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Peter Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Annette Funicello ... see more see more... , Abraham Sofaer , Vito Scotti , Charles Macaulay , T.C. Jones , Charles Irving , William Bagdad , Percy Helton , Sonny Liston , Ray Nitschke , Carol Doda , Frank Zappa , June Fairchild , Teri Garr , I.J. Jefferson , Timothy Carey , Victor Mature , The Monkees , Logan Ramsey , Dennis Hopper , Jack Nicholson , Bob Rafelson , Davey Jones

The Monkees -- Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork -- didn't really enjoy being labelled the Prefab Four back when their TV series was all the rage in 1966. With the help and support... read more read more... of Bob Rafaelson (co-producer, co-writer and director) and Jack Nicholson (co-producer, co-writer, and, if you look closely, bit player), the Monkees expressed their displeasure over being packaged for popular consumption in the non sequitur masterpiece Head. At least, it seems that the film is an indictment of the merchandising of pop stars. It's hard to tell at times, because Head literally has no plot; it is instead a patchwork of loopy sight gags, instant parodies, "camp" cutups, musical numbers and wry inside jokes. Clips of such old movies as the 1934 Karloff-Lugosi epic The Black Cat pop up every so often, as does an impressive lineup of pop-culture icons: Victor Mature, Annette Funicello, Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa (he's the one leading a cow) and Ray Nitschke, as well as such movie-trivia "answers" as Timothy Carey, Vito Scotti, Teri Garr, Percy Helton, Logan Ramsey, Carol Doda, and pre-Divine cross-dresser T.C. Jones. The best bits include a lengthy Golden Boy parody which does double duty as a lampoon of the network's efforts to create "personalities" for the individual Monkees, and a psychedelic buck-and-wing performed by Davy Jones. One gag, in which Micky Dolenz blows up a Coca Cola machine, is usually excised from TV showings. Head did zero business when it first came out thanks to poor distribution, but it has since become a fixture of midnight-movie showings and campus cinema classes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

71% liked it

5,431 ratings

Critics

75% liked it

20 critics

G, 1 hr. 26 min.

Directed by: Bob Rafelson

Release Date: November 20, 1968

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DVD Release Date: July 21, 1998

Stats: 441 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (441)

  • ythelastman89
    April 16, 2011
    ythelastman89
    Head really shines as the anti-Hard Day's Night. It takes all the pointlessness and over the top cinema verite and makes a complete mockery of it. This is so fragmented, so conceptual and so bizarre that most people won't know what they've just watched. However, this Is one of th... read moree most well done and certainly the most original movie about a band that's ever been made. It actually never focuses on the music itself, which is absolutely hilarious. While it's in the background, at no point is this movie supposed to be concerned about its stars or their music. Bob Rafelson's complete mind trip is circular and complex in nature, but extremely fun to watch and fascinating if nothing else.
  • tsigur
    January 11, 2011
    tsigur
    A trippy film about the Monkees, (a band I know very little about outside of the TV show). A lot of interesting anti-war sentiments that get a little over the top at times, but nothing not said by this generation before. Interesting mostly to see that Jack Nicholson co-wrote and ... read moreco-produced this film.
  • mjgildea
    January 4, 2011
    mjgildea
    If you're expecting a mere extention of The Monkees TV show or a 90-minute episode of the show, you're not going to get it with Head. A plotless series of vignettes and a farewell of sorts to the show, Head just feels like a big acid trip (director Bob Rafelson admits the drug pl... read moreayed a big part in the movie's creation.) Head also has plenty of odd cameos that were every bit as odd as the movie (Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Teri Garr, Tim Carey, Victor Mature) but the music (none of their more well-known stuff is anywhere to be found) is probably the best stuff they've ever done. Fans expecting a fun and coherent romp are likely to be disappointed and whether or not you'll enjoy Head ultimately comes down to if you're in the mood to deal with a stream of consciousness, meandering feast for the eyes and how inebriated you are. You'll either love it or it'll frustrate the hell out of you. I just happened to be in the right mood...
  • ajv2688
    December 11, 2010
    ajv2688
    I liked this movie because it has some very funny scenes and it's whimsical. I also hated this movie because there's no real storyline, it's all over the place, and makes very little sense. It's mostly a bad movie, but if you love the Monkees you'll find it interesting at least.
  • jjnxn
    August 28, 2007
    jjnxn
    psychedelic hodgepedge, it would really help to be high on something when waiting this.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    July 15, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    The Monkees take us on a nonsense-filled tripped out weird excursion to nowhere. Good Monkees songs however. It didn't make much sense. Worse than "The Trip" and "Casino Royale". I think they gave the Monkees cash to make whatever film they wanted to, and this is what we got. The... read more story lacks a sense of purpose or rebellion which the Beatles movies had.
  • Redlats
    June 11, 2007
    Redlats
    I guess I'm getting too old for the Monkees now.
  • gevvysidhu
    December 26, 2011
    gevvysidhu
    Thoroughly unwatchable depiction of random nonsense that four boring rock stars do. It doesn't pass for experimentation because it's too amateurish and unfocused in it's subject, even if the subject is the adventures of four uninsteresting rock stars. The moments I enjoyed were w... read morehere it depicts the actual shooting of a film, especially the part where we see Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper acutally come on screen while one of the Monkees was debating whether it was good for his image to be hitting a girl in a movie. It was also great to see it contained actual Vietnam war footage including a horrible execution of a man, however, the film itself veered off again into another preposterous direction before fully exploring the topic of Vietnam. Another positive was the tv commercials and references to the society in which they lived in, in that sense it worked as a social documentary at times but not quite. I see that it is supposed to be satire of the industry itself and be some sort of black comedy, but it doesn't provide enough insightful or unique connections to be successful as one. The film suffers greatly from trying to be sensationalistic and there is always an idea of what the film wants to be but in actuality it never becomes that kind of social-commentary and entertaining thrill ride at the same time. This film does contain a lot of the conventions that many great films of New Hollywood had, but it is not as interesting as them because the actors aren't great. This film is no where as good as the other great New Hollywood films like The Last Picture Show, Easy Rider, or Taxi Driver, but it must be given credit for it's historical significance in being one of the films that helped push bring that movement into action. However, it does not make any great contributions to the movement in hindsight because the film is too outdated. In his attempts to make his film wacky and "out-there" director Bob Rafelson just ends up making a ridiculously unrestrained picture using cheap cinematic stunts and boring comic devices whose novelty, along with the film's, soon wear off. The only recognition it deserves is in context of helping kick-start the New Hollywood era and for it's role in getting people behind BBS productions together, who gave us much greater films. Other than that, I truly couldn't wait for it to end just ten minutes after it started.
  • fb208103125
    June 25, 2011
    fb208103125
    I went in with an open mind but even with the few scenes of insanely hilarious avant-garde type comedy, I was drowned with bits of slow and dated "trippy" sequences throughout. As stated before, I found certain scenes, such as the cannon scene hilarious and insane but overall I... read more just feel it was trying to hard. It just ended up being various scenes with no plot, put together to form a film.
  • jackamaku
    April 4, 2012
    jackamaku
    The Monkees go psychedelic. Trying to destroy their bubblegum image, the Monkees, director Bob Rafelson, and screenwriter Jack Nicholson created a stream of conscious film making fun of their own image, commenting on the turmoil of the late sixties, and generally going for somet... read morehing closer to goofy art film than goofy TV show.
    Don't look for any story here, just a series of vignettes. It mostly works, moves along at a nice pace, features some great songs, and some interesting cameos, including a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Dennis Hopper dressed as his character from Easy Rider, which was shooting at the time.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
May 16, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

The clean-cut kids and the created kinetics work up a 'so-what' reaction too soon in the 85-minute stretch seques from war to westerns to desert chases to mad scientist brushes in the Columbia lot. Full Review

Renata Adler
May 21, 2005
Renata Adler, New York Times

The movie is, nonetheless, of a certain fascination in its joining of two styles: pot and advertising. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Sometimes it succeeds. Full Review

J. R. Jones
January 1, 2000
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

It's uneven but mostly a blast. Full Review

David Cornelius
March 14, 2012
David Cornelius, Popcornworld

In which The Monkees get stoned, commit career suicide, and end up accidentally making one of the best movies of the 1960s. Full Review

Sean Axmaker
December 3, 2010
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View

... a surreal mix of psychedelia and satire, a loopy twist on their lighthearted TV show with a dark undercurrent squeezed in between genre parodies. Full Review

James Kendrick
December 2, 2010
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

There is an inherent curiosity quotient for any project this inherently whacked out, which helps smooth over the underlying rub that Rafelson is using the film to rather portentously blow his own horn Full Review

Phil Hall
October 6, 2010
Phil Hall, Film Snobbery

An entertaining mess. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
February 12, 2010
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

If the Beatles were housebroken Marx Brothers, the Monkees here are gutty Bowery Boys Full Review

Kim Newman
May 16, 2008
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

Mad, but highly watchable. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Peter: Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor.
    • Mike: All right, need a volunteer, we're out of ammo.
    • Peter: I'll go.
    • Mike: See that you do.
    • Peter: Everybody's where they wanna be.
    • Micky: That is a particularly inept thing to say, Peter, considering that we are in a vacuum cleaner.
    • Testy True: Quick! Suck it before the venom reaches my heart.
    • Mike: What heart?!
    • Mike: Okay. You think they call us plastic now, babe, but wait 'til I get through telling them how we do it.
    • Lord High `n' Low: Boys, don't never, but never, make fun of no cripple!
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  • For what movie did Demi Moore ended up with a clean shaven head?  Answer »
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