Revolution

Revolution, an interesting quasi-documentary on the hippie experience in San Francisco, presents a day in the life of Today Malone, an attractive blond hippie (who might just be an attractive young actress playing a hippie). As with many of such films from the era, we're treated to lengthy pro- and anti-hippie banter, hallucination scenes, free-love themed nudity and excellent music (in this case, Country Joe and the Fish, The Steve Miller Band and Quicksilver Messenger Service, all at the creative peak of their careers). While at times absurd, this film nevertheless provides a fascinating document of the environment of hippie San Francisco, even if seen through exploitative eyes. As with the garbage on eBay, one needs simply to filter out the garbage to find the invaluable treasure.

I was in high school on the San Francisco Peninsula when this film was shot. I may or may not have seen it before. My memory does not serve me as well as it did! Anyway, I had the album soundtrack for a long time and always wanted to see the movie because the music was so indicative of that time in the Bay Area. I always loved Tracy Nelson (the lead singer of Mother Earth) who sang the title track. To make a long story short...I had always heard that it was somewhat of a "plastic" film. Having Tivo'd it recently, I realized that this documentary really GETS IT. The liquid light shows, the last scene in Buena Vista Park in the Haight and the interviews with some of San Francisco's still finest (Rev. Cecil Williams, the staff of The Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, The Mime Troupe and the late Herb Caen). This movie DOES chronicle and capture the essence of that time period. The current Haight Ashbury has continued to practice some of the spirit of that time, but "hippiedom" was such a fresh concept in the late '60's. Now, well...have we learned anything in retrospect?

Jack O'Connell produced and directed this patchwork portrait of the hippie scene in 1967. The best parts are the rock band live performance sequences, although some of these clips were staged to appear as though they were filmed at ballroom dance concerts. Which is similar to what other films and TV shows at the time tended to do, rather than film an regularly scheduled club or ballroom dance concert with all the craziness of a real gig in full swing. PETULIA (1967) for example featured Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Co. performing at the unlikely venue of The Fairmont Hotel. PETULIA also captured The Grateful Dead playing on the dance floor - not even on a stage -in a very small club setting. REVOLUTION (later reedited and retitled THE HIPPIE REVOLUTION, briefly released theatrically in 1996) had a soundtrack album of studio takes that doesn't include all of or match versions of songs played live in the movie: Quicksilver Messenger Service are hard to make out in the dark, but perform a rousing "Codine" before the band is abruptly cut away from half way through the number; the all-girl band Ace of Cups perform "The Grass Is Greener" live in the park - sounding about as garage as any SF hippie rockumentary ever get; Dan Hicks of The Charlatans does an acoustic solo ditty called something like "He's Stoned" that's a nice rarity; and I'm not too wild about the footage of Country Joe & the Fish or the early Steve Miller Band but it is after all a hippie movie with Hare Krishnas and everything else that defined the wide-eyed idealism of the age.

While I'm not crazy about the soundtrack, I agree with both:

Seeing this film was like reliving my teen years..., 28 May 2004 9/10 Author: (karenletitiaZ) from Northern California

AND

bad film-making, good documentation, 20 May 2001 Author: Matt Moses from Brooklyn, NY

re: relating the overall fundamental experience of the times -- and a much more satisfying one than "The Trip" w/ Peter Fonda (and I forget who else). For those who'd like to view a fiction film that truly captures the essence of the mid-60s to mind-70s (or so), I most highly recommend (the still virtually unheard of and WAY under-viewed and under-appreciated) Authur Penn's "Four Friends" -- Look it up!!

For those who wish to know more re: the politics behind the time -- i.e., how LSD came into the drug scene and why it's been outlawed -- I most highly recommend this most-excellent article!:

www(dot)mind*mined (dot) com/ public_ library/ nonfiction/ Jessica_ Locke_ del_ Greco _ L*S*D _research (dot) html -- REMOVE the Asterisks, blank spaces, change her name to SMALL Case, etc.!!

"LSD Research: An Overview" by Jessica Locke Del Greco

While not a user, I read 1/2 dz. books on LSD (back when), but, as mentioned by one guy in "Revolution," I was scared off by the media dis-information (Read the above article!!) and were the pharmaceutical- quality available in a environmentally friendly and *clinical* setting, I'd love to try to improve my state of Being!

Revolution is kind of interesting at first, just to see Haight Ashbury at the height of hippiedom, but the movie is so shapeless and rambling that by the last half hour I was fast forwarding through dozens of naked hippie chicks because I just couldn't take any more. It's also very strange to see a documentary with a star, in this case Today Malone. There are documentaries that focus on someone, but this seems more like the director had a crush on a girl and decided he would feature her in a movie so he could hang out with her, or something.

One imagines the filmmakers were stoned while shooting and editing. Nothing has any sort of context and amazingly dull, stupid people are allowed to prattle on at great length. Still, watching the movie it does look like it would have been fun to be part of the whole thing.