Psych-Out (1968; Richard Rush)

American Bandstand guru Dick Clark did not dig flower power. When "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" was a thing, he still was into Bobby Darin. During his short tenure as a film producer at American-International Pictures, he intended a film to show the decrepit existence of hippies for what it really was. Despite how much he may have succeeded in Psych-Out, this remains a key film for those who are nostalgic for the flower power era. Today, this film seems naive, but honestly so was much of the era, but it probably captures the “Summer Of Love” better than any other narrative film.

Susan Strasberg plays Jenny, who comes to Haight-Ashbury to look for her brother Steve. She is deaf, but that handicap is actually an asset once you consider she begins hanging around with a terrible rock band, named Mumblin Jim, led by the aptly-named Stoney. With the help of their so-called bandmate Dave (he's one of those hippies who refers to everyone else as capitalist sell-outs), they find out that Steve has some kind of sanctuary in a junkyard, and some thugs are out to get him. Slowly, the picture ambles towards tragedy as the drug use and free love show their consequence. 

As noted in his autobiography, Rock Roll & Remember, producer Dick Clark attempted to show the unhealthy lifestyles of the hippies. The screenplay by E. Hunter Willett and Betty Ulius (based on a story by Willett and Betty Tusher) is set in unusual locations consisting of a junkyard, Dave's shack on a rooftop, and the band's hangout "The Gallery", which is a run down old mansion always peopled with stoners and kids getting some good cheap sex. In an interesting scene, Jenny finally flips out at everybody over their less-than-glamourous existence (garbage lies everywhere in “The Gallery”). Arguably Clark succeeded in what he set out to do, yet, I don't know of another movie that so well captures the flavour of the Haight-Ashbury district. The opening scenes, as Jenny emerges at the fabled borough, are lovely travelogues. 

This narrative film often has a documentary feel: the candid camera by the legendary Laszlo Kovacs captures the "experience" while the understated ethereal Strawberry Alarm Clock music plays. Its on-the-street photography and lovely interior decoupages filled with soft focus "cheese cloth" lensing, beads in the foreground, and the obligatory sitar on the soundtrack create a "you-are-there" feeling. I particularly love the scene in "The Free Store", a microcosm of everyone sharing the world, where people pick up or drop off clothes and articles. Still, the film sometimes feels otherworldly, as in one curious scene where we believe we are seeing a hippie funeral, until it is revealed to be a carnivalesque wedding (with musical entertainment by The Seeds!). Here is a moment of drive-in cinema taken from The Seventh Seal! 

Still, as realistic as the film purports to be, it is also a hilarious exaggeration of hippie clichés, thanks likely to the producer's disdain for the flower children. Glassy-eyed Jack Nicholson (as Stoney) has this hilarious stick-on ponytail, Dean Stockwell (as Dave) wears a black mop while cursing the Capitalist pigs, and Henry Jaglom (as Warren) has just about the worst sideburns in movie history. Is it any less cliched that Elwood is portrayed as perpetually stoned? The film also revels in tripped-out dialogue, full of way-out but empty aphorisms (one early line -"intellectual, but it's crap"- pretty much sums it up). 

Thus Psych-Out is an irresistible time capsule that could satisfy both camps: those who revel in the typical “counterculture movie” clichés, as well as those who want to see the real deal. Still, one can see the dichotomy, as these kids who shout "peace and love" in a cafe sure know how to put up a fight with the thugs in the junkyard. (Legendary stuntman Gary Kent plays the leader of the thugs.) Lest we forget, just a year later, the violence of Altamont ended the love-in. Seeing these youths amble along in a dirty environment recalls a passage in The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test where author Tom Wolfe ironically remarks of the children of tomorrow having to use the bathroom at the gas station. 

And in an age when drug education was barely non-existent, the onscreen drug use is seldom glamourized. The scenes of Warren having a bad acid trip, or a stoned Jenny crossing freeway traffic are appropriately grim, despite the now-dated horror-movie cliches the filmmakers often use to convey these moments. (Warren thinks his own hand is mutilated, and that all his friends are slimy monsters.) 

But enough of the film theory. Psych-Out is also slam-bang entertainment, courtesy director Richard Rush (who would best demonstrate his skills in the masterpiece, The Stunt Man). With crazy editing, hyper montages (especially during Jenny's drug-trip), groovy lens effects, a lot of colour and atmosphere, this film remains very exciting to watch. The film feels like a mixture of different personalities that somehow gelled: Dick Clark was making a statement, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs was making a European art film, and Richard Rush decided to do a live-action comic book. 

Of course today's viewers have an additional pleasure in seeing future stars paying their dues. This film is of inestimable value alone for seeing Jack Nicholson (that pony tail is something else!) playing in a rock band -at one point his group plays a variation on "Purple Haze”- and check out their magic bus!. Plus, you know you’re in for something once you consider that Bruce Dern plays Jenny's brother! He plays his role to the hilt, as Steve is now some wigged-out bearded freak who is convinced he is the new messiah! (If you read some real life stories of bad drug trips, this notion isn’t as far out as it appears.)  Also appearing as Stoney’s pals are Max Julien (later of The Mack) as Elwood, and Adam Roarke, a staple in 60s drive-in cinema. And there is the gorgeous Susan Strasberg, daughter of the legendary “method acting teacher”, Lee Strasberg. Too often unfairly compared to her father, she was a brilliant talent in her own right, who seemed to find a niche in offbeat pictures such as this.

For those who romanticize about the 1960s and what its generation intended to stand for, Psych-Out is great fun. But this film presages the dark side of the era, in how the Utopian dreams were tinged with violence, hypocrisy and hard drugs. It is the rare film to have things both ways.

Why does it seem like they're about to sing?

Psych-Out was once distributed on VHS by Thorn-EMI (who carried several AIP titles). And in the 2000s MGM (who now owns the AIP catalog) released it on their awesome Midnite Movies Double Feature DVD series, paired with The Trip. Olive Films would later release the film to Blu-ray, with director Rush’s intended original ending restored.