Alice’s Restaurant (1969 US) Based on the song by Arlo Guthrie this film tells the story of events surrounding his visit to Alice’s Restaurant including reporting for the draft. This is a pretty deep dive of films. Arlo has a lot to say about the times and what’s really awesome is that he doesn’t approach the story with nostalgia. It’s harder to do contemporaneously. He had a lot of thoughts on the draft and being considered too immoral for being arrested for littering. Although, that is true it was more complicated than that. Arlo portrays the event as more illegal dumping than littering. Throwing furniture on the side of the road, including a couch, is dumping. He had a lot to say about the draft, conforming to restrictive standards but he didn’t stop there. He went on to talk about counterculture too (hippies); drug abuse, relationship abuse, hypocrisy. He also made the point that Alice wasn’t treated that well. All in all it looked like Arlo didn’t fit in anywhere except with his family. Woody Guthrie made an appearance as himself. I really enjoyed this film but it is a bit slower than what we are currently used to. Stick it out to the end though. I thought it was worth it. You can find this film for free on YouTube.
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