Alice's Restaurant (1969)

Alice;s Restaurant

The movie is a good (although a bit exaggerated) look at the era. The highlight is the commentary of the movie with Arlo. It takes you through the complete movie and talks about how it came to be. It is a great walk down memory lane and a history of the 60's/70's teen years. July 17, 2008

alice resturant must have

the movie plus the extra comments make this well worth buying. arlo's comments are great and fun to listen to. if you remember this movie and its meaning, then do get this dvd. April 6, 2008

You can get anything you want...

This movie was the catalyst for me to run away to Haight-Ashbury @ 15 and look for the people in it. It is idealistic and hilarious. Haven't seen it in almost 40 years, so it should be interesting! March 20, 2008

Songs to Aging Children Come

Enjoyed this movie on many levels; I liked Arlo's non-performance, the way he had of keeping it real even when the action bordered on the absurd. The conflicting tones of the movie, that many reviewers balk at, were for me its saving grace. It wasn't just an animated version of the song, and it wasn't a stoner comedy like HAROLD AND KUMAR--but it almost was--however the Bergman-esque aspects of Penn's portrait of the up and down marriage of Alice and Ray made sure that the movie carried within itself a tragic dimension... So one scene's light hearted and hippie, the next might be unbearably stark and cruel--that change-up gives the movie more energy than I remembered it having.

Otherwise the narrative structure is like the three bears, especially in the way the movie keeps throwing beautiful women at Arlo--in a random way that could only happen in the movies because, let's face it, he's kind of a freakish looking dude. First he's tempted by the pubescent groupie "Reenie" played by Shelley Plimpton--but he turns her down when she admits being 14. (Talk about a cultural difference, they wouldn't show a 14 year old girl topless in the American cinema of today now, would they, but here it's just another day in Arlo's life.) Then he gets propositioned by the older, sexually rapacious club owner Ruth (the only film role for the legendary actress and teacher Eulalie Noble), hard and crass as a bowlful of rocks. He rejects her for being too old. Too young, too old, and then third time lucky he meets the angelic Asian-American Mari-chan, end of story.

In the other story line, I found the triangle story between Alice, Ray and Shelly entirely believable and sad, even though some of Pat Quinn's acting mannerisms indicate she took courses at the Anna Magnani School of Over the Top, while the young man who plays Shelly is so weird and choppy I'm surprised he lived to the end of filming, it feels ike a performance by someone who's dead already. And oh, that Joni Mitchell song at the end! You have to love her and hate her!!! March 20, 2008

AMAZING MOVIE

This is a movie of love , friendship, spiritual awaking and tragedy. It brought back a lot of memories of my life as well . A movie that needs too be in everyones dvd collection.Bring back the 60s anytime February 9, 2008

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