HEAD

US, 1968, 110 minutes, Colour.
Mickey Dolenz, Tony Stork, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Annette Funicello, Victor Mature,
Directed by Bob Rafelson.

Head is a contrived concoction to exploit and present the popular group of the sixties, The Monkees. They were the creation of director-promoter Bob Rafaelson. Rafaelson, with the collaboration of actor Jack Nicholson, wrote the screenplay for this film. They were influenced by Richard Lester's films promoting the Beatles with their zany plots, presentation of the characters of the singers and the group and the routines of comedy as backing for their songs. William Friedkin had directed a similar kind of film to promote Sonny and Cher at the time, Good Times.

Head takes American zaniness a step further than the usual film. The film was not so popular at the time and probably did not promote the Monkees very well. However in retrospect it has achieved some kind of semi-classic status for its cinema inventiveness. Bob Rafaelson was then to go on to direct Jack Nicholson in such excellent films as Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens. He also directed Stay Hungry. There were many guest appearances to make Head enjoyable, kncluding Victor Mature. A very good example of the ‘pop art’ in cinema of the late sixties.

1. The overall impact of this film? Entertainment, curiosity?

2. The film as a product of the late sixties? The influence of the Beatles' films, the influence of the drug scene, the style of inconsequential nonsequitur episodes? The technical influences, psychedelic colour, use of film clips, commercials, parodies? What was the overall effect of this kind of collage?

3. The impact of The Monkees? The background of the pop groups of the sixties, the pop world, this group manufactured consciously? How does the film acknowledge this and comment on the commercialisation of a prepared group? The attitude towards the audience that likes this kind of group? The television and commercial background of the group?

4. Did the personalities of each of the group emerge from the film? Any particular styles and characteristics? The episodes in which each were involved? The visual concoction of the personalities? The use of songs and commnication via songs and music?

5. The contribution of the other characters: the Mayor and his assistants, the police and the detective, the Swami, the movie monster, Sonny Liston, the various women, the big victor?

6. The impact of the opening on the San Francisco Bridge? An atmosphere of the real world? The Monkees being chased and falling from the bridge in an exit from the real world? The recapitulation of this sequence at the end? Did it provide a satisfactory framework for the film?

7. The political attitudes of the film: As regards the police and their intervention, the mayor and politics, the background of the Vietnam war and American involvement?

8. The style of the water ballet and the psychedelic colours? Its role at the beginning. at the end with all The Monkees involved?

9. The desert sequence? The caravan, the Sheikh, the Coca Cola, the Italians wandering the desert? Any significance in this?

9. The portrayal of Hollywood, the world of the commercial and film making, the Columbia lot? The film's attitudes towards films and film sets? Communication by film?

11. The significance of Victor Mature in the film? In the dandruff commercial? His continued presence and a sense of menace and a giant?

12. The background of the western, the western sets and chaxacters involved, breaking through the sets into the lot? The significance of having a western sequence?

13. The impact, purpose of the boxing sequence?

14. The impersonator and the Bette Davis style? The drugstore scene and the parody of this kind of sequence in films? The parody in the detective imitating a stripper in the toilet block?

15. Could this be considered an interesting piece of Americana of the late sixties? Has it any instrinsic values? Is it merety a period piece? Its value in its time, now?