Alice's Restaurant

Plot synopsis:
In 1965, Arlo Guthrie (as himself) has attempted to avoid the draft by attending college in Montana. His long hair and unorthodox approach to study gets him in trouble with local police as well as residents. He quits school, following which he hitchhikes back East. He first visits his father Woody Guthrie (Joseph Boley) in the hospital.
Arlo ultimately returns to his friends Ray (James Broderick) and Alice Brock (Pat Quinn) at their home, a deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where they welcome friends and like-minded bohemian types to "crash". Among these are Arlo's school friend Roger (Geoff Outlaw) and artist Shelley (Michael McClanathan), an ex-heroin addict who is in a motorcycle racing club. Alice is starting up a restaurant in nearby Stockbridge. Frustrated with Ray's lackadaisical attitude, she has an affair with Shelley, and ultimately leaves for New York to visit Arlo and Roger. Ray comes to take her home, saying he has invited a "few" friends for Thanksgiving.
The central point of the film is the story told in the song: After Thanksgiving dinner, Arlo and his friends decide to do Alice and Ray a favor by taking several months worth of garbage from their house to the town dump. After loading up a red VW microbus with the garbage, and "shovels, and rakes and other implements of destruction", they head for the dump. Finding the dump closed for the holiday, they drive around and discover a pile of garbage that someone else had placed at the bottom of a short cliff. At that point, as mentioned in the song, "...we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down."
The next morning they receive a phone call from "Officer Obie" (Police Chief William Obanhein as himself), who asks them about the garbage. After admitting to littering, they agree to pick up the garbage and to meet him at the police station. Loading up the red VW microbus, they head to the police station where they are immediately arrested.
As the song puts it, they are then driven to the scene of the crime where the police are engaged in a hugely elaborate investigation. At the trial, Officer Obie is anxiously awaiting the chance to show the judge the 27 photos of the crime but the judge (James Hannon as himself) happens to be blind, using a seeing eye dog, and simply levies a $50 fine, orders them to pick up the garbage and then sets them free. The garbage is eventually taken to New York and placed on a barge. Meanwhile, Arlo has fallen in love with a beautiful Asian girl, Mari-chan (Tina Chen).
Later in the movie, Arlo is called up for the draft, in a surreal depiction of the bureaucracy at the New York City military induction center on Whitehall Street. He attempts twice to make himself unfit for induction, first by getting drunk the night before and performing the physical exams while hung over, then by acting like a homicidal maniac in front of the psychiatrist, but fails both times (the latter incident actually gets him praise). Because of Guthrie's criminal record for littering, he is first sent to the Group W bench (where convicts wait), then outright rejected as unfit for military service, not because of the littering incident, but because the government is suspicious of "his kind" and instead opted to submit his personal records to Washington, DC.
Upon returning to the church, Arlo finds Ray and members of the motorcycle club showing home movies of a recent race. Shelley enters, obviously high, and Ray beats him until he reveals his stash of heroin, concealed in some art he has been working on. Shelley roars off into the night on his motorcycle to his death; the next day, Woody dies. Ray and Alice have a hippie-style wedding in the church, and a drunken Ray proposes to sell the church and start a country commune instead, revealing that he blames himself for Shelley's death. The film ends with Alice standing alone in her bedraggled wedding gown on the church steps.

Tags: melodrama, satire, home movie

Review:
I had all but forgotten about the film of "Alice's Restaurant", which was inspired by (as opposed to based on) Arlo Guthrie's classic and comic song of the same name.
Viewing it again on DVD made for a curious experience.Midway through the film, director Arthur Penn (fresh off of "Bonnie and Clyde", I believe) literally shoots the events on which the song is based, and they are if anything even more amusing on screen than on record.
However, anyone expecting the film itself to reflect this tone overall is in for a surprise.By the time Arlo (playing himself) has his litter-inspired run-in with the draft board (which is, again, hilarious) we have come to know him as one of a commune-like group of people in Stockbridge which is more or less centered around Alice and Ray.
Alice seeks to add some stability to her life by opening a restaurant, which she does successfully with the help of friend Arlo's jingle.
She and Arlo are the only members of their group who look beyond the aimless lifestyle of the members of their commune, who are content to meander through life riding motorcycles and getting stoned.
We see Alice affected by the drug-inspired struggle and death of addict Shelley and Arlo affected by the long illness and eventual death of his father, Woody Guthrie.
But if Arlo has his music to move on to, Alice is fairly glued to her life with the stoned-out Ray, their friends and her restaurant.
It is with great sadness indeed that she watches Arlo ride off to resume his life on the road.The point made about the trappings of the Hippie lifestyle being so unfulfilling are well ahead of their time when juxtaposed with other movies of the era and are actually quite haunting.
This shift in tone is never quite reconciled by director Penn, rendering the film more of a curiosity than a success.In addition to the now-fabled Thanksgiving sequence, highlights include James Broderick's lively performance as Ray, Pat Quinn's understated one as Alice and Guthrie's ever present charm and humor.
(That's folk music producer Harold Leventhal as Woody's manager.)  The film itself is ultimately as ramshackle as the group whose story it tells, but if the era means anything to you you will find it worth watching..
This was an "establishment" movie designed to cash in the popularity of the then-popular folk song by Arlo Guthrie.
As most students of 1960s filmmaking are aware, "Alice's Restaurant" was director Arthur Penn's unsuccessful follow-up to "Bonnie and Clyde."  It was based on -- or rather inspired by -- a good idea: Arlo Guthrie's famous autobiographical song, which told the humorous and ironic tale of two run-ins with the "establishment," as we used to say, during a Thanksgiving in Stockbridge, Mass., and a subsequent draft board examination in New York City.Thirty-three long years later, seeing this cultural artifact from the late '60s is less like watching a story unfold than stepping into a time machine.
Way back when -- before a six-figure salary became the college student's holy grail, when saving the world was more important than earning a law degree -- young people were actually passionate -- about freedom, about peace, about the long- term prospects for humanity.
If that passion has not completely vanished, it has certainly been redirected -- and not, in my view, toward a positive or productive end.Whether Penn's film works or not as a cinematic adaptation of Guthrie's song, whether it successfully mixes deadpan humor (hippies vs.
The movie succeeds in capturing a remarkable moment in time, a short period when the future may have been uncertain, but there was still a brilliant ray of sunshine at the end of the tunnel -- and a youthful force propelling us toward it.The hippie movement may have been naive, but it was a movement nonetheless, and a positive form of rebellion.
As seen in the film, young people often used the word "peace" instead of "goodbye" -- not just as a pleasant sentiment at the end of a conversation, but as a serious reminder of what was important -- that nothing was more vital than global, harmonious accord, to "live as one."  That spirit may have died with John Lennon; it may have left this Earth with Jerry Garcia.
Those who write complaining that the movie isn't like the song are missing the point.
The movie merely includes the song - and some events in Arlo Guthrie's life in the 1960s.
Get over the fixation about the song and you might begin to see what the movie is about.Alice's Restaurant is about life and loss, and the traps we allow ourselves to get caught up in.
Note the significant change in tone in the last section: The marriage ceremony and party at the end brilliantly convey the idea of the characters trying to "be free" and have a good time, but that if there is aimlessness in your life, there will be a sadness there and you won't know were it is comming from.
I've always liked Arlo Guthrie's music and the soundtrack is excellent, featuring the title track which tells this true story.
It's quite a fun movie, laced with moments of very serious elements like Woody, Arlo's dad, in the hospital.
With its scenes of cars and motorcycles gunning down the road, its voice overs from a youthful Arlo Guthrie, its attempts at humor, and its generally nonchalant tone, "Alice's Restaurant" may strike some viewers as nothing more than the hippie version of "The Dukes Of Hazard".
To young viewers, who lack historical reference points, the film may seem like some quaint period piece, that has almost no relevance, in an era of capitalistic exploitation and lost idealism..
That place could be the embodiment of the whole 1960s.Anyway, "Alice's Restaurant" is nowadays a look back at when the country's youth were fighting for a better future (people who lived through the '60s would probably object to how I said that).
And in the Bush era, we really long for that.By the way, I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert when he came to Portland in 1998, and then again in 2004.
Based on his folk song, Arlo Guthrie plays himself.
He's called up for the draft but his littering conviction keeps him out of the war.Arlo Guthrie and his song come from a time and place.
However, as time wore on, the commune ideal began to crumble like many other communist societies do- hippies begin to realize they are leeches on society, and in their valiant efforts to 'stick it to the man,' they incidentally remain reliant on the establishment to live.
Also, on a much more subtle level, in the last shot of the film we see Alice longingly staring at the camera after Arlo has just left the commune.
As Ray romantically expresses his ideas of somehow opening another commune, Alice begins to realize the ultimate flaw of the counterculture, and despairingly awaits what will be come a terrible, fruitless marriage.
Even though Alice has a Restaurant, and a way to make money, ultimately the very hippies they surround themselves with in the commune will suck it dry and move on.
The story that is told in the song Alice's Restaurant takes but a few minutes to tell in the movie.
If you want to see what the world looked liked in 1968 through the eyes of a young, mild-mannered folk singer, this is your movie..
The movie is based on the song and the events as well.Folk music carried on by the first family of American Folk Music - Woody and Arlo Guthrie - American Icons and Heros - in their own way.If you are not into the 60's or folk music - don't bother..
From there, the film seems to wander more than Arlo does.Alice's Restaurant mainly attempts to capture the essence of the 60's.
The actual dramatization of the events that are detailed in the now traditional Thanksgiving album (only because, I guess, Arlo is having Thanksgiving dinner at Alice's) is about as faithful as imaginable, but I'd say the scenes earlier on, when Arlo has just come into town and isn't able to really stay at any pad for too long due to his long hair and his inability to conform to playing music right in classes.
These are subtle jabs at the outcast of the times- not simply as a 'hippie', as Arlo Guthrie is a little too folksy to be a typical hippie, albeit not too far removed for Woodstock- and as a mostly one-sided take on the issue of the 'hippies', it doesn't demonize one side, while not making bones about showing the upright citizens as those who are close-minded.Filled with some great tunes, and an attitude to film-making by Arthur Penn that reflects its creator in a somewhat lighter, though no less socially conscious mind-set than Bonnie & Clyde (except less disguised), Alice's Restaurant is imperfect entertainment and a glimpse of the period that will appeal to anyone at all interested or remember all-too-well the socio-political troubles.
(At the same time, the sacramental wine of the former is replaced by a ceremonial joint that gets passed around.) Of course, without anything like formal rules, a downside is revealed once Alice ends up doing all the restaurant work, which the others happily shirk.The ending remains something of a puzzle.
Alice's Restaurant (3 out of 10)"Well, you had to be there..."  You just can't defend a movie that way.
I took another look at this on DVD recently after seeing Arlo at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival near Stockbridge.When I saw it years ago I thought it was a pretty down-headed take on the 60's counterculture, sort of like "Wild In The Streets," only with better music.
In the end, AR is of its time, one long past, and in hindsight perhaps best left on the shelf, for as the one thing the film does show is that "the hippie dream" was born in false freedom, filth, suspect mysticism and beliefs, and ended--like the movie--in confusion, sadness, heartbreak, and an eventual acceptance of society norms..
Additionally, as an American History teacher, I did appreciate how this was all like a time capsule--with both the good and bad of the era all rolled into one package.The movie purports to be based on real-life situations that occurred to Arlo Guthrie when he was 18.
While there was a lot of idealism, free love and self-expression, the film also had a very dark side that particularly came out at the end--and was a great way to show that the idealism of the 60s was starting to die a slow death.
Also how this minor incident resulted in Guthrie's being rejected from the draft was kind of cute (though I wonder just how true that was--if it was, then that's nuts!).Other than the funny and poignant parts at the end about the dark side of the 60s, there wasn't a whole lot I liked about the film.
More scenes like this would have helped considerably.Of course, the arrest-for-littering story recited in the song is played out, but it's amidst a convoluted array of hippie do-as-you-please nonsense.
If Alice's Restaurant were to be made today it would most likely be filmed in a much grainier, true-to-life fashion, cinema verite wed to the modern taste for close-ups and hand-held camera.
Alice's Restaurant stands now as nothing more than a curio, failing completely to capture or convey any sense of how life was like for the draft-dodging members of America's counter-culture.
Alice's Restaurant simply points the camera at a group of people who possess ill-defined motivation and an almost complete lack of direction: change the hairstyles and the clothes and what takes place on screen could be taking place anywhere at any time in the past fifty years.Arlo Guthrie is no actor, but he's actually quite good in this because you do feel that, while he's obviously acting, he's also trying to be himself and so you get some insight into the man.
Maybe it's his age or the cowboy-ish clothes, which make him look something like a good ol' boy, but he never really seems to fit in and fails to convince as the kind of man to whom Alice would be married.For all its counter-culture credentials the film, and its characters, ultimately resort to the most conventional of social traditions.
This is the movie not out of the novel or a short story, but out of a song, popular "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie, and it plays well on screen too.
Arlo Guthrie's hilariously mordant 20 minute story song gets adopted into an affably whimsical, episodic, occasionally funny and ultimately quite downbeat and sobering free-form feature by director Arthur Penn that astutely captures the key issues and concerns of the 60's hippie counterculture: dodging the draft, smoking grass, getting hassled by the pigs, being persecuted by grossly intolerant, narrow-minded, repressive straight conformist squares, trekking all over the country to find your true self, and defying everyday social conventions so you can do your own thing, man.
The film's precise, clear-eyed portrait of the painfully gradual disintegration of flower power idealism and the cynicism and disillusionment that followed in its wake nowadays seems all too grimly true and prescient, with the volatile relationship between vulgar, boorish, obnoxious swinger James Broderick and his frustrated, irritated wife Pat Quinn (they play Ray and Alice Brock, the owners of the titular restaurant) brilliantly reflecting the turbulence and capriciousness of the period.
And this film is still living on the hippie dream, on the flower kids and their illusion that life is nothing but music and fun.
Arlo Guthrie's girl friend looks very Vietnamese, a symbol of the war going on that no one wants to see.
I can almost reproduce the "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" from memory, but I never saw this film back in the day or since.
This continued relevance is part of why I rated it as high as I did!)Jarred by all this, I looked up the film afterwards on Wikipedia and discovered that Arlo had nothing to do with the script, which was basically Arthur Penn's work.
There are a lot of notable editorial decisions, such as:So far as we can tell, the movie Arlo has few political beliefs, and wants to get out of the draft by any possible means just because he doesn't want to go.The movie starts off with Arlo fighting the draft by trying to make the Black clerk's day miserable with his snarky answers.The whole movie is framed within the months of Woody Guthrie's dying of Huntington's chorea (displaced in time, btw).To bring down the tone further, Shelly, a heroin-addicted friend of Arlo's, is invented and treated as pitiable and doomed.Ray Brock is portrayed as sexist, verbally abusive toward Alice, and verbally and physically abusive toward Shelley.
Alice is portrayed as basically reacting ineffectually to the chaos around her.)Although the title song was sung by the real-life Arlo as a rallying cry for anti-war and anti-draft mass action, none of this comes into the film at all.As an illustration of how this comes together, let's look at the key scene where Arlo and company, having found that the town dump is closed on Thanksgiving and they can't dump their microbusful of garbage there, find a bridge over a garbage-strewn streambed and throw all their garbage down there.
A moment in the life of a folk singer, Arlo(Arlo Guthrie)who spends time trying to make it in the music biz by doing the bar scene while also frequenting at a hippie commune/restaurant derived from a former Catholic church.
We see the humor, tragedy, and response towards living the hippie lifestyle.Alice(Pat Quinn, who is simply delightful)runs the kitchen at the commune often tired of her man, Ray's(James Broderick)constant decisions to bring more and more off the street for her to cook for.
The tragic element of the film is Shelly(Michael McClanathan), a young man trying endlessly to kick a nasty drug habit and loved almost as a son by Ray & Alice.
Alice's Restaurant is one of those film's with a reputation.
A film not necessarily classic in the way people speak of it, but one that's definitely of its time.
Alice's Restaurant benefits greatly from Arlo Guthrie's charismatic performance.
He decides to visit old friends Alice (of the title) and Ray who run a hippie commune.
On another note, apparently, you would want to look into this, but the Trinity Church that Ray and Alice live in is still around and is like a shrine type thing now.
Of course the film "Alice's restaurant" is mainly meant to be an homage to Arlo Guthrie, who plays the leading part.
Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant is a product of its time.
Alice's Restaurant is a time capsule of the attitudes of young people during the late '60s as experienced by folk singer Arlo Guthrie and his friends like the married couple Ray and Alice Brock, played here by James Broderick (Mathew Broderick's father) and Pat Quinn.
Very much of its time, Arthur Penn's film tries to mix the humorous with the dramatic with uneven results.
Some of the most touching scenes are those of Arlo with his father, folk singer Woody Guthrie (played here by Joseph Boley) and those of Ray and Alice after the drug death of a friend.
Ray and Alice's remarriage at the end and the followup makes this one of the most bittersweet movies I've ever seen....
He does this by posing the intelligent and serious young man Arlo Guthrie and Pat Quine playing Alice against Alice's workshy husband Ray, played a tad heavily by James Broderick, and an aimless community of people skirting life at the former church made restaurant.Director Penn contrasts bright and colourful New England landscape and towns with revolting and ugly icons and rituals of late sixties counterculture.