When the counterculture first appeared in the 1960s, Hollywood initially tried to exploit it without really understanding the phenomenon. It took some time and critical distance for Hollywood filmmakers to start seriously exploring the dramatic social changes of that period. It took even more distance for the real and psychological wounds of the Vietnam War fiasco to be properly assessed and captured on the big screen. One of the more successful films to deal with those issues was Hair, the 1979 musical directed by Miloš Forman.
The film was based on the eponymous 1967 stage musical, which created quite a stir by dealing with contemporary issues of the hippie subculture, drugs, the sexual revolution and the Vietnam War, but also through the introduction of profanities, nudity and rock music—which had been unimaginable on the stage until that time. Despite—or, as many now believe, because of—such controversies, the musical became a great hit, with many versions being performed all over the world in the next few years.
The plot begins during the Vietnam War when Claude Hooper Bukowski (played by John Savage), a young, naive man from rural Oklahoma, comes to New York in order to get drafted into the US Army and decides to spend some time sightseeing. In Central Park he meets a group of hippies led by Berger (played by Treat Williams) and, not knowing anybody in the city, strikes up a friendship with them. During the next few days he goes through a series of adventures, during which he is introduced to marijuana, LSD and other aspects of the hippies’ unconventional lifestyles, and also catches the eye of Sheila Franklin (played by Beverly D’Angelo), a girl from an upper-class family who was riding a horse in Central Park. Bukowski, despite his own doubts and Berger begging him not to, decides to honour his obligations and gets drafted. But his friends and Sheila don’t forget him and decide to visit him at the US Army base in Nevada, where Claude goes through basic training before being shipped to Vietnam.
When it premiered, Hair was, sometimes disparagingly, referred to as a “period piece”. By the late 1970s many of the concepts championed by the counterculture had found their way into the mainstream, and Baby Boomers, now faced with adult responsibilities, cared more about making money than revolutionary changes to society. Hair pretends that such a transformation didn’t take place and the film begins with “Age of Aquarius”, an anthem of the movement confident that it would change the world; this confidence is reflected in the impressive choreography by Twyla Tharp and her dance group. Director Miloš Forman, who was fascinated by the counterculture and expressed sympathies for anti-establishment individuals and trends in American society, adds to this with inventive and energetic direction that includes reconstructions of lively and massive anti-war protests, as well as original music numbers by Gerome Ragni and James Rado being staged in perfect harmony with the relatively simple plot. Forman is aided by an excellent cast, which includes Treat Williams in the best-known role of his career. Probably the best casting decision involved John Savage, an actor who perfectly embodied the confused and ordinary Vietnam-bound American; his role is even better for those who had seen The Deer Hunter where he played a similar character who actually went and fought in Vietnam, which makes the audience worry about Claude even more and thus strengthens the film’s anti-war message.
The most crucial element of the film, however, is the script by Michael Weller. He drastically changed many of the characters and plot developments from the source material, and most of those changes were for the better, not only in terms of making Hair more filmable but also more accessible for audiences born long after the 1960s and the Vietnam War. Probably the most important intervention is the ending, to which Weller added both black humour and pathos, resulting in “Let the Sunshine In”, one of the most powerful finales in the history of cinema. Sadly, the lessons of the Vietnam War weren’t learned and America would repeat some of those mistakes in the decades to come, but Forman’s Hair can’t be blamed for trying its best to prevent it.
RATING: 9/10 (+++)
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