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What brings the commercial imagemaker to kaleidoscopic goods? "Curiosity. No. Insight." Lysergic acid diethylamide, good for what ails you, namely the soul-sickness of the young director of television ads (Peter Fonda). From the top of the Hollywood Hills, new forms and colors with the guide (Bruce Dern) by his side: "You're on some beautiful stuff, man." Desert and sea, death and rebirth via medieval hallucinations, the twin hooded riders after him are wife (Susan Strasberg) and mistress (Salli Sachse). A bit of Vietnam on a little girl's living-room telly (cf. Persona) then a riot of abstractions, Uncle Sam and Bullwinkle and devouring reptiles in smeary montage, just another Friday night along the Sunset Strip. "A shocking commentary on a prevalent trend of our time," for Roger Corman an expansion of X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes for his savage modernist vision. The crosses on the mount are network towers, the denial of Peter comes courtesy of the dazed dealer (Dennis Hopper) afraid of cops crashing his pad. Paranoia, dread, bliss, loss, "a common feeling." Jack Nicholson's screenplay includes a marvelous little interlude in a vacant laundromat, where the protagonist's wonder at whirling gadgets is not shared by the "sarcastic" gal in curlers eating chicken (Barboura Morris). Man Ray refractions, the carousel of self-inquiry, Delaunay spirals. "A big silver fish and a black-winged angel met, and I went to sea for pearls." "Oh w-w-wow." A morning of clarity after the nocturnal prism, turns out the real trip was love all along. "Isn't the real world good enough for you?" The striking line of influence encompasses Easy Rider and Natural Born Killers. With Judy Lang, Luana Anders, Dick Miller, and Michael Blodgett.
--- Fernando F. Croce |