# I'm 26. Explain to me why I don't "get" Alice's Restaurant **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895 "2009-05-10T00:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/1 "2009-05-10T00:45:32Z")
So, My Parents, who both graduated High school around 1969 are raving about this movie “Alice’s Restaurant”. I mean, they are going on and on about it. I am watching it, and I **HATE** it. To call it slow, would speed it up. Can someone please explain WTH is going on here? Why is this such a good movie? Or can you at least explain why the Director didn’t have the common sense to explain ANYTHING at all in the film? There is no context what so ever. No written text on screen to set the scene. I Want, NEED the film to justify itself, and it is not happening. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/2 "2009-05-10T00:50:11Z")
They were probably talking about the song. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/3 "2009-05-10T00:51:17Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > They were probably talking about the song. We are all 3 watching it. Currently. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/4 "2009-05-10T00:51:21Z")
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. [The film](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Restaurant_(film)). ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/5 "2009-05-10T00:52:48Z")
You know it’s based on the song, right? It might make a little more sense if you’ve heard the song. That having been said I do remember it drags quite a bit in the beginning. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I TiVo’d it last night. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/6 "2009-05-10T00:54:49Z")
“We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it’d be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump.” ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/7 "2009-05-10T01:01:38Z")
Then we went back to the church and had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/8 "2009-05-10T01:07:10Z")
Maybe you should just watch the movie instead of asking your internet friends to explain it to you. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/9 "2009-05-10T01:10:32Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > “We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it’d be > a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So > we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW > microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed > on toward the city dump.” I don’t get it. (never seen the movie, about the same age as the OP) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/10 "2009-05-10T01:14:05Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > I don’t get it. > > (never seen the movie, about the same age as the OP) Those are lyrics from Guthrie’s song of the same name (previously referenced), which inspired the film. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/11 "2009-05-10T01:16:25Z")
If you don’t like the song, you’re going to hate the movie, as the song is based on real events, and so the movie is just one big tribute/parody reliving the greatness of the song (with some of the real people mentioned in the song coming into the film to play their roles). So I think you should have started your issues w/ the movie with: “Do you like the song Alice’s Restaurant” which is a GREAT song in my ears. First heard it in my “America Since 1941” History class when we were getting towards the Vietnam Years, and most of us really dug his rambling style talking basically about the War and Bureaucracy during that time from the perspective of a member of the counterculture movement. So if you don’t like the SONG, you’re not going to like the Movie. That’s pretty much the gist of it, as the song is a good 20+ mins long (Depending on which version you hear I believe). Your parents are probably closer to that time period, and more likely to relate to the events and issues that were taking place in that day, and during the song, therefore may enjoy the Song and therefore the film on another level that you may not be getting. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/12 "2009-05-10T01:18:37Z")
The problem is that you are 26 at the wrong time. If you had been twenty-six in 1975 you might have liked it in 1969 when you were 20. 😉 The appeal was that it was _so_ anti-establishmentarian , which of course was all the rage among 18 to 22-year-olds at the time. Your parents are probably nostalgic for that era, hence their fondness for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/13 "2009-05-10T01:19:18Z")
My favorite part of the song’s always been the whole bit on: \*Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! \* Oh, and I’m 24. WoOt anti-establishmentarianism!.. _Or it’s just a really funny well written song._ And for some reason my 15 year old sister and her teenage freinds LOVE Woodie Guthrie and Arlo as well… She’s been to 2 of his concerts (Arlo’s) already. Even that I can’t really explain… I suppose it’s better than half the stuff out there right now. But still, kinda odd. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/14 "2009-05-10T01:20:03Z")
I just downloaded it. 🙂 And I went up there, I said, “Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.” And I started jumpin up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL,” and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL.” And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.” ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/15 "2009-05-10T01:22:45Z")
“Massacree.” Heh. Circles and arrows and 27 8x10 color glossy pictures. OP, you’re just too young, I think. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/16 "2009-05-10T01:23:10Z")
I can understand that today’s casual listener wouldn’t “get it”. As with many pop culture artifacts, in order to appreciate "Arlo’s opus, _you had to be there, man!_ I mean, a lot of people heard that song in shall we say, a very _relaxed_ state of mind. FM stations used to play it in its entirety. It was almost like a campfire song (but with a different kind of smoke). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/17 "2009-05-10T01:30:07Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > FM stations used to play it in its entirety. One of the Boston stations still plays it every year at noon on Thanksgiving day. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/18 "2009-05-10T01:31:26Z")
_Every_ rock station plays it on Thanksgiving. IME. Thanks for making me listen to it in the spring. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/19 "2009-05-10T01:35:33Z")
[Arlo explains it](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028273) on NPR’s All Things Considered. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895/20 "2009-05-10T01:35:53Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > Circles and arrows and 27 8x10 color glossy pictures. and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-26-explain-to-me-why-i-dont-get-alices-restaurant/495895.md?page=2)