Revolution (1968)

Thanks for the memories!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I was in high school on the San Francisco Peninsula when this film was shot. I may or may not have seen it before. My memory does not serve me as well as it did! Anyway, I had the album soundtrack for a long time and always wanted to see the movie because the music was so indicative of that time in the Bay Area. I always loved Tracy Nelson (the lead singer of Mother Earth) who sang the title track. To make a long story short...I had always heard that it was somewhat of a "plastic" film. Having Tivo'd it recently, I realized that this documentary really GETS IT. The liquid light shows, the last scene in Buena Vista Park in the Haight and the interviews with some of San Francisco's still finest (Rev. Cecil Williams, the staff of The Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, The Mime Troupe and the late Herb Caen). This movie DOES chronicle and capture the essence of that time period. The current Haight Ashbury has continued to practice some of the spirit of that time, but "hippiedom" was such a fresh concept in the late '60's. Now, well...have we learned anything in retrospect?

Revolution is kind of interesting at first, just to see Haight Ashbury at the height of hippiedom, but the movie is so shapeless and rambling that by the last half hour I was fast forwarding through dozens of naked hippie chicks because I just couldn't take any more. It's also very strange to see a documentary with a star, in this case Today Malone. There are documentaries that focus on someone, but this seems more like the director had a crush on a girl and decided he would feature her in a movie so he could hang out with her, or something. One imagines the filmmakers were stoned while shooting and editing. Nothing has any sort of context and amazingly dull, stupid people are allowed to prattle on at great length. Still, watching the movie it does look like it would have been fun to be part of the whole thing.

REVOLUTION is a poorly shot, edited and produced picture. Nonetheless, it's a valuable document of the times, for it was shot real-time in San Francisco circa 1967. One can't get a better first-person eyewitness account of the era. As cinema, it's rather boring. The filmmakers meander all around town filming (sometimes endlessly) whatever they see, and, more importantly, WHOever they can talk to. Some of the footage is priceless and real. Others, like an acid trip dressed up with panning and zooming camerawork revolving around Fruits, Feet and a Cat (you GOTTA see it to believe it!) is hilarious in its ineptitude. For those interested in the era, this is a historical must. Others, beware.

Revolution, an interesting quasi-documentary on the hippie experience in San Francisco, presents a day in the life of Today Malone, an attractive blond hippie (who might just be an attractive young actress playing a hippie). As with many of such films from the era, we're treated to lengthy pro- and anti-hippie banter, hallucination scenes, free-love themed nudity and excellent music (in this case, Country Joe and the Fish, The Steve Miller Band and Quicksilver Messenger Service, all at the creative peak of their careers). While at times absurd, this film nevertheless provides a fascinating document of the environment of hippie San Francisco, even if seen through exploitative eyes. As with the garbage on eBay, one needs simply to filter out the garbage to find the invaluable treasure.