The Monkees - Head [VHS]

Widescreen? Listen up....
Real short and sweet. I own a widesreen LCD TV. I want the picture to look good on my TV without being "stretched." Here's the deal. This DVD is FULL FRAME(or open matte). BUT... it's still widescreen. Follow me on this. Another reviewer on Amazon made me aware. When a movie is shot, especially back in the 60's, it is shot FULL FRAME(open matte) w/ TV in mind. When released in theaters it is matted from 4x3 (reg TV) to 16x9. When they shot this movie it was ment to be matted. If you have a widescreen TV, use the zoom feature on your remote. If you hit the 16x9 it will just stretch it. The zoom will bring it to the matted widescreen format( seen in theaters). You will see. This is not always true but... it is with HEAD. It would be nice to have an anamorphic DVD (adjusted to the screen) but I'm happy to have this on DVD...period. Hope this helps the people that "notice the difference."

"The porpoise is waiting, Goodbye! Goodbye!"
We often hear that the film HEAD is plotless-- not totally true. While the experience as it unfolds may seem to be comprised of unrelated comic sketches, these fragments ultimately link and, excluding one final sight gag, the entire trip's conclusion is actually the start of an endless loop. The story opens with a bridge dedication ceremony. Just as the ribbon's about to be cut, Micky, followed closely by the other three guys tears through it; an eccentric-looking crowd in close pursuit. Micky jumps from the span and hits the ocean awkwardly. He appears to have drowned but is rescued by two mermaids. At this exact moment, HEAD and "tail" are cosmically united. After (among other things) war skits, backlot scenes, getting vaccuumed up as dandruff flakes in Victor Mature's hair, a birthday party and escaping more than once from a giant black box, the Monkees flee desert dunes followed closely by people they'd encountered who weren't too pleased with them. The mob arrives once again (or is it the first time?) at the ribbon ceremony. To avoid these hostiles, Micky takes a second plunge off the bridge (or is it his first?) and the band follows him one-by-one. In slo-mo they splash far, far below, as the porpoise is waiting, "Goodbye! Goodbye!" Musically, our Fab-clones really shine here. The movie's theme, "Porpoise Song" is heard twice (remember that circularity!). Peter, who will depart the group first, goes out on two high notes. His Middle Eastern influenced "Can You Dig It" (sung by Micky) illustrates how Peter's talents were ignored in favor of the other three men, while "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again" in hindsight explains why he was to break up their quartet. Davy's pure schmaltz softshoe number, "Daddy's Song" (written by Harry Nilsson) has wonderfully edited visuals of handsome Mr. Jones and lovely Toni Basil doing a lithe and elegant dance; they make an exquisite couple. Mike's in-concert rocker, "Circle Sky" exemplifies that the Monkees had by 1968 become an excellent live performance unit. The famous rapidfire poem, "Ditty Diego" (written in part by Jack Nicholson) expertly skewers the Monkees myth. Carole King contributes two Micky numbers: "Porpoise Song" is the band's last great work; it stands with anything they recorded. "As We Go Along" isn't well served by Micky's strained bridge vocals. Reference given to the Beatles, a band the made-for-TV Monkees were an homage to, when Peter enters a restroom whistling "Strawberry Fields Forever." Cameos from director Bob, his cohort Jack and pal Dennis, plus UNCLE MEATless Frank, Frankie-less Annette, Teri, boxer Sonny (fresh off the SGT. PEPPER'S album cover), Vito, Rona, linebacker Ray, Carol, and of course, The Big Victor! If you "get" all the references, my condolences on advancing age. I'm right there with ya, though! Recommended: The HEAD soundtrack album features all songs, plus the best comic moments from this most inscrutable of cinematic psychedelica. Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll ratng found at a film resource website. (6.1) Head (1968) - Peter Tork/Davy Jones/Micky Dolenz/Michael Nesmith/Annette Funicello/Vito Scotti/Sonny Liston/Ray Nitschke/Carol Doda/Frank Zappa/Teri Garr/Victor Mature (uncredited: Bob Rafelson/Jack Nicholson/Dennis Hopper/Toni Basil/Rona Barrett/Hal Taggart)

Great movie!
It was different and nothing like the TV show besides the fact that it was funny in some parts but it was a great movie.

Better than anything the Beatles did
To me, the Monkees resonate more than the Beatles because they were a contrived pop group who were ADMITTEDLY more about slapstick and girls. They were the truth. They put music second and used it as a tool, so when you heard they were actually good it was a fantastic surprise. The Beatles were the revolutionary band, but their musical package and individual personas weren't as eloquent, humorous or mind-expansive. Same goes for their films. The Monkees gave the world albums and a TV show that were clever but simple and sweet. But this is after the goofy but great show had been taken off the air. Through the whole film, the group knows things are coming to an end. Mike is constantly sarcastic and bitter. Davey is egocentric. Peter is always searching for spiritual clarity. And Mickey is still Mickey. These weren't nihilistic acid heads yakking endlessly shallow psychedelica like "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" or the entire "White Album". "Porpoise Song", "Daddy's Song" and "Circle Sky" have real dark substance hidden behind sunshine pop. Its blatant, but better. "Head" comes off as a big slamming satire of "boy bands" and the craziness that the 60s had become. They question their old ideals and sense of humor while delving into the metaphorical question "what are we headed as a group?" The troubles of the band were mirroring society. Its a clever spin for a rock movie, but maybe some artsy Amazon critics, like Mike Sobocinski, will moan ad nauseam that this isn't a Bergman film. This is Jodorowsky for teenage girls. One of the more intellectual and genuinely trippy films of the period. The comedy feels like a more sinister Monty Python at times and it predates "Meaning of Life" with its likening war to sports and free-associating sketch "comedy". At the end, you have to admire the audacious spirit of the cast and crew. The boys show dramatic and comic acting range exceeding their skills on the show. The direction is wonderful and the editing is fantastic. Seeing Dennis Hopper pop up makes me think he either helped cut this baby or was influenced by it. Teri Garr is great as a tragic satire of the damsels-in-distress the boys saved week after week on their series. The most amazing aspect is Timothy Carey as a flamboyant redneck Id figure antagonizing the Monkees. Like his misunderstood film "The World's Greatest Sinner", "Head" is a masterpiece(yep) lost in irony, pretention and glory, an overwhelming dynamic hoping and succeeding in finding some cleansing truth.

Childish "Art"
I remember when the Monkees show was on Saturday morning reruns, and my siblings were surpised that I enjoyed it despite my very young age. In the age of "MASH" (actually 1-2 years before) there were indeed a great many persons who conflated mere juxtapositions and semi-random non-sequiters with the sense of anomie they felt at the time, and were desperate to see expressed in some way. Funny, but my 4 OR 5-year old self (although purely in terms of chronological age!) seemed to be the ideal audience for this kind of writing. As a child, I could delight in pure zaniness for its own sake, quite unconcerned about the lack of moral convictions betrayed by the writers (the perfect example is when the film has a woman being punched out, purely for the supposed comedic value of doing so [in a typically childish delight in norm violations and unsupressed instincts], but then that person starts questioning what kind of role model he is in having engaged in such behavior. Like, no kidding! You can't have it both ways - you can't have scenes with "Indians" casually shot and stabbed by the protagonists and yet claim that these are persons who represent Flower Power simply because they have their mouths agape whenever they see a tank or military vehicle. This is cinema of the absurd for those who have no clue what the absurd was supposed to be about (e.g. La Fantome de Liberte), a cheap spin-off on Dadaism. The most informative thing about this film may be how it reveals that despite the pleasing sounds that this band sometimes produced, there is no way that they should ever be confused with the Beatles, or the many other worthy bands of the time (as seen at Woodstock and Monterey, both filmed and available on DVD for viewing). Here, viewers should be prepared for 90 minutes of silly scenes, lacking any substantial connection, but loaded with pretentiousness. A slightly adjusted version of the Vietnam newsreel footage of a brutal gun execution is the perfect example... such footage is inserted more than once into this "children's film" (so-designated by the dialogue of one of the Monkees himself!) to pretend to give it gravity and broader political significance. But in actuality the film offers pure sensationalism with no binding theme except an extended expression of abstracted anomie, devoting much more time to the gyrations of belly dancers than to any actual political statement. And of course, this was the awkward historical period in which supposedly liberated women simply served as eye-candy, with role sets purely limited to stereotyped coquetry (this film was released at the same time, for example, as the ridiculous Elvis Presley vehicle "Live A Little, Love A Little," and is actually of weaker quality). For a better sense of what the late 60s counterculture was actually about, viewers should instead check out "In the Year of the Pig" and leave this commercialized fluff as a mere footnote in the annals of spin-off marketing.