MAGIC TRIP – The Review

It’s likely that most folks became aware of the hippie movement because of the Woodstock music festival in the late 1960’s. Surely these peace-loving flower children didn’t spring from that mushy, muddy ground fully formed. Did they emerge earlier in the decade? Perhaps they were an off-shoot of the espresso-drinking, bongo-playing beatniks of the 1950’s. Well, a brand new documentary culled from some very old ( about fifty years ) home movie footage directed by Alex Gibney ( ENRON:THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM ) and Alison Eastwood attempts to answer some of those questions. For a groovy history lesson hop about the Merry Pranksters’ bus and take a MAGIC TRIP.

The film begins with a look at celebrated author Ken Kesey. Old high school yearbook photos paint him as a real straight arrow jock type. But then he decided to become a writer and penned the classic novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. In the early 60’s movie star Kirk Douglas was producing and starring in a stage adaptation of that novel on Broadway. On a trip to NYC to check out that play, Kesey and a friend got wind of the big World’s Fair soon to be happening there. They decided that they would return for the event and make an adventure of the cross-country trek from their native Washington state. Their mode of transportation would be an old run-down school bus. Enlisting several local artists ( writers, painters,dancers,etc. ) they adorn the bus with many different shades of bright florescent colors and head east taking some clothing, food, a little money, and lots of booze and other recreational substances.Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” travelin’ pal Neal Casssady becomes their speed-fueled bus driver/tour guide. The “Merry Pranksters”, as they dub themselves, have many adventures along the long open highway. During one of the bus’s many breakdowns they take a hike through the desert while on acid. Couples copulate, break up, and some of the travelers leave the romp and try to return to the normalcy of home. The bus pulls into Texas for a visit with local author Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove”) and loses one of the free-spirited women ( after being picked up by the local authorities, her trip ends there). In the deep South the Pranksters unwittingly integrate a segregated lake front ( it had been a “for coloreds only” area of a public lake ). Kessey and the gang even spend a few days at the estate of LSD’s biggest promoters,Dr. Timothy Leary and Ram Dass. The candy-colored bus finally makes it to the World’s Fair. It appears that the remaining travelers have a great time, but it’s doubtful that all the pavilions and expos could be half as thrilling as the trip itself.

This is one of the year’s most interesting documentaries, but I wondered if the story of putting it together would be just as entertaining. At the the film’s start, the narrator ( actor Stanley Tucci ) explains that all this footage was stored away with little organization. It took was a lot of work to try a sync up the separate soundtrack ( reportedly some lip readers were used ). Gibney and Eastwood have a few new interviews with the participants, recreates some scenes with actors, and has voice-over artists reading interviews as the real Pranksters. After viewing this you get the impression that they did not wish to change society as much as they wanted to indulge their hedonistic appetites. Seeing the footage of them traveling through the desert in that bus with no air conditioning, I felt as if I could smell the sweat on those vinyl seats. I’m guessing most of the square folks they encountered didn’t wish to be more like them. They probably hoped these drunk,high yahoos would get off the road. We’re told that for years after Kesey would gather folks to his home to watch the hours of home movie footage ( sometimes with music by his pal Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead ). After writing a not-as-iconic second novel, “Sometimes a Great Notion”, Kesey soured on the youth movement that he helped to inspire. But we’ll always have that wild,young author mugging into the camera lens and leading these non-conformists on an exploration of the US of A. Watching MAGIC TRIP is almost like stepping into a time machine and visiting a strange alien land that was this country only half a century in the past. Hey, watch your step and get on the bus!

Overall Rating Four Out of Five Stars