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Hair
1979
The "Age of Aquarius" is captured for all time in Czech director Milos Forman's version of the hit 1960s Broadway musical. A clean-cut midwestern kid named Claude (John Savage), fresh off the bus from Oklahoma and eager to do service in the military, comes to New York and ends up sidetracked by a nomadic tribe of hippies in .. Read more
| Starring | John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden |
|---|---|
| Director | Milos Forman |
| Genres | Music/Musical |
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Hair
The "Age of Aquarius" is captured for all time in Czech director Milos Forman's version of the hit 1960s Broadway musical. A clean-cut midwestern kid named Claude (John Savage), fresh off the bus from Oklahoma and eager to do service in the military, comes to New York and ends up sidetracked by a nomadic tribe of hippies in Central Park. The group is vibrantly led by Berger (Treat Williams). Claude is eventually assimilated into this family of protesters and falls in love with Sheila (Beverly D'Angelo), a girl from a wealthy family. The plot hangs in the balance when Berger poses as Claude to buy Claude a little more time in the name of love. The film is notable for its hit songs such as "Let the Sun Shine In," its choreography by Twyla Tharp, a cameo by the late Nicholas Ray as a general, and for jump-starting the careers of Williams and D'Angelo. The screenplay by Michael Weller, based on the musical by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, with music by Galt Macdermot, effectively captures the feeling of the movement.
| Starring | John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright |
|---|---|
| Director | Milos Forman |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 1 min |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Music/Musical |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English, German |
| Subtitles | DVD: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 06 Aug 2001 Production year: 1979 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (5)
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If ever a musical is caught firmly in its time, then it's Hair. In this film version made in the late seventies, director Milos Forman fails to capture the enormous energy of the original stage show, which was a celebrated load of old nonsense even back in the mid-sixties. Anyone who had any pretensions to hippydom at the time will find their toes curling involuntarily at the memory, and those born since will be quite bemused at all the fuss. Made at least ten years too late or 30 years too early, the film has a general air of fustiness and anachronism, and, apart from Treat Williams's table-top dance, the leads have little to be proud of.
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Slick, vigorous but eventually unsatisfying version of a quickly dated musical frolic with some obvious points to make.
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Most helpful member's review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Going too far for a friend
Let's face it. Hair has the most atrocious lyrics of modern times based, as they are, almost solely around hippy dictat and the dictionary of obscene words and pyhsiology. The music is also pop in style and, one can imagine, quite revolutionary for the form given the seventies were all about peace and love - at least to the media, anyway. However, this is a Milos Forman film, so from the shallows of a lazy spliff fuelled book comes something that, although dated, manages to reflect the historical and political questions of the day - namely Vietnam and dodging the draft. Milos implies that there is a sense of faux hippiedom going on as the characters struggle to come to terms with a senseless war. The second act of the film changes the mood of the flighty first act and brings power that sharply contrasts. The performances are largely impressive - believing in the book helps ensure noone becomes a grotesque. Hair may have been conceived in a smoky haze on a hill somewhere in San Fransisco but it manages to haul itself to something quite moving, and quite of its time.
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Most recent members' review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Hair
A rare thing... a "modern" musical, actually a classic that works well on stage and equally as well on the big screen.
Set in America at the time of the Vietnamese war and portrays the meeting of the hippy culture with traditional society views.
Great choreography and cinematography, amusing lyrics (inc. Sodomy, felacio, cunnilingus, pederasty. Farther why do these words sound so nasty? Masturbation can be fun, join the holy orgy, Karma Sutra, everyone) Odes to drugtaking, sex, love and of course rock and roll! -
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