Zachariah

I've never seen this movie, but I had to jump in to the defense of the Firesign Theatre, and the popular misconception that they wrote this movie. In reading interviews with various members of the comedy team, the Firesign Theatre wrote *the first draft* of this movie which was meant to be a comedic adaptation of Sidhartha, set in the old west. Then what seems to have happened was that the studio executives assigned another writer to do a re-write (and probably tinkered a bit with the script themselves) and the final product bore only a passing similarity to the original script.

I do not think that the Firesign Theatre are in any way proud of this movie and don't mention it on their web-site.

"Zachariah" seems to be some sort of experiment, crossing the classic Western with the rock musical. Today it just seems absurd. (Electric guitars in the Old West? Who knew?) Today's audiences will recognize Don Johnson co-starring as Matthew, and Dick Van Patten's cameo as the Dude. Another noticeable performance is by Country Joe McDonald and the Fish, as an outlaw rock band, the Crackers. In its day "Zachariah" may have been popular with hippies and rock fans, and perhaps a few Western fans. Today, it seems like the thing for people who just want a good laugh. There is some good music, though, from White Lightnin' and the James Gang (not Jesse and Frank!). It's worth a look and a listen, even if you find you'd have to see "Zachariah" to believe such a movie was made!

I saw this movie when it first came out and occasionally think about it. It was called the 'first electric western', if I remember right. It was fun and funny and I'd like to see it again. I remember little after over thirty years, but I believe it was low budget with mostly outdoor scenes, desert at that. The 'outlaw' gang, 'The Crackers', had their own theme song, which they sang. I think Zacharia and his friend were marijuana farmers in the desert. I believe it was even called a 'cult' film, or something similar. It's hard to remember, after so many years, but I recommend this movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it again myself.

I saw this movie when it first came out, and I must say that it never tried to appeal to everybody's taste, perhaps not even mine.

However, one thing that has stuck with me for more than a third of a century is that someone in the group of about a dozen people that I was with suggested that this was in large part a remake of Siddhartha, just transposed into an off-beat western. Ultimately, the whole group concurred in this assessment, including myself (I had just finished reading the work by Hess -- the year being 1971). I got the feeling it was an effort to concoct a cult classic that just didn't hit the mark. Still, the cast is very representative of a group that would make such an effort, while not taking itself too seriously. Not great art, but a great page from the scrapbook of a counterculture.

There's a certain type of late 60s film that tries to communicate some kind of heavy psychedelic truth (El Topo, The Trip, 2001, World on a Wire).

And then there's the kind of late 60s film that's about irreverent psychedelic whimsy, nonsensically waving its freak flag high (Skidoo!, Head, Putney Swope, Brewster McCloud).

"Zachariah" aims to be both, and unfortunately fails at both. The whimsical parts seem to be based on the idea that combining rock music and the Old West is a hysterically funny idea. It isn't. The heavy parts reach for hippie cosmic-consciousness wisdom but come off very cliche.

A compelling narrative might make up for these two failures, but the acting and plot doesn't engage, either. (There is an implied homoerotic romance, but that's not developed enough to become interesting.) So the viewer is left holding the bag -- a horse feed-bag of dumb jokes, fake tripiness, and bad writing.

Oh I forgot -- the single redeeming element is Elvin Jones. Elvin freakin Jones, the greatest jazz drummer ever! And he's great! He should have been in more movies.