1968 Directed by Bob Rafelson
In this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.
Peter Tork Davy Jones Micky Dolenz Michael Nesmith Annette Funicello Timothy Carey Logan Ramsey Vito Scotti Charles Macaulay T.C. Jones Charles Irving William Bagdad Percy Helton Sonny Liston Ray Nitschke Carol Doda Frank Zappa June Fairchild Teri Garr I.J. Jefferson Victor Mature Abraham Sofaer Jo Anne Worley Jack Nicholson Tor Johnson Chelsea Brown Toni Basil Dennis Hopper Helena Kallianiotes Show All…
Head: The Monkees, Глава, ראש, Sogni perduti, 헤드, Os Monkees estão à solta!, Голова, 毛发
The video store I managed in Athens, Georgia was on the edge of town. At the city line things change very suddenly from being hip college town to being straight up rural Georgia. Most of our customers came from the Athens side of the tracks, but every once in awhile someone would get off work at the poultry processing plant down the road and wander in to rent something.
So nothing struck me as odd when a redneck looking guy decked out in filthy overalls came through the doors, but when he asked in a thick Southern drawl, "Y'all got that Monkees movie, HEAD?" I nearly jumped through the roof with excitement. Not only was this unexpected, but I got to connect with this guy because HEAD just happened to be on my "staff picks" shelf that month.
"Yes, yes, we do!" I nearly shouted.
"Is it on DVD?"
"Yes! Yes it is!"
"Does it have any extrees?"
The trouble with mainstream TV is that all TV is mainstream - there's no avant-garde TV, or independent TV, or low-budget genre exploitation TV. Even in those rare instances of truly transgressive material making it onto the airwaves (like Twin Peaks, or that time Takeru Kobayashi faced a grizzly bear in a hot dog eating contest), everything that shows up on your television screen is all coming from the same corporate pipe. It can be stultifying enough to watch, but imagine how the people producing it must feel? Luckily we don't have to imagine it, we just have to watch Head, and see The Monkees break out of their little black box - on the company's dime no less. I guess sometimes they do lend money to guys with a sense of humor.
I'm gonna guess this is the only time footage of the Saigon Execution has been used in a G-rated movie.
The Monkees (with help from director Bob Rafelson and screenwriter… hang on, let me just check the spelling of his name… ah, right: Jack Nicholson) place their own status as a cynically manufactured fake pop group within a larger tradition of Hollywood myths and lies (for example, the western). They position themselves as just another lie on the TV to distract from a more consequential lie on another channel: the Vietnam War. A very funny movie that contains a scene in which the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém is juxtaposed with the screaming girls at a Monkees concert.
"The whole phallic thing is happening!"
Co-written by first-time feature filmmaker Bob Rafelson and a then unheralded Jack Nicholson, Head is Rafelson's last testimony on his breakthrough brainchild, the Monkees. Conceived as something of a stream-of-consciousness acid trip and a winking acknowledgement of the group's oft-criticized ersatz nature, what emerges is an episodic cavalcade of proto-music videos peppered with visceral anti-war propaganda, ferocious teenyboppers and more eccentric cameos than one might guess could be packed into an eighty-six minute run time. Highlights include a monumental showdown between Micky Dolenz and a Coke machine, Davy Jones' brilliantly edited dance with choreographer Toni Basil set to Harry Nilsson's "Daddy's Song", and any moment when fabled nutcase Timothy Carey appears on screen.
Despite…
i rented this from vision video when i was 18 living at white columns apts on w hancock in athens GA while reading gravitys rainbow (library copy w/the blue cover) thinking they were basically the same, & still do; hilarious, brilliant, terrifying violence & spectacle, a manufactured image / with no philosophies - "are you telling me you dont see the connection between government & laughing at people?"
Head is a psychedelic absurdity that highlights the farcical nature of The Monkees’ pseudo-band status as director Bob Rafelson braids in fourth wall-breaking skits, musical interludes and choreography in the microcosm of a Hollywood sound stage. Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones are carrying most of the weight in this hyperactive, highly referential spectacular—the film starts centered around Micky’s character, but midway through he passes the baton to Davy by busting through the sets mid-temper tantrum. Monkees bandmates Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith certainly get decent screen-time, but they’re decidedly uncommitted to the rumpus (even curmudgeonly shutting down a Factory-esque surprise birthday party).
There is no shortage of cameo appearances, including Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Frank Zappa and Sonny Liston, but…
Check out my full essay on Head on Split Tooth Media.
I am an incredibly devoted, passionate Monkees fan and even that is a massive understatement. However, what made me a fan of The Monkees in the beginning was not the show or even really the music. Instead, I was captured by the history of this group of guys who had to fight accusations of not being real musicians and try to assert their identity in everything they did. I was fascinated by this television band that went on to create one of the most influential, insane cult classics of all time. This was The Monkees I fell in love with from the start.
I always laugh thinking of the anecdote…
