Watch Alice's Restaurant For Free

Such a frustrating disappointment

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I remember like it was last week. We all went to the old Visualite Theater in Charlotte and saw it. I have nearly no memory of it at all, except the song and Arlo G. singing and the Woody characterI recall nothing else at all about the plot or how it was directed.I just stumbled across the movie watching TCM.Next Sunday ! plan to ask our minister to re-apply our vows. Wife and I have been through a lot of stress and uncertainty lately.

Except for the bloody politician's war in Vietnam, I still have some affection for the '60's. The period was certainly a liberating experience from the uptight 1950's. However, viewed now apart from the hype of the time, Penn's movie has not worn well at all. It does convey something of the communal spirit of the day; plus the sweet-faced Guthrie has an appropriately congenial screen presence. But too many passages now seem pointlessly meandering, having lost whatever topicality they might have had. Another reviewer's comparison of the film with that of a home movie captures, I think, the basic flaw.Nonetheless, the movie manages a couple of amusingly revealing episodes. It's no surprise for the '60's, that both have to do with authority run amok. First the cops go to absurd lengths to convict Guthrie of littering, of all things; then in the film's highpoint, the tyrannical army- processing center treats him like a criminal. Though done satirically, each represents a popularly rebellious attitude of the time. Then too, unlike the rest of the film, the impact here is structured for effect. One other noteworthy point—it's no accident, I think, that it's a church the youngsters convert for their purposes. This can be understood as another subversion of authority by replacing the formal rules of authoritarian religion with those of the more easy-going humanism established by the communal restaurant. (At the same time, the sacramental wine of the former is replaced by a ceremonial joint that gets passed around.) Of course, without anything like formal rules, a downside is revealed once Alice ends up doing all the restaurant work, which the others happily shirk.The ending remains something of a puzzle. I take the forlorn bride (Alice) as a comment on the Hollywood cliché of 'they lived happily ever after'. Shrewdly, Penn doesn't want to leave us with the impression that a hippie ethic solves all social problems. Anyway, seeing the movie now, I realize how far into obscurity it has sunk after the big splash it made on initial release. For a much more entertaining and insightful glimpse of the period, check out Hal Ashby's mordant black comedy Harold and Maude (1972).

In "Alice's Restaurant, Arthur Penn exposes the rubbish (that is the correct word here) of aimless aspects of the sixties counterculture without putting down the vitality and importance of playfulness. He does this by posing the intelligent and serious young man Arlo Guthrie and Pat Quine playing Alice against Alice's workshy husband Ray, played a tad heavily by James Broderick, and an aimless community of people skirting life at the former church made restaurant.Director Penn contrasts bright and colourful New England landscape and towns with revolting and ugly icons and rituals of late sixties counterculture. Mr. Penn rightly avoids a big statement by sharing simple experiences interpreted with Guthrie's intelligent good humour. The smallness of the film makes it a great film. An example of this and an expression of the essential kindliness behind the film is the real Officer Obie, Williams J. Obanheim, police chief of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, portraying himself. His Norman Rockwell iconic look (he had posed for the artist who lived in Stockbridge) plays well against the icons of Arlo and his friends.Cinematography by Michael Nibbia is intricate and imaginative. Editing by Dede Allen, one of the most important in cinema history, flows like most of the script by Mr. Penn and gifted screenwriter Venable Herndon. The script is like orchestration of the famous, splendid Arlo song.Production, custom, set design, and other aspects are perfect. This is major and loving effort. Peter Seeger and Lee Hayes indicate the utter seriousness of the time depicted here. Cold, hard images for New York City and austere blue-green scenes in Woody Guthrie's hospital room are simply two indicators of the background. Serious exposure of drug addiction in 1969 when Mr. Penn made this film was accurate, timely, honest, and necessary. This film is not a gloss on a deadly time. I like this movie even more than I like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man", both superb movies.Joni Mitchell's song "Songs to Aging Children Come" is the actual theme song of this marvellous film about a tragic moment in our lives. Emment Walsh has a great scene. I did not much like psychedelic and other countercultural signs and symbols. I used to complain about not knowing how to live as a Danish Modern person in a psychedelic world. My former wife used to go to any concert within two hundred miles that Arlo Guthrie gave. I grew a little tired of him, but I love the stories that inform his life. I like the persona of his sister in interviews. These are serious people who know how serious play is.

I was only five years-old when this film debuted, so the 60s don't hold quite the same magical nostalgic hold on me that they hold for some older folks. I'm sure for many of them, this film was a nice little stroll down memory lane--but for me I mostly found it slow and annoying, though there were many bits and pieces that I liked. Additionally, as an American History teacher, I did appreciate how this was all like a time capsule--with both the good and bad of the era all rolled into one package.The movie purports to be based on real-life situations that occurred to Arlo Guthrie when he was 18. How close to the truth his song "Alice's Restauran" and this movie are is anyone's guess. However, I did appreciate that the film was not a whitewash of the era. While there was a lot of idealism, free love and self-expression, the film also had a very dark side that particularly came out at the end--and was a great way to show that the idealism of the 60s was starting to die a slow death. I know that the Leonard Maltin Guide disliked this downbeat ending, but I liked it--making the movie, in a way, like "Paradise Lost" meets the 1960s. The only problem I had with the ending is that it seemed to drag on way too long and could have benefited from a slight trimming to keep it focused and make it end a bit stronger.As for the funny moments, everything about the littering arrest was pretty funny. Making stacks of police photos of the "horrible crime scene" and then giving all this to the blind judge was pretty absurd! Also how this minor incident resulted in Guthrie's being rejected from the draft was kind of cute (though I wonder just how true that was--if it was, then that's nuts!).Other than the funny and poignant parts at the end about the dark side of the 60s, there wasn't a whole lot I liked about the film. It really seemed more like an aimless home movie--something crowds in the 60s liked (with the success of this film and EASY RIDER, it's pretty self-evident). But today--in the 21st century--I just can't see it making much of a positive impact on most younger viewers and will probably just elicit boredom as well as questions such as "who are Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger?". By the way, for a guy who was no actor, I was impressed with Arlo Guthrie's performance. It was better than you might expect considering he was a folk singer and not an actor. Too bad he didn't have too many credits after this film.