Monday, May 10, 2021

Hair (1979)

IMDb plot summary: Claude Bukowski leaves the family ranch in Oklahoma for New York where he is rapidly embraced into the hippie group of youngsters led by Berger, yet he's already been drafted. He soon falls in love with Sheila Franklin, a rich girl but still a rebel inside.
Directed by Milos Forman. Starring John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, and Annie Golden.

There's a loose plot to this film, but mostly they just dance around doing drugs and singing protest songs. The stage version has even less of a plot, and I think the movie made some smart choices in narrowing the focus of the characters, even though the original creators didn't like how it focused on one small group instead of the broader picture. The film shouldn't have worked, like, at all, and yet... it mostly does. It's able to retain much of the dreamy nonlinear vibe through the staging of the musical numbers ("Manchester England" and the "Black Boys/White Boys" montage come to mind in particular) but then grounds the story in the choices of a few specific characters. The result is... kind of electrifying, and by the time it got to the end I was riveted. I really had low expectations of this one, as the show has never really gripped me, but this interpretation works for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hair > Le Week-End
Hair > Safe
Hair < Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Hair < Knights of Badassdom
Hair < Beetlejuice
Hair < The African Queen
Hair > Primer
Hair > Sherlock Jr.
Hair < Out of Sight
Hair > The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
Hair > Bandits
Final spot: #796 out of 3363, or 76%.

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