Getting Straight (1970)

Without any hesitation my favourite film by Richard Rush, preferred even to highly acclaimed "The Stuntman", shot ten years later. Scored after hippiesploitation classic "Psych-Out" it gets a grip on the 60's counterculture in transition... when days of love & protest suddenly exploded in wild rage and resistance never witnessed before. Stepping down the duct of intoxicating, artistic power – freshly reclaimed by New Hollywood brats like Dennis Hopper, Bert Rafelson, Mike Nichols or Peter Bogdanovich – Richard Rush finally broke away from exploitation flicks and reached to his rebellious homeground, coming up with a modern tale of love and identity crisis in a cracking American society. Apart of a vivid story "Getting Straight" is also significant for Rush joining his forces with great Laszlo Kovacs for the last time – this duo could have pulled it off like no one else in my opinion – making you raise your eyebrows when all that well-balanced, technical mastery starts popping out.

But it would have never been such a great picture if not Elliott Gould with his vibrant, absolutely brilliant performance as Harry Bailey – impoverished, ex left wing activist, who wants to drop back into straight society (that's where the title comes from) by finishing his M.D. and starting new life as a school teacher. But as Harry is to gather soon: in this life it's not what you do decides about your destiny, but who you really are. He might not want to live a life of political radical anymore, but his past can be hardly shaken off in the midst of student riots on the campus, which get more nasty and brutal every day. On the top of that his girlfriend Jan (Candice Bergen) has just had enough of his intellectual, arrogant temper and starts a fling with a rich gynecologist... to decide if her middle class dreams are still there to be followed.



As Harry's final oral exam is closing in with all the odds staked against him, he slowly begins to lose his new conviction in shitstorm around. Although an excellent student for few university good ole' boys, he seems a danger for many other professors, who demand to keep rabid revolutionaries at bay. In the same time young activists cannot get over him going full front square, expecially his dropout friend Nick, who never seems off LSD or hash brownies. Hanging now between two worlds, Harry needs to choose what values he wants to stay committed to. But sometimes the most important decisions are taken as if we weren't in driver's seat at all. Zonked out or straight, you need to move forward sooner or later. But as our main character discovers in the end, we're all entangled pretty deeply in a web of emotional and spiritual relations, which determine our steps.

With countercultural vibe a la "Easy Rider" or "The Graduate", dashing photography by Kovacs and spirited script by Bob Kaufman (based on a contemporary novel by Ken Kolb), Elliott Gould shows his horns in a classic, theatrical manner, rarely seen in American cinema. His acting energy waves high as he utters charged, badass bits on the screen involved in verbal duels with either his girlfriend or stodgy professors. Although not without a certain comedy edge, the movie is more of an artistic commentary on the late 60's with a hearty layer of anti-establishment musings and rather intellectual, slow-pacing action. It's not one of those later silly comedies screwing around with cliches of hippie naivete to pass revolutionary stance as a drug fueled fad, which in the end turns economy into making more money on alternative lifestyle and products... it stays true to it's time and it watches today as good as it did 42 years ago.

Constructed around two weeks of real time, narration of Rush's film might seem truly obsessed with details and monologues, but it sneaks away from a trap of barely scratching a surface of the topic on the other hand. "Getting Straight" should be treated as an obligatory viewing for auteur cinema aficionados and also a precious jewel for those having a soft spot for counterculture related works. I'd say it's main value lays in smart perspective of 60's revolution as that one of profound social, cultural and individual change with interesting take on the evolution of main character and looking down on both sides of the baricade... as a curiosity Harrison Ford plays here an episodic role. Followers of Richard Rush's film career should definitely give it a go as well. They won't be disappointed, I promise.

Witchcraft '70 (1970)

The ultimate of infamous 60's shockumentaries, featuring fake native rituals, set-up occult ceremonies... and even couple of original rites from around the world. Italian director – Luigi Scattini, delivers gibberish footage from Europe, Asia and South America with a lurid voice-over meant to spike up the thrills. This basket of sleazy exploits was produced by Italians and initially titled "Angeli Bianchi, Angeli Neri", but when distibution got handled by Trans American Films ("Hallucination Generation"), it was repackaged as "Witchcraft '70" in USA and "The Satanists" in UK. In both countries it played as a typical exploitation picture, fixed for the youth market by yellow journalism sort of narration and sordid publicity. The topic at the time had all heads up with rising coverage of Manson's Family activity, great popularity of sexploitation movies and the success of "Rosemary's Baby". A right time to cash on satan related nonsense indeed!

Although this material was never praised seriously enough by anyone to become a big classic, much less a reponsible study of the subject, it got through the door of many occult movies collections anyway as a sort of B-class oddity. If you wonder, where's the contemporary lure, there's a rare opportunity to see on the screen such cult individuals as Anton Szandor LaVey or Alex Sanders. However, on the concept level this stuff is so miserable, that laughing might become difficult. Couple of absurd spoken sentences might bend you down a bit, but in general there's not much quirky humour going here. It's a blatant exploitation after all – a marathon of storytelling drivel, which unfortunately doesn't have much of a genuine, ritual footage to cover, instead packed in with so called tourist ceremonies - acted and directed versions of occult, tribal and religious rites, which overemphasize carnal elements and produce "sacred hysteria" going after Western expectations.



Not all of the sequences are fake though, but the real ones like a possession of a woman from south of Italy, who's mounted by spirit of Alberto and is thus able to pass the messages from the other world, are not very funky unfortunately. The same applies to "secretly captured on 8 mm camera" Candomble & native Indonesian ceremonies. The most valuable thing about this inane pile of bullshit seems capturing Alex Sanders and his wiccan coven's activities. This is one of very few video materials featuring this mythical personality, once called "King of the Witches" in England, who founded his own branch of wicca in schism with the original Gardnerian order. He let the crew watch his wiccan marriage ceremony, revealing the temple and his sky-clothed coven. Camera rolls while he's closing the circle with a sword and then kissing the body of The Goddess, but after that turns to shooting all the nice tits around!

But that's what this shockumentary is about (and the whole subgenre in general) – mixing sensational agenda about Satan worshippers popping up like popcorn all around the world with shots of naked cultists... and their beautiful breasts on the first plan. I don't know how successful this stuff was in drive-ins (or on TV), but it's dimy setting, paternal tone and rather slick pitch do not make for much entertainment nowadays. It's true, that they show some nice pieces of ass and from today's perspective nobody cares if they belong to a satanist, wiccan, hoodooist, neopagan or an Amish dropout. Still, narration is a real downslope, an essence of worn out gibberish, but there's an option of turning off the volume, if nothing else comes to mind. You might also try to read a book and turn your eyes when you hear something exceptionally gross, which happens every 15 minutes.

If you're here for LaVey, he comes on the screen by the end of this showcase opening the door of his San Francisco temple and then performing one of these famous pop-satanic rituals in his legendary outfit with flashing red horns on the top. Fascinating indeed! Nevertheless, from a necessary distance „Witchcratft '70” salacious agenda opens up to an interesting, off-screen analysis of the late 60's – creation of modern satanism by Anton Szandor LaVey, rising force of neopagan movement, exemplified by wicca covens in Great Britain and USA, sudden appeal of hybrid possession cults and the exposure of dark underbelly of the 60's counterculture, honked up by the media after Manson's Family gruesome acts. You definitely need to go around with this flick!

Full movie

Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn Of Psychedelic Rock (1996)

Attention, all 60's psych crazies! No matter whether you're a greenie San Francisco sound fan, a thorough West Coast scene completist or all obscure psychedelia collector, this film will definitely meet your needs. "Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn Of Psychedelic Rock" is one hell of a documentary, directed and edited by Mary Works and John Nutt – experienced filmmakers, who grabbed an amazing opportunity to link all threads of early psychedelia together and showcased them in a mind-blowing string of extensive interviews, rare footage and on-screen insights – clearing up all daisy-chain connections, which eventually gave birth to San Francisco scene. After all, they had one in a lifetime situation to pull it off by witnessing the reunion of owners, workers and friends of legendary Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada after 25 years from it's opening in 1965 – the original underground bunch, who's been nothing less than a missing link to psychedelic culture of the high 60's and whose deep passion marked a real change of the times!

This extended family of individuals was essentially a hot mix of underground entrepreneurs, musicians, drug dealers, hookers, go-go dancers, light/poster artists and all other sorts of countercultural dropouts... so called quality people. As history is being told, in the summer of 1965 three friends (Chan Laughling, Mark Unobsky, Don Works) decided to fork out their pocket money and get a start-up running. That's how Red Dog Saloon was born – a weird, retro-psychedelic venue, which quickly became a direct inspiration and a blueprint for the whole phenomenon of free form dancing events in San Francisco. This smooth transition on the other hand was enabled by a trio of free individuals, who spent the summer in Virginia City tasting psychedelics and having fun with new music and liberating atmosphere... they felt a new smell was definitely in the air. When the summer was gone, they rolled their sails and eventually drifted back to San Francisco, where they started a small collective – Family Dog, which today is considered a historical glue of San Francisco scene. By organizing dances to rock music with bands such as: The Great Society, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Family Dog quickly established itself as the first truly alternative event agency!

Connection was made initially by Chan Laughlin, who's been scoring drugs in San Francisco for the whole team as they couldn't find acid in Nevada at that time (and probaby many other goodies). This was obviously the same acid, that Stanley Owsley has been manufacturing since March 1965, making Ken Kesey's Acid Tests possible and flushing whole Height Ashbury district as well, which around late 1964 transformed into flourishing area with new rock'n'roll bands, artists and hipsters popping like spring onions. One of these acts was early psychedelic group – The Charlatans, whose manager bumped into Chan around North Beach – a famous Beat Generation district – and proposed his band as a leading act for the Red Dog Saloon. As The Charlatans became regular contributors to Red Dog Saloon ambience, new bands formed around USA and few of them have flown to Virginia City. Among these obscure acts – some recognized only by ardent 60's psych diggers – were such bands as: PH Phactor Jug Band, The Final Solution, StoneGround and early Big Brother & The Holding Company. Although not all of this great music was registered, a heavy fusion of old school country, folk, Southern blues and rock'n'roll played live at the Red Dog Saloon, eventually mutated into what became known as psychedelic rock!



Especially The Charlatans with their vintage, circa 1890 dress code sprang a sense of new style – the fashion creation of "real me"! That was to evolve soon enough into a general hippie look, which flashed with LSD-inspired colours, Native American or Indian rags and circus uniforms (which went down on San Francisco streets like a hurricane, when a local theater has sold out it's costume department). Rolling on the wave of cultural, political and music revolutution, Height Ashbury district by 1967 became a flaming enclave of radical thinking, LSD culture, new forms of rock music, experimental theater, alternative press and full-blown commune living... but as David Getz and Peter Albin (Big Brother & The Holding Company) claim on the screen, this innocence started wearing off with people being overcome by their own self-importance just around when Summer Of Love finished. Before 1968 it was over and by 1969 it went baroque!

As they say, the psychedelic culture of the 60's was a great thing to live in and it gave an unique sense of cosmic identity, but eventually it spiralled downwards... the beginning and the end were divided by not more than 3-4 years, but even this short period mirrored the cyclical nature of the universe in a way, with golden age being the peak (1965-66), silver age carrying the first wind of inevitable downfall (1967) and iron age being the bottom (1968-69). On a personal level, many of Red Dog Saloon workers feel that LSD changed their lives blowing the lid off irreversibly... you weren't able anymore to simply tolerate being stuck in a traffic jam, because you needed to get to work, which you didn't know why you were doing and that apparently nudged a response. The end came down when The Media bought this news, digested it and passed it on as a fad for rebellious youth. As the effect a whole throng of teenagers, criminals and businessmen jumped on the bandwagon washing it out with their lack of commitment and pass the buck ethics. Still, all persons interviewed in this documentary claim they were profoundly transformed by the 60's and many found their way into things they didn't know anything about beforehand. A must-see for 60's researchers and 60's psych collectors, containing never seen before rehearsal footage of The Charlatans and The Final Solution + many rare photos by such a cult figure as Jim Marshall. Absolutely brilliant work!

[This documentary can be purchased from Monterey Media]

Scorpio Rising (1964)

"Scorpio Rising" is one of three most important Anger’s works, being crude and gritty like a coal in the same time. Still this amazing short comes across with a very peculiar social and occult agenda, concerning Aleister Crowley’s discoveries in the field of aeonic shift, which Anger harnessed to his artistic vision making great use of his reformed system of astro-psychology. Besides strictly magickal message this picture is a very enjoyable collage of "The Wild One" samples, vintage movie about Jesus Christ and homosexual-biker footage shot by Anger himself featuring fictional, outlaw MC… and you even get Elvis singing "Devil In Disguise" (great rockabilly classic). Going a little overboard you might say it was a first 60’s biker movie while it definitely had some proto-biker flick quality.

However, what makes it special is indeed it's mysterious message. Scorpio is rising… hmm? Bikers? Jesus? Elvis? How does it mingle? First of all Anger believed in a doctrine of art as magick, where every act reveals the Will, which brings Change. The movie was supposed to break open viewer’s head communicating something very significant. The old world was crumbling and the new one was being bulit! "Scorpio Rising" is in fact a prophecy of the cultural change, but to understand it better, you’ll have to inevitably dive for a second into the world of Aleister Crowley – probably the most important occultist of XXth century.



Scorpio is a zodiac sign – represented in the movie by a brute – while the sign is a symbol itself. As Crowley wrote in his books, Scorpio must be considered a fiery water element, an active one. It corresponds with Tarot Of Thoth card number XIII (Death), being ruled by "planet" Mars (symbolic representation of war and destruction instincts). As Crowley put it out, this card leads from putrefaction to exaltation, which means that element forces necessary change without a danger of being grinded in the process. Death card features a skeleton with a scythe (a biker) and a fish (Jesus), which represents swiftness and cold-blooded ability of survival. Anger played out both symbols to proclaim that in fact change will be brutal and vicious, but even if the old religions are already gone, the new energy possesses spiritual insight to lead the way. In the end he was right!

When you look at the high 60’s revolution (especially 1968), his insight comes sound and clear. Anger made his picture before the worst shit happened, but he felt the storm coming. He was even marching on Pentagon with his own platform trying to do his part. When you take all that into account, "Scorpio Rising" stands out as the only picture where speed-crazed, savage lads on choppers are being granted a spiritual status. I suppose that "The Born Losers" and "The Glory Stompers" never pulled off any correspondences of this sort, hence if you are seriously into occult cinema, this is a must-see for you!