Comments on: Ugh… hippies

By: s.w.a.c.

s.w.a.c. — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:38:55 +0000

For some reason I have a sudden urge to watch Zabriskie Point.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:37:26 +0000

One lesson I picked up from ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE is never try to give a hippie his ID back after he’s already drove off.

By: Tara

Tara — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:03:59 +0000

Aw c’mon put your wig on and get funky. This piece was thought provoking. I don’t believe that any films made so far quite capture the true essence of hippiedom. I read somewhere that it’s music that best captures the ’60s and I would have to agree with that. I’m dating myself to say that I was just old enough to be in on some of the real stuff. I got to see the Haight at the height of its blossom. But since my parents were of the Bohemian generation, I no doubt kind of mix the two epochs. One thing that hasn’t been explored in any depth in film was the CIA influence on the hippie culture–since they were involved in several LSD Big dosing experiments in the San Francisco area. I believe this is partly because none of us wants to believe that we have been victims, especially of our own government. We prefer the romantic version…Am I getting side-tracked by conspiracy theory? Oops. My point is that there are a good number of angles on the era that have not been explored. What has been offered has been relatively shallow. Hopefully that can be remedied.

By: suzidoll

suzidoll — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:15:41 +0000

I like hippies as you say “from the inside,” and I know what you mean about Hollywood’s condescension on the subject. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen 1968′s SKIDOO with Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, and Frankie Avalon. Poor Groucho Marx was pulled into this mess, which is incomprehensible. John Philip Law plays the hippie. The plot has something to do with the Mob. Then there’s THE HAPPENING with Anthony Quinn, who plays a Mob boss kidnapped by hippies, led by Michael Parks and Robert Walker Jr. I don’t know why studio execs thought combining hippies with Mob bosses was funny.

By: wilbur twinhorse

wilbur twinhorse — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:52:19 +0000

“die yuppie scum, you are the problem.” What’s so great about harshing on a subculture you never knew? Ignorance comes in many flavors. peace

By: Roscoe

Roscoe — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:12:00 +0000

If you really want to see awful hippies in action, see “The Big Chill.” This 1982 film shows some hippies creeping into middle age with their hippie ideals intact. It’s gross. The scene when they all do the dishes to the tune of a Marvin Gaye song is almost unbearable. To me, hippydom is synonymous with sanctimoniousness. “The Big Chill” displays this in spades.

By: morlockjeff

morlockjeff — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:07:05 +0000

CISCO PIKE is a lot of fun and very schizophrenic in tone – part corrupt cop drama, part hippie drug movie. I’ve always wanted to see THE DEATHMASTER with Robert Quarry as a Count Yorga vampire-like leader of a hippie commune. THE HIPPIE REVOLT is a great time capsule documentary of the Haight Ashbury community shot at the height of the flower power movement.

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:21:00 +0000

This was quite amusing, and very well written. The movies seem sort of embarrassing to see, since they are stuffed with so many wrong-headed ideas about hippiedom as Hollywood tried to cash in on the culture clash. Having older siblings who might try to qualify as hippies, I met some who lived in communes, wanted to change the world and get laid, (not necessarily in that order). "And for the record, I like granola and think sandalwood smells good" The ones I met liked pot and smelled like patchouli. A couple of "Hippies on Campus" from the period that got almost everything wrong and second hand about hippies and seemed to be part of Hollywood's desperation to be hip. They never caught the real intensity of emotions on either side adequately, but did show an unerring smugness about both sides: Getting Straight (1970): Elliot Gould played a Vietnam Vet now working on his Master's degree on a campus fraught with conflict while he muses philosophically and annoyingly about "the generation gap". Candice Bergen played a beautiful and rather materialist ice princess, (what else, at that stage?). Harrison Ford again appears in a faux-hip bit part--this time with long hair. R.P.M.(1970): Anthony Quinn as a university head trying to have "a meaningful dialogue" with campus radicals and hippie types, while being distracted by Ann-Margret as his grad student-girlfriend who wore thigh high boots, (I forget what she was studying, and I suppose so did the audience). From Stanley Kramer, who was desperately trying to remain "relevant". Hippie Chicks on Film. These would make a great theme for TCM Underground: Tisha Sterling in Coogan's Bluff (1968) Laurie Bird in Two Lane Blacktop (1971) Kim Darby in underrated The Strawberry Statement (1970) Joy Bang (yes, that's her name) in anything, but especially Cisco Pike (1972). Btw, Wavy Gravy of Woodstock fame, makes an appearance too.

By: Jerry Kovar

Jerry Kovar — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:54:12 +0000

I am a WW vet (Woodstock Weekend – 78th row; 858th guy from the left)and for me WOODSTOCK is the ultimate hippie movie. Peace.

By: rhsmith

rhsmith — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:40:08 +0000

I purposely left out Alice's Restaurant and forgot about the hippie commune scene from Easy Rider when I was writing this... but I probably wouldn't have included a reference to either because the depiction of hippies in both was (at least I felt) more a view from the inside looking out than the typical Hollywood condescension on the subject.