Hair (1979)

Directed by Miloš Forman. Starring Treat Williams, John Savage, Beverly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Don Dacus, Dorsey Wright, Richard Bright, Cheryl Barnes, Nicholas Ray, Antonia Rey, George J. Manos, Nell Carter. [PG]

Film version of Broadway musical takes the 60s counterculture anti-war relic and revives it in the late-70s, but ends up feeling so forced in a dress-up, nostalgia-baiting fashion, it borders on kitsch. Miloš Forman lacks the versatility of the movie musical visual language and crowd control principles, so he lets his performers get away with memorizing posture and cadence within the hippie milieu—they’re too happy in their marijuana-scented costumes to find the confrontational anger or the humanist balance of the peace movement. Twyla Tharp’s choreography gets chopped to bits, as if anticipating MTV’s arrival just around the corner, and show-stoppers earn their name for how they interrupt the flow, which is deadly for musicals that aren’t built around set pieces. In his breakthrough role, Treat Williams demonstrates screen presence, but he’s let down by the final act contrivances—it’s a bummer man, but should we feel any less indifferent by an image of a peacenik sticking a flower stem down the barrel of a rifle? “You had to be there,” as it goes, and I can only guess being ten years too late to party spoils the joy and power this film’s defenders assert it has. Some of the songs have timeless melodies to make up for their tacky lyricism. Look for Michael Jeter making his film debut.

46/100