Revolution (1968)

Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This 1968 documentary (occasionally quasi-documentary) may seem to some nothing more than a disjointed mishmash of stoned loonies leaping around ad nauseam - and of course it is - but as one who lived through it, I'd have to say this is the best representation, in an hour and half at least, of the lunatic craziness, the ridiculous sense of barefooted freedom, and wide-eyed innocence that was "the hippie revolution" I've ever seen. It was totally unexpected.Sure most of the interviews are banal -though representative of the time - and much of the "freedom" demonstrated by all these middle class kids seems forced or false, and as a consequence laughable and clichéd now. But there's an essence captured here, due in large part I think to Jack McConnell just letting his camera rove around, that gives you at least a hint of the absolute excitement that electrified the scene for maybe a year and a half. And the end is foretold too, if you look closely enough - the drugs, of course, plus a lack of a cohesive philosophy, the unabashed panhandling, the growing divide between the musicians, who were still operating within the capitalist system and the bulk of the hippies who were vainly trying to escape the bonds represented by money, and the general naiveté. The best parts of the film: the music, especially Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe & the Fish's "Section 43", the Charlatan's Dan Hicks' little acoustic ditty, and an actual clip of the Ace of Cups (arguably the first all female rock band) in concert. Also the fashions - as time slips away you forget just how outrageous and colorful they were at the start before everything went olive drab; those tight-lipped, smug representatives of authority who still make me want to leap through the screen with a flame thrower a la Harold Pinter; and that ineffably sad and nutty conversation between "Today" Malone and some guy about the genetic dangers of taking LSD. And sure, the naked girls romping through the tall grass seems clichéd today though it really wasn't so much back in '67 (or was it?), and the San Francisco Dance Troupe's performance goes on a tad too long, but I think this film gives a pretty good overview of what it was like back then, for good or bad, before it all went to hell.

While I'm not crazy about the soundtrack, I agree with both: Seeing this film was like reliving my teen years..., 28 May 2004 9/10 Author: (karenletitiaZ) from Northern CaliforniaAND bad film-making, good documentation, 20 May 2001 Author: Matt Moses from Brooklyn, NYre: relating the overall fundamental experience of the times -- and a much more satisfying one than "The Trip" w/ Peter Fonda (and I forget who else). For those who'd like to view a fiction film that truly captures the essence of the mid-60s to mind-70s (or so), I most highly recommend (the still virtually unheard of and WAY under-viewed and under-appreciated) Authur Penn's "Four Friends" -- Look it up!!For those who wish to know more re: the politics behind the time -- i.e., how LSD came into the drug scene and why it's been outlawed -- I most highly recommend this most-excellent article!:www(dot)mind*mined (dot) com/ public_ library/ nonfiction/ Jessica_ Locke_ del_ Greco _ L*S*D _research (dot) html -- REMOVE the Asterisks, blank spaces, change her name to SMALL Case, etc.!! "LSD Research: An Overview" by Jessica Locke Del GrecoWhile not a user, I read 1/2 dz. books on LSD (back when), but, as mentioned by one guy in "Revolution," I was scared off by the media dis-information (Read the above article!!) and were the pharmaceutical- quality available in a environmentally friendly and *clinical* setting, I'd love to try to improve my state of Being!

I was in high school on the San Francisco Peninsula when this film was shot. I may or may not have seen it before. My memory does not serve me as well as it did! Anyway, I had the album soundtrack for a long time and always wanted to see the movie because the music was so indicative of that time in the Bay Area. I always loved Tracy Nelson (the lead singer of Mother Earth) who sang the title track. To make a long story short...I had always heard that it was somewhat of a "plastic" film. Having Tivo'd it recently, I realized that this documentary really GETS IT. The liquid light shows, the last scene in Buena Vista Park in the Haight and the interviews with some of San Francisco's still finest (Rev. Cecil Williams, the staff of The Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, The Mime Troupe and the late Herb Caen). This movie DOES chronicle and capture the essence of that time period. The current Haight Ashbury has continued to practice some of the spirit of that time, but "hippiedom" was such a fresh concept in the late '60's. Now, well...have we learned anything in retrospect?

Jack O'Connell produced and directed this patchwork portrait of the hippie scene in 1967. The best parts are the rock band live performance sequences, although some of these clips were staged to appear as though they were filmed at ballroom dance concerts. Which is similar to what other films and TV shows at the time tended to do, rather than film an regularly scheduled club or ballroom dance concert with all the craziness of a real gig in full swing. PETULIA (1967) for example featured Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Co. performing at the unlikely venue of The Fairmont Hotel. PETULIA also captured The Grateful Dead playing on the dance floor - not even on a stage -in a very small club setting. REVOLUTION (later reedited and retitled THE HIPPIE REVOLUTION, briefly released theatrically in 1996) had a soundtrack album of studio takes that doesn't include all of or match versions of songs played live in the movie: Quicksilver Messenger Service are hard to make out in the dark, but perform a rousing "Codine" before the band is abruptly cut away from half way through the number; the all-girl band Ace of Cups perform "The Grass Is Greener" live in the park - sounding about as garage as any SF hippie rockumentary ever get; Dan Hicks of The Charlatans does an acoustic solo ditty called something like "He's Stoned" that's a nice rarity; and I'm not too wild about the footage of Country Joe & the Fish or the early Steve Miller Band but it is after all a hippie movie with Hare Krishnas and everything else that defined the wide-eyed idealism of the age.