cinema history class: head

Session: Bring Your Own Movie Month, Week 2 (Me)
Movie: Head (1968)
Directed by Bob Rafelson

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A bunch of incoherent stuff happens to The Monkees. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
For several years considered bringing Head for Bring Your Own Movie Month, but I hesitated since it's not science fiction or horror. Keith assured me that it's appropriate for the class, since it's fantasy, and that counts as being in genre. And the question of genre raised its head in the ratings portion of the evening. Joe originally rated it a 7, noting that it's not in genre. After Keith argued that it is in genre -- fantasy counts -- Joe relented and gave it a 9.8 (assuming one accepts Keith's argument).

And Joe's rating (whether you look at the 7 or the 9.8) surprised me. He has often emphasized that when he watches a movie the most important thing is that he be told a story. And Head doesn't tell a story. It's a series of vignettes loosely tied to each other by (mostly) clever segues. And in the pre-class emails, Keith and I joked about how much Joe would hate the evening. But he enjoyed it despite himself -- at least in part because of the music.

Dave also noted that, despite it being a bad movie, he had a good time, as it brough him back to the time he was transitioning from high school to college. Even Ethan seemed to like it better than he expected.

The one negative voice was Sean*, who felt that the Monkees pulled their punches too much and effectively came up with a message they didn't really follow through on.

He correctly noted that the major theme is of being trapped, only to escape and be trapped again. I add to that that, secondarily, there's the theme of getting what you want and being dissatisfied with it. But Sean noted that, while the Monkees shoot their image full of holes, they never really elevated themselves beyond it.

I understand Sean's sentiment, and agree with a lot of his thoughts. I love Head because of the music and because I'm a Monkees' fan. But I am under no illusion that it's a good movie.

Ratings:

Christina: 8
Dave: 6 (as a movie), 9 (for entertainment) -- averaging out to 8.5
Ethan: 7

Joe: 7 (unless you consider this a genre film, in which case it goes to 9.8 (Note: Joe rates all genre films on a curve, from 9.0 to 10)
Keith: 9

Sean: 1 out of 4

*Sean couldn't make it to class, but he has seen the movie and watched it again. He emailed me his comments and rating.