HAIR A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
Few days ago I was watching Brannagh's version of LOVE LABOUR'S LOST and was again reminded of the lack of musicals in contemporary Hollywood. Musicals have been almost vanished from American cinema for nearly two decades, but the dying years of that genre were glorious. At least we might come to this conclusion judging by the quality of HAIR, 1979 musical by Milos Forman. This film also happens to have rather great sentimental value to the author of this review; long time ago I received the movie soundtrack as birthday present and it is one of the most treasured vinyl records in my collection.
Plot of this film, based on the cult 1960s musical by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt McDermott, begins during the Vietnam War when young and na‹ve Oklahoma farm boy Claude Hooper Bukowsky (played by John Savage) receives draft notice. In order to see some world before going to Army he makes a trip to New York City and spends some time wondering around Central Park. There he meets group of hippies led by unorthodox Berger (played by Treat Williams) and immediately strikes friendship with them, despite having ambivalent attitude towards their irresponsible lifestyle dominated by drugs and free love. His idea is to have some good time before he goes to recruitment centre, while Berger hopes that Claude would reconsider his plans and join their merry band for good, especially after falling in love with beautiful Manhattan debutante Sheila (played by Beverly d'Angelo). Claude's brief romance with Sheila, however, isn't reason enough for him to change his mind and he joins Army. After few months Sheila receives letter from Claude and again gets in touch with Berger and his friends. Berger decides to travel all the way to Nevada in order to visit Claude before he is shipped to Vietnam. That trip would in the end result with tragedy.
Czech immigrant Milos Forman perhaps didn't look like the best choice for the director of the movie version of popular Broadway musical, bit his Hollywood record before and after this film justified producers' decision. Forman showed great fascination with the popular culture of his adopted country yet his perspective of the outsider often allowed him to approach American themes and characters from unusual angles. That often resulted with original and powerful works, and HAIR is one of them. Originally considered to be unfilmable, especially a decade after the time when its messages about free love, anti-establishment rebellion and opposition to Vietnam War became outdated, this material actually benefited from Forman's outsider perspective. He approached Swinging Sixties and hippie movement with critical and often ironical distance - people like Berger are shown to be nice, but generally irresponsible people who, despite all their anti-establishment philosophy, still had to rely on more down-to-earth types like Claude or their parents. Forman's ironical approach also manifested by casting - veteran director Nicholas Ray, man with a reputation of Hollywood rebel, is given the role of General that represents war and establishment - everything hippies rebelled against. But the most visible element of Forman's irony is in the finale - black humour in those scenes doesn't hamper its strong emotional impact.
Musical aspect of HAIR is superb. The performers are up to the task, including John Savage, and the musical numbers in most cases seem natural. Forman usually doesn't allow them to get in the way of the plot and when he does, he makes some interesting editing experiments. One of them is "Black Boys"/"White Boys" being used for scenes in recruiting centre with humorous results, and another comes in the form of equally hilarious acid trip sequence during "Electric Blues"/"Old Fashioned Melody". Acting is also very good - usually underrated Treat Williams gives one of his best performances and John Savage is also very good, especially when we compare his character to the somewhat similar role in THE DEER HUNTER. Annie Golden as Jeannie is charming while Beverly d'Angelo is somewhat inept and not too attractive Sheila.
HAIR, although very likeable film, has some flaws. Choreography by Twyla Tharp is fun to watch, but at some times it gets too distracting. Some songs are included for the sake of following Broadway original and the even last scene in powerful "Let the Sunshine In" has some problems. Basically, the last shot in Arlington is followed by the scenes of thousands of anti-war protestors in front of the White House. This last scene, which suggest that the Love Generation stopped the war leaves the bitter taste in mouths of those who know what happened to those young, idealistic people in Reagan years and how their opinion on war changed when they stopped worrying about getting drafted themselves. But our cynical 1990s perspective shouldn't prevent us to enjoy this extraordinary piece of cinema.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
Review written on September 25th 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://film.purger.com
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