Hair (1979)

Admirable film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Hair (1979) This is a musical anti-war drama film based on the 1968 Broadway musical Hair: An American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. It is about a draftee who meets a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army. They introduce him to their environment of drugs, unorthodox relationships and free love. The film received generally favorable reviews from film critics at the time of its release. At the 37th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for a Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Despite this, it did poorly at the box office. Treat Williams was nominated for New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male. It's one of the better translations of a musical film and cultural gem.

With an almost non-existent plot, I watched this film to see/hear the music. After seeing it on stage and buying the album, I know just about every word to every song. There is an energy to this movie and I enjoyed that very much. The title tune sets it off. Then, we have "Easy to Be Hard" and on and on. Each is placed in a kind of contrived setting to make it work. If there is a weakness, the movie is somewhat disjointed and lacking a kind of flow. Still, there is that whole tribal thing going on. The kids of the counterculture strut their stuff. See it as a sort of latter day period piece. Sometimes song and dance give us the jot sensual connection to a bygone era.

I just watched the movie Hair in TCM, for the first time since I saw after its original release. The musical was already past its prime when it was released in 1979 and Treat Williams was already a little old for the title role. What strikes me now is how well, sexist it is; the female characters are just appendages to the men. They're passive and soft-spoken and just go along with whatever the guys want. "Women's lib" was not on the agenda here. The draft and the war in Vietnam were the impetus for this film and that's what contemporary audiences reacted to.The movie, about a lovable group of ragtag hippies in Central Park has a frenetic quality to it; Milos Forman was the middle-aged director. This film isn't about the young as they were, it reflects Forman's middle-aged male longing for the energy and sexuality of youth. Living on the West Side at the time, I was struck that they cleaned up Central Park for the film. The park was in awful shape. You can see it in the film where the dust rises from the bare dirt in the Great Meadow during the "be-in." The eventual value of this film may lie in its documentary value because it was shot on location in late 1970s Manhattan,

I remember i watched this movie some years ago and i didn't remember it except the ending. When i watched it a second time, it was like i discovered the movie. I liked the songs because they talk about many life things like equality between peoples of different colors, the real face of the war, sex and of course the hair. I was surprised as there is a song which talk about drugs. I don't think it was common in the 70's to talk about drugs like this. The movie has some boring scenes like when they take a bath in a river. The last twenty minutes help the film to be better because there is a kind of message about solidarity between friends and i think Milos Forman wanted to tell us as your friends are important and can help you. I remembered only the ending because it was very emotional and it's an ending as you can't forget.