Alice's Restaurant (1969)

You can get anything you want there, or so went Arlo Guthrie's song, a lengthy monologue about a Thanksgiving dinner and how its aftermath kept Guthrie out of the Vietnam-era draft. Arthur Penn's movie version, which stars Guthrie, James Broderick, and Pat Quinn, has a shambling, good-natured feel, much like Guthrie's epic tall tale. But as it follows Guthrie's adventures (he gets arrested for improper disposal of Thanksgiving garbage and the arrest renders him unfit for military service, in the draft board's eyes), it also examines the freewheeling nature of relationships in that period--and the toll that freedom took on those relationships. Guthrie is a natural performer, particularly funny during the draft board sequence; but the heart of the film is Quinn and Broderick's troubled marriage. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

Visionary about our future of their past

1969 was a turning point in American history. And this film is still living on the hippy dream, on the flower kids and their illusion that life is nothing but music and fun. Even the war and the draft are made small and insignificant, as if you could escape the draft because you had been arrested, tried and convicted of a crime like littering. Why not jaywalking? 1969 was the arrival of Nixon, the invasion of Cambodia, after the Tet offensive, escalation and blindness among all political personnel or politicians. The film thus is a full nightmare in disguise as a freewheeling period of complete enjoyment and happiness, wedding and champagne added as a reward for your trust in the future. And yet the film is a tremendous satire of that very short-sighted and careless spirit. Every detail is symbolical and metaphorical. Arlo Guthrie's girl friend looks very Vietnamese, a symbol of the war going on that no one wants to see. The church that is sold is also the symbol of the loss of faith and legitimacy in the US. Everything is just running down and away. And that is crowned at the end by this very last scene where Alice and Ray are literally abandoned by Arlo and Mari-chan, and Alice is not standing in any Wonderland then, but in her wedding dress, early in the sunless morning on the front steps of the church of hers, unmoving and silent in a world where there is a light breeze that makes her veil float slightly, both the veil and its shadow on the church wall, and Alice and the church are captured by the slowly moving camera following some circle whose center is Alice herself and every so often a tree trunk goes by in the picture, and the whole church is surrounded by a complete waste land, all dirt and no grass, brown and muddy. The church itself looks unkempt and its paint seems to be more or less starting to scale. A world abandoned and being wasted, wrecked, dumped along the way of history that is going to come, a vision we can imagine bleak and sad, tearful and fearful, frightening and full of pain. There is like some nostalgia at that time about a good old world that has vanished in thin air and will never be back. See you, bye bye, forever. That was a time when the United States, for the first time in their history, had met an obstacle they could not negotiate. And today this past vision is becoming so premonitory of the forty years it will take for hope to come back in time to be able to assume the changing world in which the US are no longer to be number one and yet when they can recapture some leadership provided they accept to share responsibilities and resources. That idea of sharing definitely was not in the air in 1969 and the dissatisfied young people could only dream of a freewheeling enjoyment of what was at their disposal without any effort of any kind. And the vice-principal of my high school was telling us in the car that took us to the Teachers' Union state convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, how a simple atom bomb on Hanoi or ,Haiphong would bring in victory. The higher the monkey climbs in the tree... You know the second part of the saying I guess, if not go and check in Sri Lanka, for instance, what you can see when the monkey is going up into the tree leaving you on the ground, your eyes rising slowly to follow the butt sight of the acrobatic animal.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
November 10, 2008

Grand Old Flick

Brought back memories of a wonderful time the 1960s. Laughed a lot and warched it twice. Buy it, watch and enjoy. PEACE. November 1, 2008

A memory of idealism & shadows

As another Thanksgiving approaches, those of a certain age invariably hear the strains of "Alice's Restaurant" playing in their heads. Which means I'll be watching this somewhat uneven but thoughtful movie once more, reacquainting myself with what are now legendary days. I'm sure they seem a bit implausible & unreal to those who didn't live through the times ... but rest assured, the shambling, rough-edged, absurdist tones are a fairly accurate evocation of those days.

We all know the basic story: how Arlo was arrested for littering, and how that criminal blot on his record made him unfit for the draft. What's interesting are the two counterpoints at work here, from the director's more critical & judgmental eye, to Arlo's mellow retrospective in the commentary. Which is closer to the truth?

Well, both of them are, and that's what gives this movie its lasting impact. It's all too easy to dismiss it as dated, but those who do so are really missing the larger picture. Because the intersection of idealism & experience, hope & loss, despair & renewal, is one that every generation faces. It's just that such things were writ very large indeed in the 1960s.

So we see the naive but determined hope of Arlo & his friends to create a newer world, one that's free of the hypocrisies & betrayals of the past. Again, it's easy to dismiss this from a more cynical distance -- but young people really did believe that transformation was possible, and did their best to live as if it had already taken place. It might have proven an impossible dream, but it was a beautiful & positive one.

And we also see how the basics of human nature couldn't be denied, especially with the central character of Alice. I knew hippie earth mothers like that -- but as a naive young man myself, I couldn't see how the burden of living such an archetypal role was more than most flesh-&-blood could beare for any length of time. Even hope takes its toll.

Which brings us to the most moving scenes, the funeral in the snow & the disintegration of their brief communal moment. Never was a song more aptly chosen than Joni Mitchell's "Songs to Aging Children Come," and never was it more heartbreaking. For me, that scene always brings to mind the last lines of James Joyce's "The Dead," with snow falling upon the universe, upon the living & the dead.

And then we see as the temporary family pulls apart, when Ray's need to control things & keep everything captured in the amber of one instant destroys the very thing he sought to preserve. Is there a sadder sight than the drive away from the church, with Alice standing forlornly among the bare trees?

Yet as Arlo's commentary track from decades later shows, it wasn't quite as bleak as all that in the long run. Here's the other truth that's revealed over time: even though such vital, creative movements burn & fade all too quickly -- the Romantics, the Transcendentalists, the Beats, the 1960s, to name just a few -- their spirit outlives those who pronounce their dismissive obituaries. In countless places across the globe today, young people discover William Blake, Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, Dylan. And the spark is rekindled once more, and hope rises like a star in the darkness.

Most highly recommended! October 21, 2008

poor

rambles, poor audio & video - story line hard to follow - except that this is a free spirited affair. August 18, 2008

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

More reviews at Amazon.com ...