This takes place in the late 1960s. Claude Bukowski (John Savage) travels from Oklahoma to NYC to join the Army. While in NY he falls in with a group of hippies. They sing and dance about 1960s issues. Claude also falls for rich beautiful Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo). They all try to prevent Claude from going but he does...and finds basic training is a living hell.The plot is kind of vague as are the characters but this still works. The songs are great, the acting is on target, the costumes are VERY colorful and the dancing is energetic and directed by the legendary Twyla Tharp. Naturally it's dated but you get caught right up in it. Also, like the stage play this has female AND male nudity! This was a bomb when it came out in 1979 but has since developed a cult following. Highly recommended. Look for the late Nell Carter singing "White Boys".

I never saw the play, and it sounds like many of those who have are finding fault with the way the film was done, but since I've only ever seen the film version I don't have any way to compare the two. Treat Williams excels in the role of Berger, and he's supported by a very capable and talented cast. It's an interesting, thought-provoking film with some beautiful music and dancing, and it's very entertaining. Unlike some films of its era, it's still relevant and watchable today.I also find it interesting because in a way it parallels my life when I was that age: I was a small-town Claude type, and I traveled to the big city and got involved with a couple of rather cutting-edge New Yorkers who were amused by my naiveté. They had a completely different lifestyle than mine, but we learned something about each other and accepted one another at face value rather than passing up the chance to become friends just because of our extreme differences. That's a life lesson worth learning.Parents very strongly cautioned: no real violence to worry about, but your kids will be asking awkward questions and seeking the definition of some fairly off-beat words and concepts if they sit through it.

I just watched the movie Hair in TCM, for the first time since I saw after its original release. The musical was already past its prime when it was released in 1979 and Treat Williams was already a little old for the title role. What strikes me now is how well, sexist it is; the female characters are just appendages to the men. They're passive and soft-spoken and just go along with whatever the guys want. "Women's lib" was not on the agenda here. The draft and the war in Vietnam were the impetus for this film and that's what contemporary audiences reacted to.The movie, about a lovable group of ragtag hippies in Central Park has a frenetic quality to it; Milos Forman was the middle-aged director. This film isn't about the young as they were, it reflects Forman's middle-aged male longing for the energy and sexuality of youth. Living on the West Side at the time, I was struck that they cleaned up Central Park for the film. The park was in awful shape. You can see it in the film where the dust rises from the bare dirt in the Great Meadow during the "be-in." The eventual value of this film may lie in its documentary value because it was shot on location in late 1970s Manhattan,

It sure must be great to be such a free spirit that you don't have to work for a living because you can always beg from people who do. And it sure must be great to be such a free spirit that you never have to wash your clothes or take a bath. And it sure must be great to be such a free spirit that you do not have to worry who the father is if you get pregnant, or, if you are a man, worry about supporting the woman you abandoned when she turns up with your child. And it sure must be great to be such a free spirit that you can display your superior attitude toward life by stomping all over the food that people were going to eat at a dinner party. And it sure must be great to be such a free spirit that you can steal a car just because the guy who owns it is uptight and therefore deserves to be treated with contempt.What an insufferably sanctimonious bunch these lowlifes are! My flesh crawled all through the film. Thank goodness people do not put up with this nonsense in real life.