O Clamor da Juventude

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.

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.

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.

Firesign Theatre has distanced themselves from the film, having spoken of a script they wrote for a comic western "that was never made." But this is a quirky little coming-of-age tale some years BEFORE "Blazing Saddles" that has a lot of fun trying to cram rock and roll, dope and westerns into the same screen. Uneven, certainly, but with a number of rewards. Sort of like a Firesign Theatre album.

Oh, how I love late 60s/early 70s Hollywood! When the studios figured to capture the turned on youth market, but had NO CLUE what was really going on! Great era when almost anything could be passed off as psychedelic, and weirdos like the Firesign Theatre could co-write a movie and GET IT MADE. Grooovy!

'Zachariah' is a unique, rock'n'roll western, which is so lame brained and misguided it turns out to be one of the most entertaining movies of the period. Just check out the cast! Pretty boy Don Johnson, TVs John Rubenstein, Country Joe and The Fish, and DICK VAN PATTEN! Add to that a Who-inspired James Gang (with a young, clean shaven Joe Walsh) and Coltrane's legendary drummer Elvin Jones, and you've got a truly, er, UNIQUE proposition!

Make a great double-bill with 'Tommy'!