An American Hippie in Israel (1972)

Admirable film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

An American Hippie in Israel (1972)** (out of 4)American hippie Mike (Asher Tzarfati), angered from what he saw in Vietnam, heads off to form a civilization where love and peace is everywhere. He ends up in Israel where he meets three fellow hippies and they head off to an island for fun times.Here's another film that was pretty much forgotten to time but Grindhouse Releasing managed to save it and turn it into a surprising hit in the midnight circles. AN American HIPPIE IN ISRAEL isn't as crazy as some of the others film that the company has rescued but it's certainly a weird little film that's hard to explain. I'm going to guess that writer-director-producer Amos Sefer had big ideas about peace and happiness but the film manages to be a laugh riot at times with its silly dialogue before turning into a downright bizarre nightmare.The biggest flaw with the film is certainly the screenplay, which doesn't seem to know what it wants to do because the majority of the running time just seems to be dialogue- free while the four characters walk around, smile, laugh, get naked and just wonder around without any purpose. Some of the scenes drag on to a point where you'll want to scream at the director to yell cut or for a producer to walk on camera and ask what the hell is going on. Just take a look at the sequence where the American, speaking English, and the Israeli, speaking Hebrew, argue because they can't understand one another. Several scenes just drag on to the point where they become annoying and aggravating.The performances are pretty much what they are but I must say that Tzarfati was "good" to the point where he keeps you entertained. Shmuel Wolf, Lily Avidan and Tzila Karney play the three other hippies and all of them are at least interesting enough to keep you involved in their story. The dialogue gets some of the biggest laughs because it basically sounds like a non-hippie trying to write hippie dialogue. It's quite laughable at times and perhaps this is why so much of the film is dialogue-free; because what dialogue there is is pretty bad.I'm not going to ruin the final fifteen-or-so minutes of the film but they're certainly crazy and makes very little sense. A lot of the laughs from midnight crowds probably happens to what the four "turn into" and there's no doubt that you could really rip the film a new one because of it but at the same time it's a pretty bleak vision. AN American HIPPIE IN ISRAEL isn't a masterpiece or a complete disaster. It's an interesting little film to say the least.

I supposed that the few hippies who bothered to see "An American Hippie In Israel" during its theatrical release probably reacted with a "far out!" at the time. But I think that if those same people were to see the movie today, they would wonder, "What were we thinking?" It's a real head-scratcher of a movie. For a long time, there seems to be no real plot, just people going place to place and occasionally taking off their clothes. Then it turns into a weird story of people stuck on a desert island. I don't have a good idea what the point of this movie was supposed to be. It seems aimless, and there are things like the two pursuers of the title figure that are never explained. There is some nice Israeli scenery, but a good look only goes a little way in a movie - you need a good story and well-written characters as well, and this movie simply doesn't have those two important things.

I am dumbfounded by the wholesale inability of any of the other 21 user and critic reviewers to comprehend the message of this heavy handed & straight forward allegorical film. Do yourself a favor and just watch the film. Do not read any of the other reviews before doing so as they all miss the main points in a big way. Don't even read the rest of this review until after you watch the film. Okay, I'll assume the reader is back now after watching the film, or has disregarded my warnings and has read at least some of the other reviews and has a basic knowledge of the plot. Let me clear up a few of the misconceptions you may now have. This is an anti-war, pro-hippie anti-establishment movie. The ultimate descent into barbarism in the end is not the condemnation of the hippie ethic that other simple minded reviewers seem to believe it is. It is also not a statement of apocalypse or that we are all doomed to misunderstand and fight each other in the end. It is simply an examination of the the human condition and our predisposition to return to our primitive nature in the face of resource scarcity, communication difficulties, and deliberate pressures put upon us by those who seek to profit from our misery. The artificial sharks are not simply the worst fake shark props ever made. The "mimes" are not just characters to drive the plot. The sharks and the mimes are the same characters. They are both the symbolic representations of "the man", the establishment, the militarized powers that be. They are the proximate cause of the descent into barbarism on the island. If not for the presence of the sharks, the four would not be squeezed into the resource limited confines of the island. They would have access to the car, their source of freedom and access to a means of survival. The sharks were deliberately conceived to be surreal so that the viewer would immediately recognized them as simply a new incarnation of the mimes. The language barrier combined with resource scarcity leads to a complete breakdown. It simply demonstrates that under difficult conditions of high stress which can arise quickly even the most kind and good natured individuals with the best of intentions can be pushed to the basest levels of human behavior. I think that it is incorrect to interpret this as a flaw in the hippie ethic. It is merely a revelation that an inability to communicate and cultural barriers are human foibles that can destroy even the most high minded ideals. In the end, it is the final scene, not addressed by a single other reviewer that truly tells the tale regarding the message intended by this film. The two mimes, with smug smiles on their faces get into the car and prepare to drive away in the stolen automobile of their victims, satisfied in accomplishing their work of turning loving caring beings into a pile of bloodied slaughtered lambs. In the final shot of the island Mike even grabs the dead lamb and pulls it onto the pile of their bodies making them as one sacrificial mass. This movie is symbolic and allegorical, but come on people, it is not nearly as hard to understand as every review I have read makes it out to be. It is not disjointed, contradictory or unclear in the nature of its message. It is "the man" who is the enemy as embodied by the mime/sharks, and we should all Beware The Mimes! This is a fun movie. It is funny, dorky, freaky, surreal, goofy, with good music, beautiful scenery, a message, artistic intent, a sense of humor in general and about itself as well. Neither the characters, the actors, nor the director take themselves too seriously. There is a definite impression that they had a great time making this movie and meant to inject a bit of over the top campiness into it. It is not the greatest movie of all time, but it is definitely worth a watch and is definitely a period piece that was worth the restoration and reissue done by Grindhouse. If you try to enjoy this movie on it's face, without an interest in trying to understand it's message, I think you will be disappointed and perhaps walk away with only a mild and mistaken appreciation of it as a B movie cult novelty at best. This movie can be much more than that to one who views it as a light-hearted, zany, counter-culture alternative look at both the beauty and frailties of the human condition and as an explanatory tale which cautions against falling prey to the powers that be who seek to divide and conquer in their pursuit of power and profit.

I did like this movie however I wouldn't want to see it again. There are a lot of long scenes of nothing which I remedied by going to you tube and listening to a review while the movie was playing, sort of a commentary kind of thing you see in DVDs. That did work and when they would start talking again, I paused the review.This movie kept my interest until the end and that was something. Turned into a cave man movie where they all stopped talking and grunted and growled. They didn't like war but they sure had a cat fight battle at the end.I liked the meanings of the 2 mimes as maybe the government and when they were on the island became the sharks. And the speech about "pushing buttons" reminded me a little of the "I'm as mad hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" speech.Maybe a better movie to watch if you are doped up.