Well, I’m a big fan of the epic Arlo Guthrie song by the same name. I heard on the SDMB a few years ago that Alice’s Restaurant was made into a movie at one time as well. I’ve never been able to find it, and it became a bit of a quest for me (Alice’s Golden Fleece?).
Today, I found it. But not for rent. So I have no idea if I should cough up the cash to purchase this movie, as I’ll probably only watch it 2-3 times. Is it worth it? Will I wet myself watching Arlo et al. wait in Group C? Can I really get anything I want at Alice’s Restaurant ('cept for Alice)?
Somebody help. I’m fixin’ to spend some money at the bookstore today, and want to know if that’s going to be a portion of my booty (John Denver and the Muppets’ Christmas CD is only $7!!).
NO! Don’t buy it. The movie barely contains elements from the song. It’s much, much darker and more confused and doesn’t follow the same storyline. The production quality is horrible - from the camera work to the sound; it is all bad. Bad, Bad, Horrible Bad. After watching it sober, I wished I’d been high so I wouldn’t have been trying to follow the plot.
Buy it – it is a time capsule of a time long past, with its loose hippy ethos. And I don’t agree that it is technically poor. It was professionally made, by a major director, Arthur Penn, who had just directed Bonnie and Clyde.
I have seen the movie and liked it. If you like his music it is a decent movie. It wasn’t an A list movie by any means but it was much better than I expected it to be. I agree with Homebrew that it is much darker than the song in general but not with his assessment that it doesn’t follow the same story line. The entire song is in there and the plot does revolve around it…well somewhat. There are a lot of little things and extras that they have to throw in to fill out the movie but I can’t think of anything that was out of place. Even though I like it, I wouldn’t buy it unless I could find it real cheap (under 10 bucks for a DVD). It was just too stereotypical of the 60’s/70’s. It was kind of like the Hippies vs the Pigs movie where the Hippies played football against the police department and the police wanted to arrest some of the draft jumpers that showed up. In other words, it was good cheesy fun but nothing I would want to have in my library for anything other than an eye-catcher for the arcane.
I’d go ahead and buy it if it were cheap. There are two scenes (the courtroom and the draft board) that are funny and reminiscent of the song. But I agree, a lot of the rest of the movie is dark and muddled.
Me and my homies had a tradition of getting together on Thanksgivng (or the weekend after) and watching Alice’s Restaraunt.
I would say, definitely buy it. It’s kind of a downer, but a worthwhile movie to watch nonetheless. It’s kind of a slice of life in the hippy counterculture.
I’m waiting for Arlo to do a movie of “The Motorcycle Song”.
I’ve always thought this is a much better film than people give it credit for. As I recall, it made Roger Ebert’s personal top ten for the year it came out.
To me it’s worth it just for the scene where Arlo does a quick instrumental of the song to lull his friend to sleep.
Well, I seem to be alone here on the board, but I felt like the scences that coincided with the song were shoehorned in because they thought people would expect them, naturally enough. But those scenes felt out of place with the rest of the movie.
However, I will grant that the Amazon reviewer mentioning the scenes about Arlo and Woody were touching.
Haven’t seen it for years, but it’s a minor classic of its genre - the low-budget, self-consciously “alternative”, rock movie. If you can appreciate “Head” by the Monkees or “200 Motels” by Zappa, you can appreciate Alice’s Restaurant.
My favorite part is where he deliberately tries to fail the draft, telling the recruiting officer he wants to fight “I want veins between my teeth”. And they get busted for illegally dumping garbage on the town dump. (It’s sort of coming back…)
I saw it about ten years ago. I don’t remember much of it beyond being extremely bored. Then again, I was extremely bored a lot back then.
I’d say this is a classic example of Abraham Lincoln’s dictum that “Those who like this kind of thing will find that this is the kind of thing they like.”
So I have no idea if I should cough up the cash to purchase this movie, as I’ll probably only watch it 2-3 times. Is it worth it? Will I wet myself watching Arlo et al. wait in Group C? Can I really get anything I want at Alice’s Restaurant ('cept for Alice)?