New York Times 7 November 1968 Movie Review Head (1968) November 7, 1968 The Screen: 'Head,' Monkees Movie for a Turned-On Audience: Styles of Advertising and Pot Combined By RENATA ADLER "HEAD," which opened yesterday at the Studio Cinema and Greenwich Theaters, might be a film to see if you have been smoking grass or if you like to scream at the Monkees, or if you are interested in what interests drifting heads and hysteric high-school girls. Dreadfully written by Jack Nicholson (who wrote "The Trip") and directed by Bob Rafelson, who, with Bert Schneider, created the Monkees (on the basis of interviews) as a singing group, the movie is, nonetheless, of a certain fascination in its joining of two styles: pot and advertising. The special effects - playing with perspective, focus, dimension, interstices, symmetry, color, logic, pace - are most accessible to marijuana; the use of prepackaged stars gives the movie a kind of brand-name respectability - like putting Jim Dooley (of the "come on down" commercial) on display in a hashish crowd. The Monkees, who are among the least-talented contemporary music groups and know it, are most interesting for their lack of similarity to the Beatles. Going through ersatz Beatle songs, and jokes and motions, their complete lack of distinction of any kind-the fact that fame was stamped on them by hucksters as it might have been on any nice four random, utterly undistinguished boys-makes their performance modest and almost brave. They work very hard and they aren't any good. This keeps them less distant from their own special fans than the Beatles or, say, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys are. They do not have to bridge the distance of talent or style. There are some funny moments-an old joke about a regiment of Italian soldiers surrendering to a single man, a policeman posing girlishly before a mirror, a scene in which the boys are cast as dandruff in the hair of a giant Victor Mature, a war scene in which Ray Nitschke of the Green Bay Packers keeps senselessly tackling a G. I., an attack on a Coke machine, a breaking up of the film set, a nice transposition of the Columbia Pictures logo. There are some ugly scenes, too - mock fights in which Sonny Liston badly beats one of the Monkees about the face. But it will be interesting to see if the underlying fusion works, if taking essentially subversive styles (as in other pot films, such as "Revolution" and "You Are What You Eat") and covering them with famous mediocrities assures their success. The esthetic marijuana world is bound to come out importantly in films one way or another. This sort of movie may be testing the ground. HEAD, written and produced by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson; directed by Mr. Rafelson, Bert Schneider as executive producer; a Raybert Production presented by Columbia Pictures. At the Greenwich Theater, 12th Street and Seventh Avenue, and the Studio Cinema Theater, Broadway at 66th Street. Running time: 86 minutes. with Peter Tork David Jones Micky Dolenz Michael Nesmith and Minnie . . . . . Annette Funicello Lord High 'n Low . . . . . Timothy Carey Faye Lapid . . . . . Logan Ramsey Swami . . . . . Abraham Sofaer I. Vitteloni . . . . . Vito Scotti The Big Victor . . . . . Victor Mature

	Motion Picture Herald 20 November 1968 Page 64 Head          (G) Columbia Pictures - Raybert Production "Head" is an important motion picture for several reasons. But what it is should be explained first-off. What it is not would be easier to explain, for it is not a conventional story-line, character-developed sequential motion picture. Conventionality has been refreshingly, ably replaced by an innovative image-development presentation, mind-expanding to the core, and attacked from all sides by acid-color photography, sense-indulging, almost hypnotic in its effective use. The story line teeter-totters up and down, recounting the supposed and imagined past, present and future happenings of a young, lively quartet of performers breaking through their banal studio commitments. "Now reality" finally gets a fair representation; the concreteness of the present only, including imagination and fact, fills the screen in an exhilarating fashion. Peter Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith serve as the central characters of the work, which brings us to one of the reasons "Head" should be considered a film of importance. Professionally known as The Monkees, these four young men have been the victims of abuse, due to the process by which they reached the heights of the musical recording industry. Having been selected from hundreds of applicants, the four were put together, processed and marketed, like a business commodity, smartly packaged and cleverly advertised. But in "Head" we hopefully see that there is more to each and all of them, presented in a sort of "Hard Day's Night" manner. Jones especially bounces through some lively scenes and numbers. The point isn't that they are smashing performers, but that they are performers and not mere mechanizations. "Head" is also important because it is a well-made marijuana movie, representing the sense-transference, time lapse, illusionary realm of pot that lends itself to and belongs in film. In some respects, this makes it a bit intramural, but curious adults will most decidedly have their attention held. Camp after take-off follows itself in every frame, incorporating such distant personalities in situations as raspy-voiced Percy Helton, post-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, heavyweight boxer Sonny Liston, Mothers of Invention big daddy Frank Zappa and past film hero Victor Mature. All six songs have been performed and presented well, with the initial "Porpoise Song" registering most positively for the improvement of the group's image. The humor, format and comment of "Head" make it attractive, entertaining and welcome. Seen at a New York screening. Reviewer's Rating: Excellent - TONY VELLELA Running time, 86 minutes. November release. Color. Peter ................................................................................................................... Peter Tork Davy ................................................................................................................. David Jones Micky ............................................................................................................... Micky Dolenz Mike ............................................................................................................ Michael Nesmith Minnie ........................................................................................................ Annette Funicello Lord High 'n' Low ............................................................................................. Timothy Carey Big Victor .......................................................................................................... Victor Mature

	The New Yorker November 23 1968 By Pauline Kael Only fourteen years have elapsed since "It Should Happen to You," in which Judy Holliday, as Gladys Glover, a nobody who wanted to be a somebody, thought the answer would be to have her name on a billboard - a solution that the movie presented satirically. But our notions of celebrity have changed, and John Brockman, a young mixed-media promoter who has put his face in the television and newspaper ads for "Head," has probably made himself a somebody. Brockman has made himself the star of "Head," though he doesn't even appear in the movie. The depressing possibilities that he has thus opened are sure to be seized on.

	Cinema December 1968 Pages 37 - 38 Head "The fool," noted the ancient philosopher Dhammapada, "who knows his foolishness is wise at least so far. But the fool who thinks himself wise, he is a fool indeed." The Monkees - a puerile pop foursome created a few years back by NBC to fill the vacuum left by the Beatles in the hearts of snotty-nosed 12 year old virgins - on the evidence of Bob Rafelson's Head, turn out to be a sort of Sears of the psychedelic set. You saw these models some time ago (when they were called the lovely lads from Liverpool): now you, too, can look and act like a jet-set acid head - only the year is 1965. As such, it is sort of ersatz Hard Day's Night, and as cinema, its endless circular corridors lead us straight into the valley of Ennui. The Monkees quite simply can never have listened. I feel it my duty to set down a partial list of what they can't possibly have heard of: the later Beatles and Stones albums, Dylan ditto, the Free Press, the East Village Other, Herman Hesse and the I(nternational) T(imes). Or for that matter, have seen Don't Look Back, or the films of Bruce Conner and Robert Nelson, or the vastly-underrated pop film by the Dave Clark Five called Catch Us If You Can (abysmally retitled Having A Wild Weekend, for U.S. consumption), or The Magical Mystery Tour, or the Maysle Brothers' The Beatles In America, or Rene Clair's early Dadaist madshows, or even Georges Melies' magical trips. This inattention wouldn't be criminal, perhaps, if they hadn't stepped out of their limited milieu (7:30 pm., Monday, NBC) and attempted a plotless film about what reality really is like for four such fab, talented, charming fellows like Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, Mickey [sic] Dolenz and Davey [sic] Jones, who are sadly manipulated and manacled by William White Corporations and, worse, by dreams as sinister as the real thing, but less subtle. Trying to escape, the Monkees jump around a lot, sing songs about how nice it is to be out in the sun, are photographed in artsy silk-screen colors, get into all kinds of scrapes - in Vietnam, in the desert, in the boxing ring, on the bandstand - and meet fellow pop culture losers like Victor Mature, Sonny Liston and Annette Funicello. It's the crassness of the film that's most offensive - who the hell do the Monkees think they're talking to? Head is the kind of movie - and by the way, don't believe the effective ad campaign that makes this film out to be some hip masterpiece - I can imagine a man would make (and enjoy), if he had seen Ohio Express on an afternoon teeny-bopper hop show, read a few issues of 16, and then talked to the Monkees for a couple of minutes about the state of existence today. This man is a member of that generation who fears for those who follow, because reality is obviously going to hypnotise them out of their minds and deliver them flowers in hand to societies whose chief compulsion is finding ways to ensure this zombie youth's conformity to Flag and Country. Perhaps this explains why the liberal press has been knocking its brains to find adjectives worthy enough to praise this film - which is an ode to an ethic which pretends to transcend all that. - Michael Ross

	Esquire [no month listed] 1969 Head is something else. The youth movement as pure promotion and hustle. The gentleman in charge of publicity hit on the notion of plastering his own face all around town, under the modest legend "Head" (you were expecting a toilet bowl, I bet). Then he got another dazzling idea. He threw a party featuring huge buttons with his face on them. (Under the legend "Head.") Then, in the teeming fertility of his brain, he devised the plan of draping further pictures of himself from the ceiling, until the party looked like a bund hall in Munich. No doubt it was a new thing in non-verbal communication and kinky humor, but it was also an old thing in self-absorption and self-advancement, and those of us who wear no man's button, even when it's free and just in fun, left early. The movie that brought the whole thing on turned out to be quite conventional - Richard Lester and water; sight gags dating back to Duck Soup, nifties out of Helzapoppin and a satirical point of view worthy of Mad magazine on a bad day. The Monkees, who star in it, are among the lords of preteen television, and this is one of their old shows writ large. So ignore the ominous promotion, with all its intimations of electronic mumbo jumbo and send the denser kids along as minesweepers.

	The Deseret News 29 January 1969 Page 29 Mike Nesmith sings; Peter Tork backs him on guitar; drummer is Mickey Dolenz and organist is Davy Jones in movie "Head," at Lyric Utah-Made Movie Slated "Head," a motion picture partially produced at Valley Music Hall, opens today at the Lyric Theatre and Woodland Drive-in. It is on the same bill as "Pendulum," a suspense-police adventure movie. "Head" stars The Monkees, Victor Mature, Annette Funicello and features many performers from television. Among cast members are Vito Scotti, a comedian who has been appearing this season on Flying Nun and Sonny Liston, former heavyweight boxing champion. The segment that was filmed in Utah, was produced last summer. A crowd of teens that was so large that the Valley Music Hall could not accommodate all of them, was on hand for the production. Many faces of Utah teens will be seen in the crowd as the Monkees are shown playing their selections. They have 6 new songs in the film. "Head" is a comedy with many unusual settings, such as a sewage disposal plant.

	The Age 24 April 1969 Page 20 Monkee Mike Nesmith is Sonny Liston's second in Head. His third, fourth and fifth are Mickey Dolenz, Davey Jones and Peter Tork. Head opens at the Forum tomorrow. SHOW SCENE By WAYNE CROSKELL Hey, hey, it's the Monkees HEAD opens at the Forum cinema tomorrow for a two-week season. Instead of a cast of thousands it has Davey Jones, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, Victor Mature and Sonny Liston. The first four of those names belong to the pop group, The Monkees. Head their first big movie, is in color - headache color. The Monkees' TV series has just wound up, so if you are one of those who miss them, this should be your chance for a good long yell-and-scream session. The Monkees were gathered together in America to compete against the Beatles for popularity and money. Head has 14 songs. It has a giant vacuum cleaner, Indians, surrendering Italian troops, a Coca Cola machine that hets its just deserts in the desert, some war, a boxing match, a female impersonator, belly dancers, kissing, a toilet with a difference. It's enough to give your granny nightmares. "I would like a glass of cold gravy with a hair in it", is the line which sticks in my throat most after watching the preview. If religion is the opium of the masses, this kind of film - with all its psychedelia - is their LSD.

	Sydney Herald 11 May 1969 Page 104 "Head" THIS technically interesting montage of entangled snippets of tomfooler (mainly) has no story - but has the Monkees and six of their songs as a connecting link. Director Bob Rafelson serves up a palatable mixture of visual and aural effects, but the sight gags and jokes are tame. As a singing group the Monkees are enjoyable, but they lack the wit and charm that made the Beatles and Herman's Hermits (in whose footsteps they follow) endearing. None the less, they obviously enjoy participating in these acted out fantasies and, irrespective of the fare, the young audience shrieks approvingly. (Capitol and suburbs.)

The Monkees - Head - 'Press'

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