It's a Revolution Mother

The people who made this documentary must have been on dope. Oh, wait, a lot of people back then were on dope. I was eighteen the summer of 1969 and this movie was such a cool look backward for me through the mists of time from the summer of 2023. Actually, some of those mists were likely clouds of pot smoke, but I already said that a lot of people were on dope back then. There was a lot of Youth Culture propaganda in the movie, stuff about how these hippies and bikers "doing their own thing" were some sort of wave of the future and we were going to see big changes and consciousness expansion in coming decades. During the lifetime that has passed between 1969 and now, a lot of it seems a little naive and reminded me of that time when I thought I knew everything, too. The kids in this movie had such hope and confidence on their faces, especially at the anti-war rallies and music festivals. I have photographs of myself at that age with the same look on my face. We were so sure we had all the answers back then. Considering how screwed up the world is today, where did we go wrong?

Aside from the incorrect predictions, it was cool seeing what we now call classic cars when they were new, and to pick out in the crowd scenes the clothing we all wore back then, the fringed leather jackets, Mexican ponchos, headbands, bell bottoms, paisley shirts, and all the rest. Younger people might be bored by this documentary but people of my generation should check it out.

Near the bottom of my list of entertaining mondo or 60s 'docudrama'; its highpoint, supposedly, is footage of teen riots on Sunset - but they're notable primarily for their dearth of riotousness. The coverage switches to the biker societies then emerging into their prime, and uses voiceover narrative from one of the bikers to provide a sort of home movie view of their travails. This bits worthwhile for its pathetic glimpse, even if it does recycle some footage of bikers public urination efforts once or twice more than we needed along the way.

The film's deskbound experts also offer only anaesthetic commentary, in effect trying to use a 'white coater' approach to a sociological expose, but they forgot to load in the salacious footage.

Scant.

One thing this visually messy, uncensored docu captures is the spirit of domestic revolt from the early 1950's to the anti-Vietnam uprisings of the '60s. That early part with biker counter-culture (Aliens) is really more reflective of the '50s when some urban free-wheelers found motorcycles more fulfilling than the cultural conformity of the post-WWII years. (Check out Brando's The Wild One, 1952, for an early foreshadowing.) Then, after much visual cascading as the scenes flash by, the movie's setting moves into the more explicit anti-war movements of the '60s. At some murky point, the movie messaging slowly becomes more coherent amidst the general visual chaos, finally culminating in a rather eloquent read-over of an antiwar letter apparently penned by a young adult of the time. All in all, given what's gone before, it's an unexpectedly coherent summation of the radical 60's period.

Note the generally optimistic expectations of the 60's antiwar rebels that the flick conveys. It's as though their dissidence amounts to an irresistable wave of the future. Trouble is the docu was assembled in '69 at the rebellion's peak. But once the war in Vietnam ended in the mid-70's the fire burned out leaving the docu as a messy if mood-capturing record of the time. So, if you can manage the cascading visuals catch up with this genuine oddity.

This is a decent 60's documentary. it focuses primarily on a biker club known as the Aliens. But aside from all that, the narrator (whether intentional or not is funny as hell). just some of the words and phrases he uses cracks me up.

Hello, I'm the drummer with the band (Black Forest Rhodes) on the beach with the biker gang. No stage we just set uo in the sand and hoped for the best. Bikers dosed the band, Who knew the punch was spiked. Very strange day for us. Can't believe that Amazon Prime picked this up. The commentary is just laughable. Good to see some folks enjoyed this. Wish they had live sound of the band though instead of the cheesy music they overdubbed the the whole movie with, no smart phones way back in 1969.

Now in my 70's it's crazy to see myself at 18 years old. Thanks Amazon for ading this to your line up. Cool man, Rock on. This is so bad it's good.