says ...
Speaking of Wild in the Streets: For a long stretch earlier this year, I noticed that Target was using "(Nothing Can Change) The Shape of Things to Come" from the Wild soundtrack in TV spots. Wonder how many other folks caught that?
Posted by Joe Leydon
at October 22, 2007 12:34 PM
comment #24
christian
says ...
Say it ain't so, Joe.
Say it ain't so.
Posted by christian
at October 22, 2007 12:42 PM
comment #25
Poteki123
says ...
Another manufacturer, however, might produce a REPLICA WATCHES UK a round gold face and a set of primary colored straps. The watch face might have a small insignia that looks like two interlocked Ds rather like the famous Chanel "C" logo. The fake breitling watches might even be packaged in a box that looks like the original. In this case, the maker is probably infringing on Chanel's copyright, and the product is illegal.
Posted by Poteki123
at November 29, 2011 12:07 AM