Hair
USA,
1979, 121 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
-
Milos Forman
- prod
-
Michael Butler, Lester Persky
- scr
-
Michael Weller
- cam
-
Miroslav Ondrícek
- editor
-
Alan Heim, Lynzee Klingman, Stanley Warnow
- mus
-
Galt McDermot, James Rado, Gerome Ragni
- cast
-
John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright
- source
-
MGM Archive, MGM Plaza, 2500 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404-3061. FAX: 310-586-8358. EMAIL: iramos@mgm.com.
-
COMMENTS
Shown at an Evening with Milos Forman (who received the 2004 Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing), after an onstage interview by Anne Thompson. Treat Williams was also in attendance.
OTHER
Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt McDermott’s runaway hit Broadway rock musical was already ten years old when Milos Forman, working closely with choreographer Twyla Tharp and screenwriter Michael Weller, turned it into a glossy studio movie. They chose a decidedly non-naturalistic approach; their fresh-faced cast (many of whom enjoyed long subsequent careers) break into lip-synched song and stylized dance whether they’re at a wild Central Park be-in or a formal Connecticut wedding reception. In the movie story, straight Oklahoma farm boy Claude (The Deer Hunter's John Savage) takes a brief detour in New York City before shipping off to train for Vietnam army duty. He falls in with Berger (Treat Williams) and his merry band of panhandling pranksters, who hook him up with horse-riding socialite Sheila (Beverly D’Angelo), and get him to think twice about his military future. The original play captured its moment—idealized hope and a hearty up-yours to authority—like few other plays ever have, and Forman inventively exhibits a great affection for the anarchic hippies and stages ingenious musical numbers. High points include Williams’ exuberant tabletop rendition of “I Got Life” and a row of Black army induction officers bawdily singing “Black Boys.” Hilarious.
—Ann Thompson
FACTOID #202
At the 1978 SFIFF, Paul Mazursky received a tribute at the Palace of Fine Arts. Apparently, the facility’s janitorial staff had not been notified, and the padlocked doors of the Palace had to be cut so the filmmaker and his audience could be let in.
