Head

When they were first formed, The Monkees were basically a manufactured band that were groomed to be America's answer to The Beatles. They had a successful tv show and a lot of chart topping hits. Along the way, they became a legitimate band. Desperately wanting to express themselves and tired of being held down by the studios, The Monkees set out to make a film that was a giant middle finger to the Hollywood big wigs. The end result was 1968's Head.

The plot, if there is one, has The Monkees trying to escape a giant, Victor Mature.The giant wants to put them in a giant, black box. Most of the movie is a series of vignette's, anti war statements, and musical numbers loosely tied together. Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, and Teri Garr pop up in cameos.

The Monkees wrote the screenplay with Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson over a drug induced weekend. The result is a chaotic mess that even kept the most die hard Monkees fans away. That being said, there's a lot of things I enjoy about this. I like how The Monkees try to skewer their image. Even though there is some goofy sketches here and there, this is mostly a dark little movie. The musical numbers also show their growth as musicians. It's also intersting to see Rafelson's early work before he matured into the filmmaker that gave us Five Easy Pieces and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

There was a lot of turmoil on the set. The Monkees found out that they wouldn't get a writing credit, which lead to a strike. This was resolved when they were offered more money. It's kind of weird that a film they were making about their injustices led to more during the filming.

This was basically The Monkees last hurrah. It led to them breaking free from the same people that created them, and eventually them breaking out into their own careers.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to everybody, but if you're in the mood for something a little different, you could do worse.

It's available on blu ray and dvd.