DVD: In Praise of Head

So the Criterion Collection has released the extraordinary collection America Lost and Found: The BBS Story, which includes such iconic American indies as The Last Picture Show, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces. And since it's almost a guarantee that plenty of critics will wax effusive about these films while pooh-poohing the very first BBS production -- the Monkees vehicle Head -- I come to praise it.

Yes, it's easy to pick on the Monkees as "the pre-fab Four," a group that was assembled by The Man to do a TV show before they were even allowed to play their own instruments on their albums. But in this film written by Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, the Monkees are the first to mention this fact. "Hey hey, we are the Monkees," chant Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, in a toneless parody of the show's famous theme song. "We're guaranteed to please/A manufactured image/With no philosophies."

While Nicholson claims to have been stoned during the entire writing process of the film, Head owes as much to the influence of Godard as it does having authors who were under the influence. The film offers a barrage of blackout sketches, non sequiturs, bizarre celebrity cameos (including Sonny Liston, Annette Funicello, Victor Mature, and stripper Carol Doda), onscreen text... Oh, and some of the Monkees' best songs, including Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Porpoise Song" and Harry Nilsson's "Daddy's Song."

Head found itself unloved in 1968 -- the film was too bizarre for fans of the Monkees' silly TV sitcom, and the hipsterati of the era wouldn't have been caught dead at a Monkees movie. But decades later, this is a weird and wonderful gem from the dawn of one of American cinema's most interesting eras.