Alice's Restaurant (film)
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'' Alice's Restaurant '' is a 1969 American
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American filmmaker, theatre director, and producer. He was a three-time Academy Award nominee for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, and a Tony Awards, Tony Awa ...
. It is an adaptation of the 1967
folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
" Alice's Restaurant Massacree", originally written and sung by
Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
. The film stars Guthrie as himself, with Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock. Penn, who resided in the story's setting of
Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridg ...
, co-wrote the screenplay in 1967 with Venable Herndon after hearing the song and more of the story from Brock's father, who was on the board of directors at The Berkshire Playhouse, and shortly after directing '' Bonnie & Clyde''.Cummings, Paula (November 21, 2017)
Interview: Arlo Guthrie Carries On Thanksgiving Traditions And Fulfills Family Legacy
. ''NYS Music''. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
''Alice's Restaurant'' premiered in Boston on August 19, 1969, a few days after Guthrie appeared at the
Woodstock Festival The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
.Stanmeyer, Anastasia
"Breaking Bread with Alice"
''Berkshire Magazine'', Holiday 2022. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
A
soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...
for the film was also released by
United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...
. The soundtrack includes a studio version of the
title song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
, which was originally divided into two parts (one for each album side); a 1998 CD reissue on the
Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first CD-only independent record label ...
label presents this version of the song in full, and adds several bonus tracks to the original LP.


Plot

In 1965, bohemian musician Arlo Guthrie has attempted to avoid the
draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
by attending college in Montana. His long hair and unorthodox approach to study gets him in trouble with local police as well as residents, so he quits school and hitchhikes back East. He first visits his ailing father
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
in a
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
hospital, then performs music at various local venues. Arlo ultimately returns to his friends Ray and Alice Brock at their home, a deconsecrated church in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a New England town, town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Bot ...
, where they welcome friends and like-minded bohemian types to "crash". Among these are Arlo's school friend Roger and artist Shelly, an ex-
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
addict who is in a motorcycle racing club. Alice is starting up a restaurant in nearby Stockbridge. Arlo composes a jingle for the business, which is then advertised on a radio station, bringing in the first wave of customers. Frustrated with Ray's lackadaisical attitude, Alice has an affair with Shelly and leaves for New York to visit Arlo and Roger, who are paying Woody another visit. Ray comes to take her home, saying he has invited "a few" friends for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving dinner, Arlo and Roger offer to take months' worth of garbage from Alice and Ray's house to the town dump. After loading up a red VW microbus with the garbage, plus a number of tools, they head for the dump. Finding it closed for the holiday, they drive around and discover a pile of garbage that someone else had placed at the bottom of a short cliff. They then decide to add their trash to the accumulation. The next morning, Arlo and Roger receive a call from "Officer Obie", who asks about the garbage. After admitting to littering, they agree to pick up the garbage and meet him at the police station. Loading up the microbus with their tools, they go to the station and are immediately arrested. Arlo and Roger are driven to the "scene of the crime", where the police collect extensive forensic evidence amid a
media circus Media circus is a colloquial metaphor or idiom describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to b ...
. Hours later, Alice bails the boys out. At the trial the next day, Officer Obie has photos of the crime, but the judge is blind and simply levies a $25 fine, orders the boys to pick up the garbage, and sets them free. They take the garbage to New York and place it on a barge. At the church, Arlo pursues a relationship with an Asian girl, Mari-chan. Days later, Arlo is called up for a physical examination related to Vietnam War draft at the
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
military induction center on
Whitehall Street Whitehall Street is a street in the South Ferry (Manhattan), South Ferry/Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The street begins at Bowling ...
. He attempts to make himself unfit for military induction by acting like a homicidal maniac in front of a psychiatrist, but this gets him praise. Because of Guthrie's criminal record for littering, he is sent to wait with other convicts on the Group W bench. He is then pronounced unfit for military service when he comments on the dubiousness of considering littering to be a problem when selecting candidates for armed conflict, making the officials suspicious of "his kind" and prompting them to send his personal records to
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Returning to the church, Arlo finds Ray and members of the motorcycle club showing home movies of a recent race. A high Shelly enters, and Ray beats him until he reveals his stash of heroin, concealed in a mobile he has made from spare car parts. Shelly roars off into the night on his motorcycle to his death.
Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
's "Songs to Aging Children Come" is sung at the funeral. The next day, Woody dies, and Arlo laments not visiting his father one last time. Ray and Alice have a hippie-style wedding and celebration in the church, and a drunken Ray proposes to sell the church and start a country commune instead while blaming himself for Shelly's death. Alice and Ray see off Arlo and Mari-chan in Arlo's microbus. Ray returns inside, while Alice silently stands on the steps and looks off into the distance.


Cast

*
Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
as himself * Pat Quinn as Alice Brock * James Broderick as Ray Brock *
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
as himself * Lee Hays as himself – reverend at evangelical meeting * Michael McClanathan as Shelly * Geoff Outlaw as Roger Crowther * Tina Chen as Mari-chan * Kathleen Dabney as Karin * William Obanhein as himself – Officer Obie * James Hannon as himself – the blind judge * Seth Allen as Evangelist * Monroe Arnold as Bluegrass * Joseph Boley as
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
* Vinnette Carroll as Draft Clerk * Sylvia Davis as Marjorie Guthrie * Simm Landres as Private Jacob / Jake * Eulalie Noble as Ruth * Louis Beachner as Dean * MacIntyre Dixon as First Deconsecration Minister * Arthur Pierce Middleton as Second Deconsecration Minister * Donald Marye as Funeral Director * Shelley Plimpton as Reenie * M. Emmet Walsh as Group W Sergeant


Cameos and special appearances

The real Alice Brock makes a number of
cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
s in the film. In the scene where Ray and friends are installing insulation, she is wearing a brown turtleneck top and has her hair pulled into a ponytail. In the Thanksgiving dinner scene, she is wearing a bright pink blouse. In the wedding scene, she is wearing a Western-style dress. She declined an offer to portray herself in the film. The real Ray and Alice appear in a black-and-white film within the film (being watched by the fictional Ray and Alice). Guthrie's real-life co-defendant Richard Robbins appears (in blue shirt, with mustache) outside Woody's hospital room right before the funeral. Stockbridge police chief William Obanhein ("Officer Obie") plays himself in the film; he explained to ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine that making himself look like a fool was preferable to having somebody else make him look like a fool. Judge James E. Hannon, who presided over the littering trial, also appears as himself in the film.Doyle, Patrick (November 26, 2014)
Arlo Guthrie looks back on 50 years of Alice's Restaurant
. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
Many of Guthrie's real-life associates in Stockbridge made appearances as extras, and Penn, who himself had a home in Stockbridge, spent time living among them in an effort to grasp their lifestyle.Arlo Guthrie's Alice is alive, glad to be here
''The Wall Street Journal'' via the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' (November 22, 2006). Retrieved September 8, 2017.
Guthrie and all of the extras were housed at the same hotel during filming of scenes outside Stockbridge, but Guthrie received star treatment; a limousine was provided for Guthrie each morning while the others had to find their own transportation for filming. This strained the relations between Guthrie and his friends for many years. Much of the film was recorded in Stockbridge. The film also features the first credited film appearance of character actor M. Emmet Walsh, playing the Group W sergeant. (Walsh had previously appeared as an uncredited extra in ''
Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, J ...
'', released three months prior.) The film also features cameo appearances by American folksingers/songwriters Lee Hays (playing a reverend at an evangelical meeting) and
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
(playing himself).


Differences from real life

The original song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" that formed the basis for the film's central plotline was, for the most part, a true story. However, other than this and the hippie wedding at the end of the film, most of the other events and characters in the film were fictional creations of the screenplay's writers. According to Guthrie on the DVD's audio commentary, the film used the names of real people but took numerous liberties with actual events. Richard Robbins, Guthrie's co-defendant in real life, was replaced by the fictional Roger Crowther for the film (in the song, he remained anonymous); Robbins later described almost all the additions to the story as "all fiction" and "complete bull." The subplots involving the Shelly character were completely fictional and not based on any real people or incidents in Guthrie's life;Brown, Jane Roy (February 24, 2008)
After Alice's restaurants
''The Boston Globe''. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
his character's motorcycle club was loosely based on the Trinity Motorcycle Club (or, by a conflicting account, the Triangle Motorcycle Club), a real-life group of motorcyclists that associated with the Brocks and were alluded to in another Guthrie song, the "Motorcycle Song".Giuliano, Charles (March 27, 2014)

''Berkshire Fine Arts''. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
Mari-chan was also a fictional creation; Guthrie's girlfriend in the mid-1960s was English. The film also has Guthrie being forced to leave a Montana town after "creating a disturbance" – i.e., several town residents object to Guthrie's long hair and gang up to throw him through a plate glass window. This never happened, and Guthrie expresses regret that Montana got a "bad rap" in the film. In reality, during the time of the littering incident and trial, Guthrie was still enrolled in a Montana college, and was only in Stockbridge for the long Thanksgiving weekend (he would drop out of college at the end of the semester). Alice Brock spoke very negatively of the film's portrayal of her. She stated in a 2014 interview, "That wasn't me. That was someone else's idea of me." She took particular offense at the film implying that she had slept with Guthrie (among others) and denied ever associating with heroin users; Brock, though she was a chronic smoker and drinker, was firmly against the use of hard drugs because they impaired her ability to work. She also noted that the film in particular had brought a large amount of unwanted publicity: "It just really impinged on your privacy. It's just amazing how brazen people can be when you're a supposed public figure (...) We sold the church at that point." In a 1970 interview, she expressed regret over the film, stating that she should have fought to stop the film from being released. In 2023, Guthrie admitted that he thought the film was "frankly, garbage" and "a terrible movie;" he walked out of the premiere screening, believing that Penn and Herndon drew the totally wrong message from the material and that, contrary to the nihilistic mood of the film, Guthrie's generation had indeed made a major difference. "Those values are not sixties values; they're eternal values." Brock held similar sentiments in late 2022, noting that they may not have been successful in all of the things they had tried to change but had managed to accomplish much good in their lifetimes.Stanmeyer, Anastasia
"Breaking Bread with Alice"
''Berkshire Magazine'', Holiday 2022. Retrieved 2024-02-22.


Reception

The film has a 63% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
based on 19 reviews, with a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
of 6.19/10. In 2009, '' Politics Daily'' wrote that, "calling the 1969 film a comedy misses its ''noir'' backbeat of betrayed romanticism, and thinking of it as a madcap autobiography misses its politics. This is a movie driven by the military draft and the Vietnam War". Upon its initial release, ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' called the film "the best of a number of remarkable new films which seem to question many of the traditional assumptions of establishment America." When interviewed in 1971, the film's director, Arthur Penn, said of the film: "What I tried to deal with is the US's silence and how we can best respond to that silence. ... I wanted to show that the US is a country paralyzed by fear, that people were afraid of losing all they hold dear to them. It's the new generation that's trying to save everything". In being offered the opinion that violence is not so important in the film, Penn replied: "''Alice's Restaurant'' is a film of potential transition because the characters know, in some way, what they are looking for. ... It's important to remember that the characters in ''Alice's Restaurant'' are middle-class whites. They aren't poor or hungry or working class. They are not in the same boat as African Americans. But they're not militants either. In this respect the church dwellers are not particularly threatening. They find it easy to live there, even if most people can't afford such a luxury. From this point of view, this film depicts a very specific social class. It's a bourgeois film". The final scene is not of a loving couple seeing off their guests, but of Alice standing alone looking into the distance, watching the guests leave, as if knowing that her future is in fact bleak with Ray. Coincidentally, the real Alice and Ray finalized their divorce on the same day the wedding scene was filmed. Arthur Penn has said that the final scene was intended as comment on the inevitable passing of the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
dream: "In fact, that last image of Alice on the church steps is intended to freeze time, to say that this paradise doesn't exist any more, it can only endure in memory".
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' listed ''Alice's Restaurant'' as third best film of 1969. The film grossed $6,300,000 in the United States, making it the 23rd highest-grossing film of 1969.


Awards

* Nominated for
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
for Best Director (1969) – Arthur PennAwards Information for ''Alice's Restaurant''.
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
* Nominated for
Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...
Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...
for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen (1970) – Venable Herndon, Arthur Penn * Third Place –
Laurel Awards The Laurel Awards were American cinema awards that honored films, actors, actresses, producers, directors, and composers. This award was created by the ''Motion Picture Exhibitor'' magazine, and ran from 1948 to 1971 (with the exception of 196 ...
– Golden Laurel for Comedy (1970) * Nominated for
British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
Awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...
Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music (1971) – Arlo Guthrie


See also

*
List of American films of 1969 This is a list of American films released in 1969 in film, 1969. Box office The highest-grossing American films released in 1969, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by ''The Numbers (website), The Numbers'', are as follows: ...


References


External links

* * * *
''DVD Times'' review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alice's Restaurant 1969 films 1960s comedy road movies American comedy road movies Anti-war films about the Vietnam War 1960s English-language films Films about music and musicians Films based on songs Films directed by Arthur Penn Films set in 1965 Films set in Massachusetts Films set in Montana Films set in New York City Films shot in Massachusetts Films shot in New York City Hippie films Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Stockbridge, Massachusetts Thanksgiving comedy films United Artists films 1969 comedy films Cultural depictions of Woody Guthrie 1960s American films Berkshires in fiction