Alice's Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie's epic 1967 musical monologue “Alice's Restaurant Massacree” was a satirical anti-war folk anthem performed at coffee houses and clubs that became a bestselling LP and counterculture phenomenon. Directed and co-written by Arthur Penn (fresh from helming Bonnie and Clyde), this 1969 film expands Guthrie's performance piece into a loose, loving, bittersweet portrait of the time, with Guthrie playing himself. The movie follows the basic structure of Guthrie's story-song—his Thanksgiving dinner with friends and commune leaders Alice and Ray (Pat Quinn and James Broderick), his arrest for littering by Officer William “Obie” Obanhein and court appearance in front of Judge James Hannon (both playing themselves), and his reporting to the induction center after receiving his draft notice—but Penn presents the incidents as stops in a meandering road movie through the culture of the late 1960s. In essence, Penn explores the unraveling of an ideal, a fragile sense of social freedom that becomes confused with irresponsibility and rocked by possessiveness and jealousy. Guthrie is a marvelous performer but a limited actor, and his awkward sweetness and modesty is hardly electric, but his presence suits the easy, intimate nature of the film. One of the most interesting and non-clichéd cinematic portraits of the era, this long-out-of-print classic has been remastered for DVD and its Blu-ray debut. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)