Tuesday 14 April 2020

My Top 5 Hippie Exploitation Movies

Psych-Out 1968 movie poster 11 x 14 Jack Nicholson Susan | Etsy
source:etsy.com

1. Easy Rider (1969)..this is the ultimate road trip movie..the story is basically these two biker buddies who travel across the States and meet lots of interesting people along the way, like a hippie commune where they try LSD. They also make friends with a lawyer (Jack Nicholson), and take him along their adventure. It ends real sad though. I also own the soundtrack on vinyl which is filled with great songs!! My fav. is The Weight - The Band.."take a load off Fanny..take a load for free.." and I have this endless obsession with Peter Fonda!! Loooove him!! He's so dreamy on his huge Harley!!
2. Psyche-Out (1968)..love the way the movie starts with The Storybook's Pretty Song from Psyche-Out..later it was covered by Strawberry Alarm Clock. One of the best hippie exploitation films ever! Susan Strasberg plays a deaf girl who takes a bus trip down to the San Francisco Haight-Asbury scene looking for her brother. She meets Stoney (yay..Jack Nicholson again!!), and his hippie band in a coffee shop. Theres plenty of groovy psychedelic posters and art work around. There's a tragic end to this movie as well. I love this quote in the movie: "God is alive and well and living in a sugar cube."
3. I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)..story about Harold (Peter Sellers), a lawyer who is being forced to marry his secretary. He gets side-tracked when he meets up with his brother, Herbie, who happens to be a hippie living in Venice Beach. Herbie's girlfriend is a flower child who loves baking magic brownies. The tripping scene is hilarious when it involves their folks. Harold tries to find himself by becoming a hippie himself, but then he has enough of the lifestyle and decides to marry his secretary after all. There's a groovy guru party scene in it and lots of craziness..its a fun movie!!
4. Go Ask Alice (1973) but it takes place in 1968..this is one of my fav. movies ever!!! It's about a 15 year old girl, Alice, who moves with her family to a new town and she desperately tries making new friends and trying hard to fit in to her new school with dire consequences. I'm sure you've heard of the book Go Ask Alice by Anonymous..the book is a great read!! There's a scene in the movie where she experiences her first LSD trip at a party without knowing it. The song Dear Mr. Fantasy - Traffic plays in the background. She gets hooked on drugs after that and gets into trouble and runs away and then the horrible babysitting scene near the end etc..
5. Woodstock 69..the best concert ever staged!! Love the beginning where they are constructing the stage areas, and people dancing to Going Up the Country..umm..yeah the first half of the docu-movie is more of the performance bits of bands, and 2nd half shows more of the people and interviewing them, and you get to see Janis Joplin behind the scenes, Wavy-Gravy, Jerry Garcia etc..
Other hippie films that are more favourites of mine:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Trip, Alice's Restaurant, Hair, Maybe I'll Come Home In the Spring, Head and Rainbow Bridge.