Commune

I am not a hippie, but I have a keen interest in the concepts of the 60s and what works and what doesn't. One of the 60s concepts was the commune, where like minded people could live completely "Free", albeit in a very primitive state. It's almost like a living experiment to discover why modern civilization was invented, as in government, marriage, medicine, agriculture etc. There is a reason why we don't live that way any more, because it sucks! Many of the stories are heart breaking, especially the children who are asked to make very adult decisions at very young ages. As much as these people tried, you cannot escape discipline, responsibility and deligence.

This is a sympathetic portrait of the Black Bear commune, and you'll come away thinking that the founding members were incredibly lucky--not so much for living the free love communal lifestyle as for not being injured in the mix of idealistic self-absorption and do-it-yourself medical treatments (including midwifery) that characterized life there.

It's clear from the affection with which the founding members talk of each other that it was overall a great time for them, and there's obviously a strong bond that unites them still. Some left the commune to form nuclear families, get jobs, and educate their children.

What's frightening, though, is the stunning level of self-absorption that makes a few of the members fail to think at all about how these principles affected their children. "We were like our own tribe," recalls one boy (Aaron Marley), who ran through the trails and woods with the other kids and later got a crew cut to rebel. I guess there are no snakes or poison oak in the California woods. He later is handed off to a foster family in the commune when his mother went off to paint and find herself; when he wanted to live with a Native American woman nearby, his mother came back, called on his father (who was elsewhere), made a big stink, and got him back on the commune--though not, apparently, with her. So much for the "children have choices" idea.

In another story, though, a child is given a choice, and it's scary. Tesilya's story is the most frightening, and it's a good thing that she tells it so that the audience can see that she's alive and thriving as an editor today. The Shiva Lila cult, which supposedly "worships children," comes to the commune and starts to take it over. When the commune members drive them away, Tesilya is asked to choose and decides to go with her mother. She's FIVE! What would you do? As the cult wanders to the Philippines and India, working all the time on its stated mission of breaking parental bonds, her mother drifts away at some point and Tesilya's left with a bunch of other children, many of whom die of diphtheria (freedom from DPT shots must have been part of the freedoms of the commune). Eventually the cult makes its way to Oregon, and by chance she meets up with some of the Black Bear commune people, who welcome her with "We have been waiting for you. Where have you been?" Uh, she's maybe 10 at this point? (The film doesn't say.) "Glad to have you join us, or whatever." She obviously gets an education somehow, but as Aaron, the boy who later becomes a biochemist, says, "We (children) were pretty much lab rats for the adults" and their ideals.

One of the former cult members is quoted as saying something like "Wanting to save the world can be a huge ego trip." This film presents it all--the love and the self-absorption and the ego-tripping--and lets you make up your own mind.

This is a documentary about one of the many communes that began in the late 60-early 70s and is one of the few to survive to this day. Like most, it began with a group of idealistic hippies who wanted to change the world and redefine society and norms. In some ways, by the time the film ends, so many of these idealists are, in a sense, "the man"--having abandoned the commune as well as some or many of their ideals. People who were all in favor of "free love" and no possessions now were married and had real jobs and real homes--though a few stuck with the commune to the time the documentary was made.

While all this was rather fascinating, at times it also felt a bit scary. On one hand, much of what these people did wasn't morally right or wrong--just very different. However, some of their behaviors as the commune continued through the years really made me feel very uncomfortable. At first, running around naked, making love with practically everyone and having few cares sounded all well and good, but as a result of all this, lots of children were born and they were raised, in many ways, like miniature adults. Children, it seemed, were able to make adult decisions as their parents felt it was too confining and bourgeois to inhibit them in any way. This plus the constant in and outflow of members (including a creepy cult that "worshipped kids") made me wonder whether sexual abuse was rife in this environment. While none of this was addressed in the film (a very odd omission, by the way), it did interview many of these kids. Some seemed happy and well adjusted and others seemed rather angry about this permissive environment--though, unexpectedly, they also seemed reasonably well adjusted--at least on film. Still, it was a very interesting film about a part of America that is very seldom talked about.

As for me, with my background psychology and sociology, I found that the film was also very frustrating for me personally. I would LOVE to see a followup film that explores the emotional and psychological implications of communal living--not only the dangers but the potential benefits. I sure know that with my rather straight-laced and traditional life it isn't something I want for myself, but I'd like to see just how it effected everyone (not just the ones interviewed in the film)--sort of like a giant psychosocial experiment. After all, while this is in some ways a great system, over time they almost always fail or fade in popularity--why and how could they be run more successfully are questions that come to mind.

FYI--not surprisingly, this film contains a lot of explicit nudity. It isn't sexy or prurient, but parents might want to think it over before letting younger viewers see it.

This is the first, and as far as I can tell, the only documentary portrayal of the 1960s counter-culture as it actually existed. It is a sympathetic portrayal, completely devoid of the usual condescension, contempt, and hindsight revisionism.

This is not a film about clothes or rock music. It is a film about people of serious intent who were willing to go the distance and who devoted their lives to one another in a large family of their own making. "Commune" is an important American historical document and must be seen by anyone wishing to understand what on earth was going on in this country during the late 1960s to mid-1970s.

Interesting, insightful look at the Black Bear Ranch Commune, one of the many alternative living situations people explored in the late 60s and early 70s.

By interviewing a diverse number of members, it gives what feels like a pretty accurate non- biased view of both the strengths and weaknesses, intelligence and stupidity, bravery and cowardice, generosity and selfishness, openness and didacticism that went into this rag tag bunch trying to show the world there was another way to live then simply as 'consumers' or 'employees'.

Actor Peter Coyote, who was a member, is particularly articulate about the goals, the successes and the failures. The film also has a sense of humor, which helps. Not a life changing documentary, but certainly an interesting one.