TIMOTHY LEARY'S DEAD
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
"It is my ambition to really liberate the world.
Why not? Why settle for anything less? And I have a
sense of humor about it. I know the odds are against me.
But we only have a few years here. Let's try to leave this,
uh, spaceship a better place."
-Timothy Leary (1920-1996)
Paul Davids's documentary about Timothy Leary, the canonical 60s radical and proponent of the drug culture, is as fascinating as it is one-sided. The title, TIMOTHY LEARY'S DEAD, is taken from the name of a once popular song, which is one of the better songs on the movie's soundtrack.
The documentary focuses on Leary, a relentlessly upbeat and happy fellow, and his views on everything, but especially drugs. Davids uses a chronological structure starting with Leary's childhood and bringing us up to 1996 when Leary died at the age of 75. This linear ordering is overlaid with recent interviews with Leary's friends from the 60s.
The film works as an insider's view into a group of people who even today have complete faith in psychedelic drugs. Some still cling to their belief in the power of drugs whereas others just dismiss drug taking as a harmless vice of youth. One interviewee claims that many of today's best doctors and lawyers used to turn on and drop out.
Leary was a Ph.D. in Psychology who taught at Harvard in the 60s until he was fired for espousing notions very unpopular with the administration. ("LSD is an extremely powerful, mind opening agent. We are now in the psycho, chemical age. In the future it's not going to be what book you read, but what chemical do you use to open your mind to accelerate learning.") He saw no downside to his theories and took no responsibility for any negative effects on his followers.
The film has brief segments with a uniformed cop and with an author to state the case that hard drugs are not good for you. Robert Prehoda, author of a book on Leary, states the opposition to Leary's ideas succinctly: "The drug revolution in America was a disaster, and, to the extent that Timothy Leary promoted that, he was the high priest of the drug revolution." These segments, however, are so short that they smack of tokenism.
The film does provide an effective study of radical non- conformity. The players in this tragedy are not ghetto dwellers, but rich kids and adults. Leary at one point lived on a 3000 acre estate in a 63 room house, thanks to one of his followers. Kids from all over the world flocked to live with them on the grounds since the drugs there were so plentiful and powerful. They danced day and night, naked and stoned. In a recent interview one of the leaders of the camp claimed that they were careful to insure that the kids who came there to use the drugs were made "in some way safe." Exactly how they pulled off that miracle is never explained.
Although the film suffers from repetition, the candid interviews are mesmerizing in their naivete. (His friends compare Leary to many great figures of history, including Socrates.) The grainy, black and white, old video clips and the songs recreate an era that many have forgotten or never knew.
The most shocking aspect of the film is not the ideas pontificated, but the picture's ending. It seems that Leary, with his inflated view of the power of his brain, wanted his head frozen so his brain could be preserved for future generations. We "get" to witness the actual decapitation. And it is as horrific as it sounds.
TIMOTHY LEARY'S DEAD runs 1:16. It is not rated but would be R or perhaps NC-17. It contains nudity, drug usage and discussion, and a gory operation. It is not a film for teenagers as the happy high priest and his friends could easily leave the impression on less questioning minds that drugs are pretty cool after all. I recommend the documentary to adults who will probably be as surprised and engrossed by it as I was. I give it ** 1/2. With less repetition and a more balanced treatment, I could have easily rated it higher.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: June 21, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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