Watched!

This movie is all about cocaine, and I mean ALL about cocaine. For example, not only is this story about cocaine, but it is reputed to have been made under the influence of cocaine. Such story line as it has is so dull, that only being on cocaine could improve it, and I doubt even that. The main character, the good guy, is a drugged-out drug lawyer who is persecuted by the law solely for being too good at his job. That really annoys his persecutors, the bad guys, so they have a beef which causes them to bend the rules a little so as to nail the lawyer on a trumped up drug charge. This fact is presented as it it were some new kind of world class injustice, ranking right up there with Hitler and Stalin. But so what? The story is based on the experiences of a real person, a drug lawyer named Michael Metzger, who appears just for a moment, stoned in a crowd scene. This might have become a cult movie but it won't because there are too few people like this crowd to make a cult. Moreover,their lifestyles are so self-destructive, that not many of them could have survived long enough to produce living offspring.

One of many determinedly offbeat, slightly experimental 70s features that disappeared without a trace at the time but then resurfaced with home video, "Watched" is talky, incoherent, un-suspenseful (for an ostensible thriller), yet interesting as a period piece...if you like this sort of thing. The reliably eccentric/intense Stacey Keach plays a former San Francisco D.A. who had infiltrated various parts of the local counterculture, setting them up for drug busts, but becomes disillusioned with that task. Or is it that he's become an addict himself? After 75 minutes or so the film grows more reality/illusion-blurring trippy and suggests that the protagonist has been a coke-addled mess--though nothing previously really suggested that.

Tinged with the inevitable Watergate-era conspiracy paranoia, "Watched" doesn't quite have the energy, style or dramatic thrust to suck us into Keach's descent into madness. It often seems aimless and disorganized, albeit in that 70s way which nonetheless holds a certain fascination for some of us. There's one notably weird scene--conceptually great, though rather listlessly executed--when Keach reveals just how far gone he is by completely freaking out when his toupee is accidentally removed. There's also a standout performance by Warhol superstar Brigid Polk as a police informant who's even crazier than our hero. The portrait of SF counterculture life sliding into decadence, well past its idealistic Haight-Ashbury peak, is a plus though it doesn't occupy as much screen time as you might like.

The writer-director apparently never made another feature, and that's not surprising. (What's more surprising with movies like this is that they got financed--people sure took a lot more flying leaps with film projects back then.) It's not exactly good by any standard, but if you like odd 70s films, this one is worth a look.

You know what I like best about stores clearing out their old VHS titles in order to make room for DVD's? It's that once you sort through the five hundred teenage comedies from the 1980's, you come across a little gem like this for a measly couple of bucks.

WATCHED is a fascinating artifact from the last golden age of cinema. While equal parts cat-and-mouse thriller, psychedelia, futuristic drama and failed experimental film, it is no masterpiece by means. However, this film is indicative of a lot of 1970's cinema, which, while far from perfect, can be lauded for trying new things: the attempt is more important than the result. This is why I think even terribly flawed films of that decade are far more relevant than any assembly line crap that Hollywood churns out today and attempts to pass off as cutting edge.

Stacy Keach gives another strong performance in a bizarre film (and in this point in his career, his filmography was littered with unusual material: THE TRAVELING EXECUTIONER, END OF THE ROAD, BREWSTER McCLOUD...). He is a fugitive, a former DA, who is on the run from Harris Yulin, who purposely screwed up too many of the latter's drug busts in the Haight-Ashbury district. In the film's present (1980!), he watches tapes of himself back in the early 1970's. These scenes have an interestingly Orwellian touch to them (tape counter appears in the lower left of the images), but the central logic as to why these exist is lacking. So too do the trippy psychedelic sequences make little sense. The effect, nonetheless, matters more than the cause; plus, the lack of cohesion subtly compliments this story, which is after all, depicted in a society which is itself irrational and out of control.

This is best reflected in the observation that Keach's character purposely fouls up Yulin's militaristic attempts at busting a bunch of hippie kids and burdening the legal system, just because they have a joint in their pocket. It is even more amusing to watch these scenes today, in light of our Prime Minister's ambition to legalize the Mary Jane.

Plus, WATCHED is valuable for its unflinching look at Haight-Ashbury... LONG after the peace and love had faded, yet the drugs just got harder, and people's lives just got more screwed up. It even surpasses RUSH in its depiction of early-1970's counterculture burnout. This is even reflected in its casting choices. What better irony to show that the 1960's had faded by sticking in one of Warhol's superstars well past the glory days (Brigid Polk, who is startlingly good as an undercover narc who is unable to "make" Keach)?

That said, WATCHED is perhaps too ambitious for its budget and screenplay, but viewing it today makes it a fascinating experiment from what now seems like another planet; by all means check out this curiosity. Plus, the opening music is by none other than Weather Report, so how can you go wrong?