A little too far out, man!
Gold: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality. (1972)
Directed By: Bill Desloge & Bob Levis
The Prologue
Gold: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality. was a film made in 1968 but wasn’t released in theaters until 1972 in London, England. It wasn’t even shown in the states in theaters until 1996. Why is that? Who knows for sure but the folks at Wild Eye Releasing have put this film out on a very cool looking DVD. However, we can’t judge a movie on it’s cover alone now can we?
The Movie
Uptight killjoy square cop Captain Harold Jinks doesn’t approve of the local hippies in an Old West-style rural community romping about naked, so he zealously enforces various strict laws to ban public nudity. It’s up to loopy long-haired rebel Hawk to save the townspeople from Jinks’ oppressive reign…And yes, the plot sounds much more coherent written as it does when you see it unfold on screen.
I think with something like this you just have to be in a very “far out” way to truly “get it”. That being said, I don’t ever do anything like that so to me this wasn’t very clever or interesting at all. It’s like they gave a camera and a paper that has the “script” on it to a group of doped up hippies and just said “wing it”. Things are very weird, even for a hippie movie, and it just is too much to really get into or enjoy.
It’s like they tried to sell the film on the point you’d get to see a lot of naked hippies walking around and rolling around in the grass and mud. Things happen that have no rhyme nor reason and they expect you just to go with it because “it’s the 70’s man”. Or should I say 60’s? The film was made awhile before it ever came out and even then they couldn’t get it into a theater..Hmm..wonder why?
I guess if there was one good thing I could say about the movie, it’s that every once in a while, in the middle of all the weirdness, someone does say a clever line here and there. That’s few and far in between but the damn hippies do make a joke or a point every once in a while. Also you could say SOME of the music the movie has isn’t bad but it’s nothing to write home about, nor anything you’ll want on your ipods.
Some say this movie was a forgotten classic, I think it may have been forgotten for another reason. There’s a lackluster plot, bad acting, and a very strange film here over-all that may be too much for anyone to stomach. I like the folks at Wild Eye but you may have to skip this one.
The Conclusion
Damn dirty hippies!!! I just don’t think anyone in this day and age will enjoy this. Perhaps if your still dropping the acid and chewing the LSD you could find some little something in this but I just don’t know. Easy Rider, this film sure isn’t.
Once again, if you do want it, you can get it at Wild Eye Releasing.
The Rating (3.5/10)
