Buried Treasures: Head

The film opens with a skin-colored screen. As the camera backs out, we realize this is an extreme close-up of a man’s finger. We then see that the man is a police officer standing on a bridge trying to quell a crowd of young, unruly hippies. If the hippies don’t give it away, the policeman’s sideburns scream "'60s movie!”

The tension between supposedly “cool” youth and the “square” authoritarian figure (who likely represents the entire World War II generation) indicates this probably won’t be a great '60s movie; this is likely one of those campy forays into drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll that defined a generation and a short period of lower-quality motion pictures.

Then we see several men in the distance — running toward us from the other end of the bridge. As they come closer, they look familiar. Not the Beatles, mind you, but familiar. The young men then jump off the bridge into the water below. Music begins to play. While the music is definitely of the 1960s psychedelic genre, we can now tell from the underwater faces of the four men that these are, in fact … the Monkees???

Did the Monkees even make a movie? And if so, wouldn’t it have been an extension of their juvenile, but admittedly funny, television show? Why does this all seem like a big colorful acid trip? Everything from the severe opening close-up to the culture clash to the rock music and the long hair. And none of it seems like the Monkees! Yet there they are.

For those who didn’t live through the 1960s, the Monkees were a group of two studio musicians (Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork) and two actors, one of whom sang and danced (Davy Jones) and one of whom sang and played drums (Micky Dolenz). The Monkees were thrown together (read: invented) by film director and writer Bob Rafelson, who desired to produce a TV show about an imaginary rock band who wanted to be the next Beatles but were never successful. It would be a sitcom, of sorts, with heavy doses of music (performed initially by studio musicians) thrown in for young audiences. The Beatles’ 1964 film “A Hard Day’s Night” was the basis for the show. The humor was silly without being lowbrow. Families could watch it together, although the music specifically targeted teenage children.

While this setup sounds somewhat ridiculous, the show was an instant hit when it premiered in the fall of 1966, and the Monkees shot to the top of the charts with hit after hit after hit — even though they didn’t play their own instruments (together) until well into the show’s first season. In 1967, the Monkees were so popular they actually outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.

But as surely as the Monkees shot to stardom, their flame burned out quickly, and their show was cancelled in spring 1968 — after just two seasons on the air — leaving four men under the age of 25 without steady employment. In a way, Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork felt used and abused by not only Rafelson and his partner, Bert Schneider, but also by NBC, television in general and indeed by American pop culture itself. The Monkees then set out to destroy their wholesome image.

The result was “Head.” Released in fall 1968, “Head” was a stream-of-consciousness descent into weird hallucinatory territory never before or since mined by these four men. Watching it today, we realize why it has become a cult classic. It’s not that “Head” makes some brilliant social criticism. Quite the contrary. This film jumps all over the map.

It begins with the Monkees reciting a very pointed anti-Vietnam War chant, followed by a scene in which Dolenz destroys a Coke machine when it eats his dime — yes, only a dime! So right away, “Head” purports to engage the hippie generation with stances against war and commercialism.

Later, the four companions walk off the set of their television show because they believe it has become too preposterous. As “Head” progresses, one minute Frank Zappa is critiquing Jones’ dancing ability, and the next features the four bandmates shrunk to minuscule size to become the dandruff in actor Victor Mature’s hair.

Don’t try to make sense of “Head.” It exists merely to trash an icon — “The Monkees” (the TV show and the clean-cut all-American image – not the band itself). And how it stands as counterpoint to the aggressive over-commercialism of the Monkees is why “Head” has reached cult status.

Ironically, “Head” was directed by Rafelson himself — the man most responsible for setting the Monkees up to fail (and a man who openly admitted to never liking their music). The screenplay was by Rafelson and future star Jack Nicholson. If you thought Rafelson's name sounded familiar, he directed Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces,” “The King of Marvin Gardens” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice," among other films. While wildly uneven and essentially plotless, their first collaboration (“Head”) was inventive enough to foreshadow their great work to come.

“Head” is definitely a motion picture of its time. Today it looks hopelessly dated, but in much the same way the documentary “Woodstock” seems dated. The generation (with its goals of love, peace, and understanding) is dated, particularly since its members now run corporate America. Truth be known, “Head” wouldn’t have had to star the Monkees at all. This could be any four rock musicians. Or any four friends, for that matter. The point is that “Head” can be seen as a salute to the ideals of the Baby Boomers prior to political assassinations, Vietnam, rock-star drug overdoses and Watergate corrupted those hopes and dreams.

Today, Boomers can watch “Head” simply for the nostalgia, but anyone can watch “Head” for the music, which is indeed the best of the Monkees’ career, and the he long-gone style of train-of-thought moviemaking. “Head” is full of bright colors, “active” camerawork (featuring zooms, close-ups and long shots), psychedelic music and superimposed images — all of which create the sense of some kind of wild drug trip.

“Head” accomplished two things. It successfully took a proverbial snapshot of the uncertain times of the late 1960s and it put the nail in the casket of the Monkees. That the Monkees themselves were in on the joke makes “Head” all the more enjoyable.

Andy Ray's reviews of current films appear on http://www.artschannelindy.com/

and on http://www.currentnightandday.com/