Head

Plot

Unlike most movies, there is no "plot" per se in this movie, rather a succession of seemingly unrelated scenes. The throughline in the film comes from the themes inherent in it: a biting satire of television; an indictment of fame, especially fame gained too early in life; commentary on the Monkees themselves and their experience as both product and performers; and a meditation on the power of media.

Head begins at the dedication of a bridge. As a local politician struggles with his microphone during the dedication speech, the four members of The Monkees, Micky, Davy, Peter, and Mike, suddenly interrupt the ceremony by running through the assembled officials, to the sound of various horns and sirens.

A later scene shows each member of the group having just been kissed by the same groupie, who tells them that they were indistinguishable. This is juxtaposed with images of screaming fans at a Monkees concert, who would do anything to be that close to their idols. This kind of juxtaposition of opposites will be seen throughout the film. As the movie continues, they make their way both together and separately through a series of unrelated vignettes, each being a different type of movie (a mystery, a war movie, a western, a desert adventure, etc.). This nonlinear narrative mimics the experience of changing channels on a TV set, flipping through various shows and various genres as part of the film's satire of television.

Subsequent scenes, some reflecting the humor of their television show, others displaying clips of such real-life issues as the Vietnam War – and conspicuously, the execution of Viet Cong operative Nguyen Van Lem in 1968 – provide commentary on the way in which media reduces everything it displays to some short of entertainment, even clips of people being brutally murdered, a scene that was widely shown on TV at the time. Throughout the film, the Monkees rebel against the unrealistic fiction that had been created about them – that they were mere actors on a TV show and not the talented musicians and performers the actually were – which they were trying to dispel with this movie.

At the end, The Monkees find themselves back on the same bridge they were on at the beginning of the movie. Just as before, they jump off the edge, demonstrating that they can "think outside the box" (the black box that in which they have been trapped at various points in the movie, representing the personal and artistic confinement of their TV show), and go in a direction not considered by all the "normal" people who use the bridge. Sadly, and in spite of their best efforts, the Monkees end up exactly where they started, looping back into the scene on the bridge to imply that life is circular, and the harder you try to escape from your circumstances, the more you end up back where you started.

In the final moments of the film, the group still underwater, is seen to be trapped – once again – in a huge tank, staring uncertainly through the glass and struggling under the water, perhaps suggesting that escaping one's fame – and one's status as a money-making product – is not as easy as gaining it.

Production

On October 12, 1966, Daily Variety revealed a feature film starring The Monkees was in the works. In December, Micky Dolenz told Army Archerd of Daily Variety, "We want it to be as different a movie as the series was to TV. And we want to bring back a lot of the old Hollywood glamour and excitement with it." In June 1967, during a Monkees press conference in London, Bob Rafelson claimed he had "tossed away" five potential scripts for Monkees films.

Around November 1967, the plot and peak moments of the film came together at an Ojai, California, resort where the Monkees, Rafelson, and Jack Nicholson brainstormed into a tape recorder, reportedly with the aid of a quantity of marijuana. According to Andrew Sandoval, other contributors included Rafelson's business partner Bert Schneider and "Monkees assistant" Brendan Cahill. Nicholson then took the tapes and used them as the basis for his screenplay, which according to Rafelson he structured while under the influence of LSD. On December 15, 1967, Rafelson and Nicholson completed a "final draft script" of the film, now called Changes. Rafelson recalled the title "seemed best because changes meant something at that time – to do with hallucinations and the cliché that the only thing you can rely on is change." A revision dated January 24, 1968 saw many key sequences added or revised, most of which would appear in the final film. A "long sequence to be shot in Japan involving The Monkees and Godzilla" was removed before filming began, Godzilla being the name of a character in the script. The character of Lord High 'n' Low is identified as "Dernsie" and Bruce Dern in the script, which Peter Mills claims was an indication Dern was the original choice for the role before Timothy Carey was cast. The script also featured the scene where Peter objects to having punched the waitress during the making of the film. Some contemporary magazines such as Monkee Spectacular and NME reported that the plot of the film would involve The Monkees riding across the United States on motorcycles.

Rafelson and Nicholson completed further script revisions on February 15. Filming was also scheduled to begin that day. When the band learned that they would not be allowed to direct themselves or to receive screenwriting credit, Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith staged a one-day walkout, leaving Peter Tork the only Monkee on the set the first day. The strike ended after the first day when the studio agreed to a larger percentage share of the film's net for the group, but the incident damaged the Monkees' relationship with Rafelson and Schneider and would effectively end their professional relationship with the producers.

Music

The film's music included contributions by Carole King and Harry Nilsson. Jack Nicholson compiled the soundtrack album, which approximates the flow of the movie and includes large portions of the dialogue. The film's incidental music was composed and conducted by Ken Thorne, who also composed and conducted the incidental music to the Beatles' second film, Help!

The music of the Monkees often featured a rather dark subject matter beneath a superficially bright, uplifting sound. The music of the film takes the darkness and occasional satirical elements of the Monkees' earlier tunes and makes it far more overt, as in "Ditty Diego" or "Daddy's Song", which has Jones singing an upbeat, Broadway-style number about a boy abandoned by his father. In his 2012 essay on the soundtrack album, academic Peter Mills noted that "on this album the songs are only part of the story, as they were with the Monkees project as a whole: Signals, sounds, and ideas interfere with each other throughout."

The following songs appear during the film:

"Porpoise Song" (theme) – Gerry Goffin, Carole King

"Ditty Diego" – Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson

"Circle Sky" – Michael Nesmith

"Can You Dig It" – Peter Tork

"As We Go Along" – Carole King, Toni Stern

"Daddy's Song" – Harry Nilsson

"Happy Birthday to You"

"Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" – Peter Tork

The Monkees' rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" did not appear on the original release of the film's soundtrack album. "War Games", written by Davy Jones and Steve Pitts, was at one point intended to be featured in the film. Sandoval suggested "Changes", another Jones-Pitts composition, was a "potential song for the project." Michael Nesmith's "Magnolia Simms", which would appear on The Monkees' The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees album, was originally intended to appear in the spot in which "Daddy's Song" appeared in the final film. A version of Nesmith's "Carlisle Wheeling" was recorded for the film in May 1968, but was never completed and ultimately dropped from the soundtrack.

Release

Head premiered in New York City on November 6, 1968 at the Columbia Pictures studio on West 54th Street. The film also opened simultaneously at The Cinema Studio and Greenwich theaters in the area. The film's Hollywood premiere took place at the Vogue Theatre on November 19. The Monkees attended both premieres. Cast members Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa, Annette Funicello, and Dennis Hopper also attended the film's Hollywood debut. The Los Angeles Times highlighted the appearances of various celebrity figures at the premiere. The film opened on November 20 in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington and Boston.

On December 4, Head went into wide release in the Los Angeles area, where it played in theaters with the film Duffy. The films closed after one week. On December 13, Head opened in wide release in New York City, where it played with the 1967 film The Love-Ins, only to close after four days in theaters.

Marketing

Head's trailers summarized the film as the "most extraordinary adventure, western, comedy, love story, mystery, drama, musical, documentary satire ever made (And that's putting it mildly)." John Brockman was in charge of the film's public relations campaign. Two separate advertising campaigns were prepared for Head, described in press materials as "For The 'Modern' Film Audience!" and "For the Monkees Fans!", respectively. "Campaign A" was centered around an image of Brockman's head and did not mention the Monkees, while "Campaign B" was centered around the group. The same image of Brockman also appeared in the film itself.

Rafelson commented that he and Nicholson were arrested at the New York City premiere for trying to put a Head sticker on a police officer's helmet as he mounted his horse.

Head was one of the first films to be advertised with an MPAA rating, with newspaper advertisements in New York daily papers on November 1, 1968, displaying a G rating.

In Philadelphia, The Monkees promoted the film through appearances on the WFIL-TV program Jerry's Place, hosted by Jerry Blavat, and WKBS-TV's The Hy Lit Show.

Reception

On November 13, Daily Variety reported the film had grossed $16,111 in its first five days of release in New York City, and had broken box office records at the two theaters where it was playing. Head was not a commercial success, as the film, being an antithesis of The Monkees sitcom, comprehensively demolished the group's carefully groomed public image and alienated their teenage fanbase, while the counterculture audience they had been reaching for rejected the Monkees' efforts out of hand. The film's lack of success also corresponded with a steep drop in the group's popularity as recording artists. The Head soundtrack peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, and "Porpoise Song" charted at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. Raybert Productions ceased managing The Monkees in December 1968.

In her scathing review of the film, Renata Adler of The New York Times commented that Head "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 hysterical high-school girls." She added that the group "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 ... makes their performance modest and almost brave."

Daily Variety was also harsh, stating that "Head is an extension of the ridiculous nonsense served up on the Screen Gems vid series that manufactured the Monkees and lasted two full seasons following the same format and, ostensibly, appealing to the same kind of audience." The review applauded Rafelson and Nicholson, saying that they "were wise not to attempt a firm storyline as the Monkees have established themselves in the art of the non sequitur and outrageous action. Giving them material they can handle is good thinking; asking them to achieve something more might have been a disaster."

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 21 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10.

Funicello said when she saw the film "it made no more sense to me than it ever had" when she read the script "but it was a challenging, offbeat role and I was happy to play it."

Home media

Head was released on videocassette by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video on September 19, 1986. The film was also released on Laserdisc, which reached number 7 on Billboard's Top Videodisks chart in December. In 1994, Rhino Records purchased The Monkees' video and audio catalog, including Head. According to Rhino's co-founder, Harold Bronson, the company purchased the rights from Rafelson and Schneider, who had recently acquired full ownership of the group's catalog, excluding TV distribution rights, in a settlement with Columbia Pictures' current owner Sony. Rhino Home Video released Head on VHS on January 25, 1995, and on DVD on July 21, 1998.

The film was released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection on November 23, 2010 as part of the America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set. A DVD release of the box set followed on December 14. On July 8, 2016, Rhino released the film on Blu-ray as part of The Monkees: The Complete Series box set.

Legacy

Head has developed a cult following. Leonard Maltin describes it as "delightfully plotless" and "well worth seeing", giving the film 3 out of 4 stars.

When asked by Rolling Stone magazine in March 2012 if he thought making Head was a mistake, Nesmith responded by saying that "by the time Head came out the Monkees were a pariah. There was no confusion about this. We were on the cosine of the line of approbation, from acceptance to rejection...and it was over. Head was a swan song. We wrote it with Jack and Bob...and we liked it. It was an authentic representation of a phenomenon we were a part of that was winding down. It was very far from suicide even though it may have looked like that.."

They had their mind on other things; namely, financing Easy Rider (then called The Loners). They opened Head quietly, hoping that the film would balloon from word-of-mouth. It’s difficult to spread the word about a film that has no point. Regardless, the plan was not far-fetched: with unsquandered Monkees dough, Raybert backed Easy Rider and convinced a disdainful Columbia to distribute it.

A decade earlier, in his commentary for the television series episode "Fairy Tale", Nesmith called the film the "murder" of the Monkees, an intentional move by Schneider and Rafelson, who had their eyes on bigger goals and felt that the Monkees project was holding them back. Tork echoed a similar statement during the Monkees' 2001 interview on the VH-1 series Behind the Music. In 2001, Davy Jones said the Monkees should never have made the movie. In the 2005 book The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, Jones said of the film, "I was proud to be involved with such good people as Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson. If I were making a movie, that wouldn't be the movie I would make, but there's only a certain amount of things you can do with a group of four." Tork said he believed the film was a reflection of Rafelson's "low view of life", but also stated, "It was great to break loose. There's some awfully funny stuff in it, some brilliant scenes. The movie is not pure bad by any stretch. It's just that finally the point of it is pretty grim. 'Nobody gets out of here alive' is the point of the movie."

For all of the negative remarks, there have been positive comments, showing Dolenz, whether knowingly or unknowingly, as a fashion trendsetter. In Straight Outta Cullompton, author Adam Foley wrote more glowingly, "Julian [Hewings]: 'I was watching Head, The Monkees film, and there's a bit at the beginning when Micky Dolenz falls from Golden Gate Bridge and he's got a pair of slightly flared boot cut jean cords on with a pair of (Adidas) Gazelles, probably the first ones that ever came out and this stripy t-shirt and I thought "Wow, that's what I remember when I was a kid – that's what everyone used to wear when they went to school." I just thought "Wow. Yeah. That's really speaking to me there and I got the others together" and went "Have a look at this, we're going to go out and find these clothes and that's what we're going to wear". The look came first before the music'".