Film critics can’t be expected to know every film genre by heart.
WWTW is more of a modern film fan, although I’m trying to balance my movie mind by catching up with the classics when time permits.
But sometimes I have to sit through a “Cop Out” to keep up to date.
But one filmmaker utterly off my radar is B-movie king Roger Corman. The cheesemeister directed a number of film in the 1960s and early ’70s, no-budget affairs known primarily for giving people like Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern their entry into the business.
That made me pop the 1970 film “Gas-s-s-s” into my DVD player, a not so groovy experience.
Lil’ WWTW got a kick out of it … the swirling colors and psychedelic vibe clearly spoke to his 13-month-old mind.
Adults need a medical marijuana prescription to make any sense of its satirical smorgasbord.
Corman’s “Gas-s-s-s” feels like it was unearthed from a time capsule. It’s more ’60s than Simon, Garfunkel and the Smothers Brothers combined.
It’s also a hippie relic of the first order.
A military snafu (The Man in action!) causes a virus to be unleashed which kills everybody over the age of 25. That leaves the hippies, flower people and other hipsters in charge. But utopia doesn’t necessarily follow.
We’re treated to extended musical numbers, more period garb than a full season of “The Sonny & Cher Show” and dialogue that requires a decoder ring to understand.
That’s assuming you didn’t turn on, tune in and drop out at some point in your life.
The film reminds us the ideological wars of the era – be it free love, anti-war or other familiar refrains – aren’t that much different than what you hear on talk radio or the Daily Kos.
This isn’t an official review since I bailed before the film ended. Suffice to say any film so chaotically plotted and indifferent to storytelling basics doesn’t demand a full viewing.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
A similarly themed but far better movie was “Wild in the Streets”.
Heh.
*YOU* could not complete a screening? So who’s tuning in and dropping out now?
Corman’s films are a 35mm version of “you had to be there,” admittedly….
D.