I remember like it was last week. We all went to the old Visualite Theater in Charlotte and saw it. I have nearly no memory of it at all, except the song and Arlo G. singing and the Woody characterI recall nothing else at all about the plot or how it was directed.I just stumbled across the movie watching TCM.Next Sunday ! plan to ask our minister to re-apply our vows. Wife and I have been through a lot of stress and uncertainty lately.

Of course the film "Alice's restaurant" is mainly meant to be an homage to Arlo Guthrie, who plays the leading part. However he was not my primary focus, since my curiosity had been aroused more by the social context of the narrative. Thanks to other visitors of IMDb I discovered the film on the message board of Hair, where it is praised as an accurate portrayal of the 68 generation. I could have been a part of this movement, and wonder if I have missed something. The setting of Alice's restaurant is an abandoned catholic church, which has been bought by Ray and Alice, and becomes the home of an irregular group of hippies. Together they form a loose commune. Just like in Hair (the musical) there is no real plot, but a chain of events which express the overall atmosphere. There is music, free sex, soft drug abuse and some harassment by conservative bumpkins. In the background the war in Vietnam looms, since most of the male hippies are eligible for compulsory military service. This uncertain future and the outlook of an early death may be a factor explaining the hedonistic attitude of the group. Every day should be a party, and there is a lack of discipline. For instance, their garbage is simply dumped along the road. Alice is devoted to the prosperity of her restaurant, and becomes increasingly frustrated by the irresponsible behavior of the others. She gets little support from her boy friend Ray, who suffers from impatience and a somewhat violent nature. He clearly has leadership qualities, and entrepreneurial greediness. Although Alice needs him, he hardly seems to be her ideal partner. Evidently we are supposed to identify with Guthrie, who plays the friendly and responsible youth. He rejects sexual intercourse with a teenage fan and with an older Maecenas, and finds his own Yoko Ono. He regularly visits his dying father, the illustrious Woody Guthrie. A climax is the medical examination for the military service, where Arlo pretends to possess a violent attitude. In secret he hesitates whether he will refuse service. Eventually his conviction for dumping garbage helps him to be rejected - which makes you ponder. In conclusion the film is a challenging but not political produce. For instance, the group was not involved in squatting, like in the film "The anarchist cookbook". For Ray actually bought the church and had the capital to renovate it. Probably neither Guthrie nor United-Artists / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had the desire to provoke. The necessity to promote Guthrie limits the critical scope of the film to a moderate appeal for peace. The Swedish film Tillsammans (Together) describes life in the commune in the same vein, but gives a better elaboration on the social themes (sexuality, meditation, consumerism, socialism, durability). And Strawberry Statement is superior in portraying social resistance and protest. If you like such films, consider seeing my other reviews. Nevertheless, Alice's restaurant is worth watching.

In "Alice's Restaurant, Arthur Penn exposes the rubbish (that is the correct word here) of aimless aspects of the sixties counterculture without putting down the vitality and importance of playfulness. He does this by posing the intelligent and serious young man Arlo Guthrie and Pat Quine playing Alice against Alice's workshy husband Ray, played a tad heavily by James Broderick, and an aimless community of people skirting life at the former church made restaurant.Director Penn contrasts bright and colourful New England landscape and towns with revolting and ugly icons and rituals of late sixties counterculture. Mr. Penn rightly avoids a big statement by sharing simple experiences interpreted with Guthrie's intelligent good humour. The smallness of the film makes it a great film. An example of this and an expression of the essential kindliness behind the film is the real Officer Obie, Williams J. Obanheim, police chief of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, portraying himself. His Norman Rockwell iconic look (he had posed for the artist who lived in Stockbridge) plays well against the icons of Arlo and his friends.Cinematography by Michael Nibbia is intricate and imaginative. Editing by Dede Allen, one of the most important in cinema history, flows like most of the script by Mr. Penn and gifted screenwriter Venable Herndon. The script is like orchestration of the famous, splendid Arlo song.Production, custom, set design, and other aspects are perfect. This is major and loving effort. Peter Seeger and Lee Hayes indicate the utter seriousness of the time depicted here. Cold, hard images for New York City and austere blue-green scenes in Woody Guthrie's hospital room are simply two indicators of the background. Serious exposure of drug addiction in 1969 when Mr. Penn made this film was accurate, timely, honest, and necessary. This film is not a gloss on a deadly time. I like this movie even more than I like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man", both superb movies.Joni Mitchell's song "Songs to Aging Children Come" is the actual theme song of this marvellous film about a tragic moment in our lives. Emment Walsh has a great scene. I did not much like psychedelic and other countercultural signs and symbols. I used to complain about not knowing how to live as a Danish Modern person in a psychedelic world. My former wife used to go to any concert within two hundred miles that Arlo Guthrie gave. I grew a little tired of him, but I love the stories that inform his life. I like the persona of his sister in interviews. These are serious people who know how serious play is.

This film is a high point of the alternative 60's cinema, that marked the end of that decade through films such as: "Head", "Trip","Bonnie & Clyde", "Blow-Up", and most notably "Easy Rider". This portrayal of rock'n'roll, free wheelin' lifestyle, is differently put in each of these movies, but Alice's restaurant is special. This is the movie not out of the novel or a short story, but out of a song, popular "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie, and it plays well on screen too. It's tripy, it's funny, and funny in a way that only life can direct it to be, it's political, but gently so, and it's making a point. A point about life, a point about music, a point about society and war, and most importantly a point about drugs. This picture is one of it's kind, and it will never fade with age. Arthur Penn did a good one here as well, and it probably came out the way it did because of Penn and Guthrie, and their unique talents combining. Brilliant!