The year 1968 bore witness to many events that would alter the course of history, from the assassinations of both MLK and Robert Kennedy to the first on-screen interracial kiss to the release of The Beatles’ White Album. The year also witnessed the release of the first (and last) movie to be made by The Monkees - ‘Head.’ ‘Head’ was a result of the combined efforts of both The Monkees', their producers, and Jack Nicholson to create a movie that told their story. The result was a trippy, psychedelic, anti-war comedy that is often referred to as the death of The Monkees. The film touches on everything from the Vietnam War, Hollywood, America, television, spirituality, and the characters of The Monkees themselves and includes cameos from the likes of Jack Nicholson, Sonny Liston, Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, the list goes on.
To the untrained eye, it’s a plotless film composed of random sketches strung together as a last-ditch effort for The Monkees to rekindle the flame of their dwindling success. To others, however, it’s fondly remembered as a minor masterpiece, even hailed as one of the best rock movies ever made. Both Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright are said to be fans of the movie, and director Bob Rafelson claims that both The Beatles and Rolling Stones requested private screenings. Today it has a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a cult following, but when it was released it failed completely. The film made only $16,111 of its $790,000 budget back, largely due to a simple lack of thought in the marketing and advertising process. In fact, not once were The Monkees names (singular or otherwise) mentioned in the advertising process, and the very few Monkee fans who had heard of the film couldn't even see it due to an age restriction. Looking at it as a box-office flop, it's no wonder it's seen as the final nail in the coffin of The Monkees.
I, like many others, however, argue in favor of the film’s genius.
The film opens with a mad-dash and daring escape as Mickey Dolenz hurls himself off a bridge and plunges to his seemingly imminent doom, only to be rescued by mermaids in a trippy sequence partnered with the blasting of “Porpoise Song.” With no transition at all, the scene is now The Monkees’ living room, where they are engaged in a kissing contest. What a way to open.
The first part that really grabbed my attention, however, was when the screen went stark black - before splitting apart into different scenes of the movie while The Monkees gleefully forestall criticism by mocking themselves. “They say we’re manufactured, to that, we all agree / So make your choice and we’ll rejoice in never being free!... The money’s in, we’re made of tin, we’re here to give you more.” It is a giddy ditty in which our stars recognize their manufactured image and the idea of stardom, which has become a prison in which they are locked. The scene is a mixture of sound and image that takes the viewer by storm as they desperately try to understand just what is going on before suddenly they bear witness to the gut-wrenching execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém and hear the blood-curdling screams of a woman, who turns out to be a girl in a crowd awaiting The Monkees. Perhaps here The Monkees are alluding to the idea of people sitting in their cozy homes demanding entertainment and ignoring the atrocities happening in reality.
Before we know it, we are now on a football field where The Monkees are cheerleaders, encouraging the audience to spell out ‘War!” before switching again to the actual throes of war. Here we see poor Peter Tork incessantly tackled by football star Ray Nitschke. The Monkees are, rather irreverently, equating the socially acceptable violence of boys playing football to the socially acceptable violence of the same boys going off to war. Then, much like a soldier heading into battle, we see the foursome head into the screaming crowd from earlier to perform “Circle Sky” - intercut with gruesome footage from the Vietnam war. Once again we get the feeling that they are alluding to the idea that music and entertainment are distracting us from the real goings-on in the world, that The Monkees are saying “Open your eyes!” I think the beauty of their anti-war sentiment, although graphic, is that they don’t have to say anything, they can simply use their fame and platform to show their audience the horrors that are happening and hopefully awaken an entire generation to a pacifist viewpoint. Then The Monkees are torn to bits by the audience.
The film makes constant criticism of Hollywood and show business as a whole, and its constant flickering between reality and fantasy, between script and breaking the fourth wall, makes it impossible to discern if it’s George Michael Dolenz or “Micky Dolenz!” saying “I don’t want to do this anymore, Bob.”
‘Head’ is a constant juggle of scenes that show each of The Monkees in individual states of confusion and discomfort with their realities. Each one feels helpless and out of control as things spiral, whether through a surprise party or going against their non-violent belief system. Each scene, though seemingly random, is all shown to be connected, and almost always ends with the boys eventually becoming trapped in a box. This motif of a black box that they always end up in is the one constant throughout the film. It is Peter who eventually discovers that the only way out of the box is through spiritual enlightenment and transcending the borders of reality (I think it should be noted that while Peter is with a Swami and is becoming enlightened, the other four Monkees are depicted as being locked in a prison cell). He tells his bandmates this, although they refuse to listen, insisting they have to find a way out of the box. This metaphor, though perhaps the most obvious in the film, is quite possibly my favorite, for aren’t we all trapped in the box until we awaken?
Eventually, the rest of The Monkees listen to Peter and await his solution, which is “I know nothing” (Interestingly paralleling his statement from earlier in the movie, “I’m the dummy” and the character he played as a whole, often depicted as being an airhead who knew nothing. As it turns out, the ultimate knowledge is to realize that one truly knows nothing.), ultimately enraging Davy, releasing them from the box in a rampage - until they end up back in the box. The box is dropped in the middle of the desert, where they face all of their antagonists and make the mad-dash away, returning us to the opening scene of the movie. Only this time, once Micky jumps, the others follow. The Monkees plunge into the water, and as they begin to swim away they come up against a wall of glass. As the cameras zoom out, we see that The Monkees are not in the canal they jumped into, but once again back in the box. This time, however, the box is revealed to look suspiciously like a TV set. The Monkees are allegorical characters, forever trapped in the television, never to be seen as anything but entertainment. “The money’s in, we’re made of tin, we’re here to give you more!”
What some may see as a silly movie, is a true miniature masterpiece in my eyes. The surreal, trippy film makes countless comments on thousands of issues, once again proving to their nay-sayers that these long-haired hippie kids who were cast in a part to be in a fake band, were in fact quite talented and intellectual people who deserved every inch of the spotlight they got. Constantly pushing against authority and the ‘agenda,’ The Monkees rarely receive the recognition they truly deserve and are still fighting to be seen as a real band. ‘Head’ may have only succeeded in killing The Monkees when it was released, but with just an ounce of further inspection, one can see the true genius and ingenuity of the film.
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