Directed by Milos Forman

I have seen the stage show ?Hair? and so I was interested to see the movie based around it. Why? Quite simply, Hair is probably one of the most boring musicals I have ever had to endure. Most of the songs were, ahhhhh how can I say it, CRAP, and the storyline was incredibly dated. I felt I probably had to be on the same drugs that the cast were probably using at the time to understand it. Yes, thirty odd years ago this musical was very relevant, there was free love, draft dodging, psychedelic drugs and flower power, but now all of these ideals are nowhere to be seen and that?s probably where ?Hair? should have stayed.

I was also fascinated to see how the infamous nude scene would be done on stage and even that was lacklustre and fortunately for me I couldn?t really see much anyway. That was lucky because an ex-student of mine was in the ensemble and I don?t think I could have borne a close up so I certainly counted my blessings there.

So, I decided to torture myself and watch the movie version to see if there was any improvement but mainly so I could see and hear the classic songs ?Hair? and ?Aquarius? one more time, as well as the afros and flares which were standard for films completed in the 1970?s. I didn?t bother firing up the home theatre for this one and just watched it on a normal television. Hey, those projector globes cost money!!!

Hair revolves around Claude (John Savage), an Oklahoma farm boy, who goes to NYC in the late sixties and meets a bunch of hippies in Central Park on his way to joining the army. He also sees a beautiful girl, Sheila (Beverly D?Angelo) riding a horse and is instantly smitten. Claude soon finds himself indulging in drugs with his newly found friends; Berger (Treat Williams), Woof (Don Dacus), Jeannie (Annie Golden) and Hud (Dorsey Wright) and doing what comes naturally in musicals, singing (?Manchester, England? and ?Ain?t Got No? are two of the songs of choice). Here we learn that Jeannie is pregnant but she doesn?t know if Hud or Woof is the father. You go girl!!!

Berger then finds out that Sheila is having a rather posh party and so the hippies decide to gate crash it so that Claude can meet the girl of his dreams. More songs and dancing follow including ?I Got Life? but soon after that they are all arrested when Berger dances all over the table and end up in jail and another song follows ?Hair?. Berger encourages Claude to bail him out and he goes in search of the money to bail the rest of his mates out. Firstly Sheila gets a visit and then his parents. Thank goodness for mothers hey!!

More hippies and more songs follow and during an L.S.D. trip poor Claude imagines that he is marrying Sheila. Not long after this Claude and Sheila are swimming in a lake with little modesty being displayed and Berger and the gang steal their clothes and Sheila is forced to hail a taxi home virtually naked and dripping wet. What a nice bunch!

Not long after this Claude goes to an army base in Nevada and the hippies decide to visit him, but of course can?t get past the military police at the base. Sheila, who has joined their quest, then manages to steal an army uniform off a guy she charms in a bar and Berger cuts his hair and enters the base. It is not long before Claude and Berger had swapped places and Berger ends up going to war in Vietnam. If you have seen the musical you will know what happens next and you will also know the classic song that thankfully draws an end to the film.

I will admit it, the film actually made a lot more sense than the musical and I could detect the presence of a storyline, but most of the songs were still crap and the second half of the film was even more boring than I could possibly have imagined. I surprise myself that I actually managed to stay awake. It tried to get all serious and musicals and seriousness don?t really go together. Even with the bad seventies hair, Berger is quite a looker though but Beverly D?Angelo actually looked better in the Vacation movies. I think you would really have to be a fan of the musical to get a kick out of this DVD but as I wasn?t, I didn?t.

The movie is too long (nearly 120 minutes) and probably contains too many songs. Thankfully most of them are quite short and so if you hate the song at least you can rest easy that it will be over soon. I must admit that Milos Forman did quite a good job with the movie considering the storyline he had to work with and the actors probably had a lot of fun completing the film with the nude romps etc. Unfortunately, for me the highlights were too few and far between. The best scene was the ?Black Boys? and ?White Boys? numbers where there was a cameo by Nell Carter (remember her!) and as mentioned earlier there are some classic songs like ?Hair? to enjoy.

This is certainly not a film for the kids with all the drugs references and nudity and you would probably needed to live through the Vietnam War to be able to relate to the culture and storyline. I would much rather watch classic musicals such as ?West Side Story? and ?Grease?, thank you very much. I can guarantee that ?Hair? won?t be getting another airing in our house, unless I suddenly come across a little L.S.D. in my kitchen cupboards. That is for sure!!

THE EXTRAS

Other than Scene Selection (24 scenes) the only special feature was a theatrical trailer than really didn?t give you a lot of insight into the film anyway. I was most relieved by the lack of extras as I hate being subjected to them when the film is quite ordinary. There is nothing worse than hearing actors say what a pleasure it was to make the film and how rewarding the whole experience was, when deep down they probably regretted signing up for the debacle in the first place.

CONCLUSION

?Hair? is motion picture based on the Broadway musical of the same name so if you have seen the stage show you know what you are in for. Most of the actors are relative unknowns and as it is a musical expect songs, lots of them and dancing too. Being set in the 1960?s you can expect bad hair too.

The film revolves around Claude who comes to NYC on his way to joining the army and meets a bunch of hippies in Central Park who are anti-war but very pro-drugs. The leader of the hippies is Berger. Also at Central Park, Claude gets his first glimpse of Sheila and is instantly smitten by her. A bond forms between the three of them and Claude begins to indulge in the hippies favourite past time. When Claude goes to join the army, the hippies and Sheila go to visit him at the Nevada Army Base and tragedy follows.

The film has very little storyline and very little appeal too. Fortunately though, you will not be bombarded with extras after the film ends.