Psych Out (1968) hippie exploitation film-
Hippies are so hip they don't even get a portmanteau like "hipsploitation."
-about a deaf runaway looking for her missing brother in San Francisco's hippie district. Which is odd, because if Hollywood has taught me anything, it's that San Francisco is a hippie district.
Now the first question is "What is a hippie exploitation film?"
Any more questions?
Some people claim that the opening shot of a movie is important to establish the overall tone of the film. If so, I would say that Psych Out nailed it.
It starts with a woman staring blankly a flower.
She is definitely in San Francisco.
DEAN STOCKWELL IS IN THIS FILM?!
JACK NICHOLSON IS IN THIS FILM?!?!?
SUSAN STRASBERG IS IN THIS FILM?!?!?
I didn't know who Susan Stransberg was beforehand, but she was in the Night Gallery segment "Midnight Never Ends"
A lot of movies start with have a few establishing shots of their locations.
Psych-out lets us know we are in San Francisco.
I don't even know if this is an exaggeration.
The main character stands in the middle of the street and almost gets run over by a car.
Driver: Drug Addicts! Think you can do anything you damn please
Jenny: I'm deaf!
As if they are mutually exclusive.
Seeing Jack Nicholson in one of these movies is an extremely bizarre experience.
The hippies do hippie things and talk about hippie things . The hippies try to talk up Jen. Jack Nicholson plays a character named "Stoney"
....God damn it, Movie.
Jack Nicholson plays a character named "Stoney", due to his love for rocks.
Stony guesses that Jen is deaf and has to read lips.He covers his lips and says "let's kill her and eat her."
Nicholson is referencing the Donner Party. 12 years before he referenced the Donner Party.
Jenny asks for a cup of coffee.
Elwood: I'll get it. Serving is part of my racial memory.
It's still Black History Month, isn't it?
Stony notices that some undercover cops are showing Jenny's picture, because she is a runaway.
Stony tells Jenny, without speaking, that the cops are after her.
The solution is for Stony and Elwood to get into a fight and distract the cops.
But, while Stony and Elwood are being dragged away, the hippies start chanting "peace and love" and the cops let them go.
Is this how the late sixties worked? Or was this like a San Francisco thing?
Stony, Elwood, and Ben stare at some trippy art. Everything in this movie makes me question whether this is even exploiting hippies or accurately representing them.
They are getting posters and drums for their band from someone named Warren. Stony complains that they need business. He also complains that "Dave" is never there.
Mumblin' Jim is insensitive to Deaf people,
This is why I hate reviewing good movies. If this were a bad movie, I could make a joke like "Is that a suggestion for the actors?"
They go around San Francisco putting up posters for their band and giving the filmmakers more excuses to
Stony drives past Jenny arguing with her brother's landlady. They stop and learn that Jenny's brother has left, but left a postcard.
A policeman drives by and they get out of there to find Jenny's brother.
Stony tactfully tells her that she "will be picked up in five minutes" if she "doesn't get out of those square clothes"
They go to some thrift shop. Stony tells her to take whatever she wants for free like some sort of hippie communist. Jenny tries on some clothes and the movie tastefully keeps the camera above her shoulders.
Did you forget that this is a "hippie exploitation" movie? It reminds you.
Ben proposes that Jenny stay with Stony. Elwood reminds him that Stony only does one night stands. Cut to Stony attempting to have a one-night stand with a girl. Tell, then show.
It's like every thirty seconds this movie wants to remind us we are in San Francisco. In the 70s.
Stony leads Jenny into his bedroom and they don't have sex. Stony leaves As I said, this movie is very tasteful. Even when Stony leaves and Jenny changes into a robe, it only shows the back of her shoulders,
Then Stony crawls into bed with her while she is sleeping and puts his arm over her chest. When she wakes up and tries to escape, he climbs on top of her.
A girl opens the refrigerator and take out a fishbowl.
This movie has long stretches where it seems like a typical movie and then something happens like a girl takes a fishbowl out of a refrigerator.
Warren has a breakdown at the gallery. Stony, Elwood and Ben come to calm him. Warren claims to be able to snap out of his hallucinations by snapping his fingers, but it doesn't work.
He hallucinates everyone as zombies, and tries to cut off his own hand with a Saw (2004).
Jenny inquires why Warren would do acid when it has such negative side effects.
I wish I had seen this movie in sixth grade health class for drug prevention. It would be a lot more effective and interesting.
Anyway, Jenny happens to spot a piece of art done by her brother Steve.
I'll buy it...
This leads them to Dean Stockell, playing a man named Dave.
Not a stereotype. Dave takes a liking to Jenny.
Dave: You know, I like sound, but sometimes I prefer silence.
Dave goes on a pseudo-philosophical tangent about how light is the only thing that exists or something like that..
More pseudo than his other pseudo-philosophical tangents.
Dave knows Steve. He calls him The Seeker.
Dave: You seek the Seeker and the Seeker seeks God. Wouldn't you rather ask God?
The next logical thing is to go to the church and ask a priest. The priest claims that Steve was "gathering a following" when he gave talks in the park, but now lives in the city dump.
So they go to the city dump!
Get it? Jesus Saves = Jess Saes. Like the postcard.
That's pretty clever.
Of the screenwriter.
I'm just wondering what would happen if her name wasn't Jess. The entire plan wouldn't work.
And did he do the whole religiousjust to get to Jesus = Jess?
"Jess is Jesus Without You"
They find a car:
Some guys come out from behind the cars and call them flower children.
...based on this movies, 90% of San Francisco consists of flower children.
Jenny learns that these guys are angry at Steve for "talking too much." Then they try to assault Jenny. Stoney defends her.
...Considering Stony assaulted Jenny earlier in the movie...
...Oh, I'm trying to assign morality to characters in an exploitation movie.
The fight starts out ordinary until Elwood...turns this into Don Quixote?
Seriously, this is the best PSA against drug use.
Cut to...some of the better blood effects from the late 60s
This is actually their concert.
A random guy asks Jenny to dance. She replies that she can't because she can't hear the music.
As if that matters.
An agent comes up to Stoney and gives him a card to get into 'the ballroom'. Later that night, Stony and Jenny kiss.
Consensually, this time.
Then they have sex...I think.
It took almost fifty minutes to get to the "How does a 'hippie exploitation' movie portray sex?" question,
Taking "the birds and the bees" a bit literally?
This sex is an out-of-body experience!
The theme song plays over the sex. And I still can't understand any of the lyrics!
The next day, Dave comes over, having heard the terrible news; Stony is giving money to an agent in order to get into the ballroom.
This is the gateway to a 9-5 job.
Thst wasn't my joke; that was the movie's. This movie is pretty good.
Stony ignores Jenny and leaves for...a funeral?
Notice the flower imagery persists throughout the movie, probably to draw attention to the "flower child"
The funeral is for Warren. As people carry his coffin, an incredibly inappropriately upbeat song plays and a liberal arts college campus forms.
The jokes on the audience though! After the priest gives a eulogy about the importance of love, the coffin opens and Warren's fiance crawls it. It was a mock-wedding. (?)
Psych-out's original title was One Funeral and A Wedding.
But they changed it to avoid spoilers.
Jenny tries to approach Stony as the band practices, but Stony ignores her.
Jenny becomes frustrated with the hippie lifestyle, so she goes for a walk.
Stony becomes frustrated with the practice, so he takes a break.
I become frustrated with the movie, because it lost the plot.
The hippies gossip about drugs, intercut shots of Jenny walking past people offering drugs.
I really wish that my elementary school anti-drug program had shown us this movie.
Stony walks around the, um, living space.
 |
| Shattering the glass ceiling |
 |
| Impressive prison imagry |
What does it mean? Drugs are a prison? Religion is a prison? This movie is a prison?
He grabs the art piece that Steve made, claiming that it belongs to him because God gave it to him.
So, half hour before the movie ends, Jen's brother drops through the ceiling because God told him to make an art piece with his hands.
A literal deus-ex-machina
Stony tells Steve that his sister is looking for him. Steve asks for a day to get not-high before seeing her.
oh! tragic backstory time.
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| Jesus? |
Steve says he ran away from home when "they" took "her things" away when they were young.
like her hearing? Was she the victim of some sick experiment?
Actually, just dolls. This is a different sort of exploitation film.
Steve says that their mother was cruel and one day tried to take Jen's toys away. Then Jen started acted weird. And by weird, I mean she walked around and the camera tilted.
Then a spider crawled out of her mouth and she screamed.
And afterwards, she never heard a sound.
So maybe this is one of those exploitation movies.
Then the band plays at the Ballroom and it's hard to appreciate the "hippie exploitation" aspect of this film when it just showed a preview for The Exorcist (1973)
Jenny stares at the stage in wonder as
Dave confronts Stony after the concert for giving in to the capitalist system and also for sleeping with multiple girls.
This could be an interesting critique of capitalism if this wasn't an exploitation film.
Steve attempts to get back into the party but some people jump him, Steve gets a torch, lures the guys into a tent, and ignites the tent. Is this Jesus imagery or is it just me?
Dave and Jenny flirt, which involves emptying a smoke into a glass of alcohol.
Dave proposes getting revenge on Stony by sleeping with Jenny. Jenny and Dave kiss and at the moment, Stony walks in.
This bothers me.
Not for the contrivance, but that this exploitation movie passed up the chance for a sex scene.
Stony yells at Jenny and Dave takes a drink of concoction. Jenny downs the rest and tells Dave that she is looking for her brother.
..I'm not saying that this should have been the twist, but an interesting twist would be if Jenny and Dave slept together and then it turned out that Dave was Jenny's brother.
Dave reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a note that says "God is in the flame"
Also, there's an address on the back. This had better be explained in the final eight minutes of the movie.
Jenny runs off. Stony comes back and learns that Jenny took some odd drugs and ran off to find her brother.
Stony: You sick, crazy bastard. Do you understand that she doesn't know that drug? And that something could happen to her, that she could be hurt?
Kids, don't take unfamiliar drugs. Only use drugs you are familiar with..
Jenny goes to the address and finds that her brother has lit up.
 |
| No religious imagery here. |
For some reason, Jenny is upset. I just think that, in this movie about hippie culture, she should be more acccepting of other people's decision.
Then the drugs take effect and Jenny turns into
Don't do drugs, kids.
Jenny runs away from the fire into the reservoir.
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| She floats, too |
Then somehow she ends up in the middle of the street with fireballs/cars around her and almost gets hit.
Get it? It's like the beginning of the movie, when she almost got hit by a car.
Somehow, Jenny can hear again.
Somehow, the hippies find her.
Also, a car hits Dave and he dies.
"Reality is deadly place, I hope this trip was a good one."
So the moral is, do drugs, cure deafness, kill your friend.
Psycho-Out (1968) is by far the most effective anti-drug PSA I've ever seen,
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