Much before my time, Raybert Productions was founded to reach a new (younger) audience for Hollywood films. Founded by Rob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, their first hit was the show The Monkeys. Using money from that, they made their first film, Head, and then brought in another partner, Steve Blauner. This new company was retitled BBS Productions, and it did indeed find the goal it initially sought: acclaimed films that reached out towards the counterculture environment.
As mentioned, Head was the first film, in 1968, and it was made on familiar ground, starring the Monkeys. Directed by Rafelson (and written by Rafelson and a young Jack Nicholson; did you know, after failed attempts to get his acting career to take off in the 50’s and early 60’s, he started writing?), it is less a film and more of a 90 minute variety show. It’s been called aimless and plotless, but there is the thin frame of a plot involving the boys trying to escape “the box.” Not so subtle reminder that they were trying to break out of their carefully crafted teenage friendly image. There are a handful of skits focusing on each individual member of the Monkeys, as well as the group as a whole. Interspersed throughout are a half dozen or so songs. The film was a box office bomb when it was released. By this time, the show had already been cancelled and there were rifts in the band, as well as with Rafelson and Schneider. The fact that it wasn’t kid-friendly (there are political stances and some adult topics) and the songs less “pop-py” hurt too, though I think the songs are actually pretty good. I’m not calling it a great film by any stretch, but I was entertained. ★★½
Easy Rider was the group’s first big hit, and it is a joy to watch. It stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (who also directs) as a couple of motorcycle riding hippies traveling through the American south. After smuggling cocaine across the border from Mexico and receiving a stack of cash, they begin the cross country trip from LA to New Orleans, wanting to get there in time for Mardi Gras. The film is obviously less about the destination and more about the trek. They encounter like-minded people (hitch-hikers and a free love commune) as well as antagonist southerners who don’t care for their long hair and motorcycles. Along the way, they spend a night in jail for disrupting a parade in a small town, where they meet another man, who’s a hard drinker but unfamiliar with the hippie lifestyle of our two protagonists. He joins their voyage, smoking weed for the first time, and the trio share experiences and relate tales about the direction of the country. They face hardships along the way but stay cool (can you dig it?) and make it to New Orleans in time. This is a fantastic movie, whose success and acclaim catapulted the counterculture movement in Hollywood. The soundtrack is incredible, featuring indelible tunes from the era’s greats. Absolutely loved this picture. ★★★★½
Five Easy Pieces is another great film, with two tremendous performances. Jack Nicholson plays Bobby, an obviously intelligent man who shirks responsibilities at every turn. Instead of using his smarts and going for a well paying career, he’s been working at an oil rig in southern California, and not taking it very seriously either. His friends and girlfriend, Ray (Karen Black) are of the blue collar working class variety. Ray is a nice, caring woman, but she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, and Bobby constantly berates her, even in public, but always makes up later. When Bobby gets news that his father, from whom he’s been alienated for a few years, has had a couple strokes, Bobby decides to go visit. Ray begs to go along too, but Bobby leaves her at a nearby motel while he continues on to the family home. All of his brothers and sisters are there, and we learn the history of the family. Bobby comes from a highly intelligent musical family, prodigies all, and Bobby’s piano playing was maybe the best of them, before getting in some sort of argument with their father years before and leaving. When Ray makes it to the house, Bobby’s nature comes to the fore, and we learn about a man who is very sharp, extremely talented, but never asked to be either. It’s a fantastic character study of a man grappling with a load of perceived responsibilities, but preferring to live an aimless, careless lifestyle. Nicholson and Black both received Oscar noms. ★★★★½
Drive, He Said was Jack Nicholson’s directorial debut (he’s only directed 2 other films in his long career). It is a raw film, and you can tell it is from a very young director, as it lacks cohesion. It doesn’t help that the actors just aren’t very good. Its main character is a college basketball player named Hector Bloom, who is very talented and being recruited for the pros, but he lacks drive and seems to be one of those who has skated through life on talent alone. He’s banging a professor’s wife, and definitely has a codependent thing going on there. While Bloom is getting ready for the basketball draft, his roommate Gabriel is trying to find a way to dodge a draft of his own (the Vietnam one). Gabriel is a true nut, and just gets crazier as the film goes along. This movie meanders along without great direction, and there really isn’t a coherent plot or goal. That worked really well in Easy Rider because the actors were so good and the environment so rich and textured; here it’s just a big mess. There are, I think, just two good actors in this picture: Bruce Dern (the coach) and Karen Black (the wife). I never understood what made Hector tick, he’s just sort of there, and it’s not a good thing to feel so disconnected from your main character. ★½
Critics be damned, I loved A Safe Place. It is an enigmatic film, occasionally frustratingly so, and it was panned by critics when it came out, but I think it was just ahead of its time. It is about a woman named Noah who is the ultimate flower child of the 60s/70s. She seems to float through life without a care in the world, but admits to the viewer, late in the film, that she does fight internal fears and a very real sense of loss. The film takes place in at least 2 time lines, maybe 3 (I’m not exactly sure), but the same actress (Tuesday Weld) plays Noah at all ages. When she was a girl, Noah met a street magician (played by the great Orson Welles), who gave her a sense of wonder to view the world. She carried that for the rest of her life, which sometimes baffled her lovers as an adult. She’s seeing two men, Mitch (Jack Nicholson) and Fred (Philip Proctor), who couldn’t more different from each other. The movie jumps continuously throughout the film, with most scenes being no longer than a few seconds to a couple minutes (tops), and sometimes narration will carry over across the timelines. It has a very Terrence Malick experimental film kind of feel, which understandably is not for everyone (for instance, I loved Tree of Life, but hated many of his other experimental pieces). This one connected with me though, and I really dug it. Whether there is a deeper meaning or not, is up to the viewer’s interpretation. ★★★★
The Last Picture Show is perfection. It follows the residents of a small town in Texas in 1952, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else’s business and secrets. Specifically, the focus is on two best friends, seniors in high school, Sonny and Duane. Duane is dating Jacy, the prettiest girl in town, and Sonny, with his average-looking girlfriend, is a bit jealous. Jacy however is only dating Duane because he’s the star quarterback of the football team, but she’s willing to marry anyone who will give her an easy life, so she eyes the goofy looking wealthy boy Bobby Sheen as a way out of town. Sonny breaks up with his girl and starts sleeping with the coach’s wife, Ruth, who’s been depressed for years because her husband is a closeted homosexual. All these events swirl around the 3 locations in town where news spreads: the cafe, the movie theater, and the pool hall. All three establishments are owned by Sam “the lion,” a popular man in town for his kindness and likability. The little town relies on him for more than his buildings though, and when Sam dies unexpectedly, the town, already on its last legs, doesn’t seem long for this world. Director Peter Bogdanovich does an amazing job of painting the ins and outs of a little town (and a few of its inhabitants) at a crossroads. It helps that the cast is a literal who’s who of talent. Veterans included Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Clu Gulager, but the youngsters in town were all newcomers at the time: Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Ellen Burstyn, Randy Quaid, and Cybill Shepherd (in her first role). ★★★★★
After so many great movies, they had to let me down. The King of Marvin Gardens is further proof that fine actors can’t save a subpar story. The movie is about a late-night radio DJ, David, who gets a call from his estranged brother, Jason, to come out to Atlantic City and help him in a new business. We learn quickly that Jason’s life has been full of half-assed entrepreneurial ideas, and David’s tired of it, but he’s humoring him one more time, because that’s what family’s for. When David gets to Atlantic City, of course Jason is in jail, but David is given some cockamamy story how it isn’t Jason’s fault. Upon release, Jason is accompanied by two woman, his girlfriend Sally and another, younger girl, who Jason introduces as his secretary. Jason’s latest scheme involves opening a casino in Hawaii. He says he already has the backers and is ready to break ground, but David finds that nothing is set in stone, and it is just a pipe dream. Sally is either neurotic or bipolar, but’s she’s off, and gets worse as the movie goes. Three of the four lead actors are great (Jack Nicholson as David, Bruce Dern as Jason, and, especially, Ellen Burstyn as Sally; unfortunately Julia Anne Robinson as Jessica just seems to be along for the ride), but the movie just never gets anywhere. Nicholson, Dern, and Burstyn are giving it their all, and Burstyn in particular is incredible as a woman with a deteriorating mind, but the acting skills are the only reasons to watch. ★
The production company BBS did one more film, the acclaimed documentary Hearts and Minds, which is also definitely worth checking out.
Jons Movie Takes 