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It's basically hippie trash, but that's if you get bored and fall asleep after the first 30 minutes.
The Trip starts off well enough. It's about Paul, an advertising director played by Peter Fonda, who is in the process of a divorce. He is a bit depressed and also trying to discover who he is after his marriage failed.
I think the movie would have stood up much better if it had more of The Electric Flag music tying the various scenes that Paul "trips out" on. Most of the music is basically background and not the focus such as in the club scene. Of course, MTV wouldn't make its debut until 1982.
John, the Bruce Dern character, is Paul's psychiatrist and he recommends that Paul explore his inner self through the use of LSD. Perhaps John is loosely based on LSD guru Timothy Leary who advised us to "Turn on, tune in, drop out." John gives a good explanation of how to take LSD and what it will do for Paul. Max, played by Dennis Hopper, is the drug dealer who shows up in the movie to give some interesting commentary. Hopper gives an intriguing performance and expanding his character would have provided a better story.
The psychedelic "trip" and subsequent hallucinatory visions that Paul experiences are very well done by director Roger Corman. However, without more of a plot, it soon gets repetitious and boring. One can only enjoy someone else's "trip" for so long.
The film has a nostalgic quality for those coming of age in the Sixties with its psychedelic atmosphere and furnishings. But today, it somehow looks rather dated.
Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay, Roger Corman directed, Susan Strasberg plays Paul's wife and is nude, and Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper we all know went on to make "Easy Rider," one of the classic films of the 1960s. It makes this clunker worth taking a look.
score 4/10
jasonbourneagain 30 June 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1115654/ |
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1-3-2021 00:05:09