The 60s were a time of experimentation in American culture. This experimentation also carried into movies. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t have a “Psychedelic Acid Trip” section. If it did, these movies would be the first editions, but right now they’re buried in other categories.It turns out that the psychedelic movie scene is quite an inbred faction. Find out how “Head,” “The Trip” and “Psych-Out” string together Jack Nicholson, Dick Clark, Peter Fonda and The Monkees. It’s like six degrees of Kevin Bacon; without Kevin Bacon and a lot of LSD.

Experiment Volume 5: Psychedelic Movies

Head (1968) Dir. Bob Rafelson

In what was to be the Monkees’ “A Hard Days Night,” the Made-For-TV rock band goes completely haywire and creates an avant-garde movie instead. The movie, which was written by Jack Nicholson, is little more than an hour-and-a-half of bizzaro skits that loosely fit together. In some scenes the band is fighting in Vietnam, when they find football legend Ray Nitchke in a foxhole. In other scenes, they are eating in a diner, insulting the waitress and Peter Noone can’t stop staring at an ice cream cone. In another, Mickey Dolenz magically finds himself in the middle of a dessert with a Coke Machine, but no change. Then the Italian Army pulls its tanks up and surrenders to him. But in their most memorable scene, the band is shrunk down to dandruff and are stuck in someone’s hair. Then they are sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Several more scenes commence with similar cohesion to the others.

These nonsense scenes are spliced with trippy, 60s acid graphics and band performances. But much like the Monkees’ earlier musical work, it sounds like cut-rate Beatles material. But, this time they are copping a feel from Sgt. Pepper.

“Head” may go down as one of the strangest movies of all time. The amount of drugs that had to be sucked down by the cast and crew to make such a bizarre film must be monumental. The entire picture makes no sense. But that’s what is so endearing about it. The fact that Big time TV stars like the Monkees were brave enough, or zonked out enough, to make a picture this strange and cutting edge is a testament to their character. And proves that maybe there was more to them than just cloning Beatles riffs.

The Trip/ Psych-Out (1967/68) Dir. Roger Corman/ Richard Rush

The Trip: A double shot of freaky psychedelia on this disk. Peter Fonda’s cult classic “The Trip” is backed by the lesser known “Psych-Out.” And once again Jack Nicholson is involved.

“The Trip” seems as groundbreaking today as it must have in 1967. Few movies stare straight into drug use with such a neutral eye. This movie neither glamorizes LSD, nor does it demoralize it. Rather, it gives a straight ahead look into the mind of a man’s first acid trip. This isn’t to say this movie isn’t entertaining, funny and completely off-the-wall.

Peter Fonda is a square going through a divorce. So his buddy cheers him up by taking him to his ridiculously decorated 60s swing pad to do acid. The film that follows is a hallucinogenic swirl of trippy symbolism, 60s counter-culture and drug doldrums. The lighting is stunning during Fonda’s trips. Mosaics of color and design paint his and his lovers’ bodies as Fonda imagines sex during the first part of his trip. Later, he gets caught in his own gaze while looking in a mirror. Where he utters the most classic line of his distinguished career, “Beautiful, man. There’s some real stuff happening… I can see right into my brain!” The film is full of other hilarious moments as well; like when Fonda sees the girl of his dreams flopping around a dryer at a laundry mat. Dennis Hopper makes several appearances, as well, as a dope dealer/guru and tosses in enough of his doped-out “Maaaaaaaan” to warrant a copyright.

“The Trip” is full of great imagery and is an interesting look into West-Coast hippie-dom in the 60s. The film is also surprisingly cohesive and story driven. And when compared to “Head” it looks like the damn “Godfather” trilogy.  

Psych-Out: Once again Jack Nicholson rears his head in “Psych-Out” This time he plays Stoney, a pony-tailed hippie in San Francisco just trying to get his psychedelic band “Mumbling Jim” off the ground. Although, the story focuses more on a deaf girl who searching for her estranged hippie brother through the flower powered haze of the city. In addition, Dick Clark was the producer of this film. So I guess before he was dropping the New Years Ball, ol’ Dick was dropping acid.

This movie was surprisingly good in places. It was still full of the acid-headed hippie laughs I was searching for, but it had a great dose of social commentary as well. The film takes a hard look at the positive and negative aspects of being a hippie. The community aspect and the free love are there, but the movie also looks at how money can change these feelings (when Mumbling Jim gets a shot at the big time) or how the peace and love talk is all bullshit when your life is in danger and your bell-bottomed ass beats up a gang of greasers. This film shows that very few of the Haight-Ashberry flower children were the real thing. Rather, just some young kids riding a trend.

The movie is another great look at this time in history; partially because of the day-glo sets and the groovy soundtrack by underground hippie band the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the shamefully overlooked Seeds. Tons of strange acid drenched scenes take place and juxtapose the subtle commentary on the hippies. All in all, it’s a well-rounded groovy thing, man. Dig it.

More NetfliXperiments:

· NetfliXperiments Volume 4: Leprechaun Party!
· NetfliXperiments Volume 3: Rock 'n' Roll Freakshow
· NetfliXperiments Volume 2: Ouch! My Head Hurts--Foreign Films
· NetfliXperiments Volume 1: Highway Horror & Hillbilly Fishermen

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