SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Tockinit not horrible nor great

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

GazerRise Fantastic!

heathfilmore It's difficult, and somewhat unfair, to judge any artistic work based on the prejudices and attitudes of today, yet one can't go back in time and judge them from those of its own era. The best one can do is critique from known and accepted principles, in this case, a film, on acting, story and execution. On acting, it's hit and miss. The best actor is evened out by the worst, so it's a wash. On story, it's an idea, not a plot; a rambling series of incidents portraying the time--to that, it's a disjointed mess. Sad instead of poignant; whimsy instead of humor; bathos instead of drama. On execution, well it is Arthur Penn so it does have a certain flair, a certain style, yet it never catches hold; the themes are muddled and unclear; the characters are at times more pathetic and irritating than involving; oddly joyless. The editing is also haphazard. If Penn was going for "a statement" he instead created "a comment;" a cinematic throat-clearing. It's fine to make a film that creates more questions than answers, but the viewer is left to puzzle things out that shouldn't have been a puzzle, which just creates more mud. In the end, AR is of its time, one long past, and in hindsight perhaps best left on the shelf, for as the one thing the film does show is that "the hippie dream" was born in false freedom, filth, suspect mysticism and beliefs, and ended--like the movie--in confusion, sadness, heartbreak, and an eventual acceptance of society norms.

SnoopyStyle Based on his folk song, Arlo Guthrie plays himself. He's facing the draft and joining the counter-culture. His father is in the hospital with dementia. He encounters and befriends various people. He and his friend are arrested for a massive case of littering but they get off easy as the blind judge fails to see the evidence. He's called up for the draft but his littering conviction keeps him out of the war.Arlo Guthrie and his song come from a time and place. I'm not familiar with it. I'm sure there is great meaning to some of this film. I'm not privy to it. To me, it's simply a rambling journey following a less-than-charismatic lead. He's not really an actor. He's playing himself in the most casual way. This is a time capsule of a certain time. It meanders too much to be a compelling narrative but it does have some interesting aspects. It's respectful of the counter-culture. There are a few funny cute moments. The second half is more surreal and therefore much better. This is one weird movie.

brenthosier It's 1965 and Arlo Guthrie has the World's longest hair. Longer then any Beatle, longer then all the Beach Boys put together, maybe even longer then Sky Saxon. This is said in jest of course because Arlo really did have long hair in 1965, it just wasn't this long. Back to that in just a bit. Oh yes I love this movie, and what about those Jefferson Airplane posters from '66, right there in '65? I saw this in the theater in 1969 and really enjoyed it. Watching it now and enjoying it. I've so much admiration for the true artists and rebels and drop out of the Sixties and this is really an ode to them, as well as the pathfinder Woody, Arlo's father. The movie is funny/sad and in a "this land is your land" kind of way, very patriotic as well. Arlo is a natural, real and unaffected. Now back to the HAIR. Hey it's a movie and it doesn't have to be period piece or even hair piece. People have worn short hair wigs in movies before. But I should not judge just because Arlo didn't. The hair thing is something I've noticed in a lot of Seventies TV & movies. Actors would just refuse to cut their hair so there they would be in 1930s or 40s situations with big sideburns, or such. For laughs watch MASH. Yes it's comedy, but it's the military in the mid Fifties and they have got some waaaay gone Seventies sprouts a growin'. But the Seventies were different. Long hair was safer, fashionable. In the Sixties it was for rebels and rare and true artists like Arlo Guthrie.

parcival-3 The last time I saw this film, it had just come out in the theaters. I was in high school, preparing for college, had a rebellious streak in me...you know, the usual.What I always remembered about it was the funeral song, at Shelly's grave, "Song for Aging Children," a song I still love. So I got the DVD.Now that I'm older, though not less rebellious, I find the film to have been put together like it was done by a junior high school kid with a few bucks to spare. It had the anti-authority clichés, you know the cops are all a bunch of idiots, and the young people who make up the bulk of the cast were all well-meaning and care-free. Well, yeah. But it takes some money to do what they were doing. From where did they get the money? There was also a theme of motorcycle racing that really didn't fit in well, or was at least not adequately explained.And the acting was ghastly. Apparently the director picked some people, I don't know, maybe friends of Guthrie? Or they were in the director's garage band or something? Overall, it was a band of silly late-60s clichés, and a story without a point. And that's kind of sad. The song is a classic folk song/tale, an anthem to an era. But the film, is pretty useless, unless you want to show those clichés and what they ostensibly represent.