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Hair
Movie poster by Bill Gold
Directed by	Miloš Forman
Produced by	Michael Butler Lester Persky
Written by	Gerome Ragni (book musical James Rado (book musical) Michael Weller (screenplay)
Starring	John Savage Treat Williams Beverly D'Angelo Annie Golden Dorsey Wright Donnie Dacus Nell Carter Cheryl Barnes Richard Bright Charlotte Rae
Music by	Galt MacDermot
Cinematography	Miroslav Ondříček
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	March 14, 1979
Running time	121 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Hair is a 1979 film adaptation of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same title about a Vietnam war draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army induction center. The hippies introduce him to their environment of marijuana, LSD, and unorthodox relationships.

The film was directed by Miloš Forman, who was nominated for a César Award for his work on the film. Cast members include Treat Williams, John Savage, Beverly D'Angelo, Don Dacus of the rock band Chicago, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright, Nell Carter, Ellen Foley, Charlotte Rae as well as Johnny Maestro, Jim Rosica and Fred Ferrara of the rock group The Brooklyn Bridge, and The Stylistics. Dance scenes were choreographed by Twyla Tharp and performed by the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Golden Globe Award, and Williams was nominated for a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male.

In this adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, a naive farm boy from Oklahoma named Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage) heads to New York City to enter the Army and serve in the Vietnam War. In Central Park, he meets a troupe of free-spirited hippies led by a young man named George Berger (Treat Williams), who introduce him to a debutante named Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo) when they crash a dinner party at her home. Inevitably, Claude is sent off to boot camp in Nevada, but Berger and his band of merry pranksters including Woof Daschund (Don Dacus), LaFayette "Hud" Johnson (Dorsey Wright) and Jeannie Ryan (Annie Golden) follow him. Sheila flirts with an off-duty Sergeant in order to steal his uniform, which she gives to Berger. He uses it to extract Claude from the base for a last meeting with Sheila, taking his place, but while Claude is away, the unit flies out to Vietnam, taking Berger with them.

Changes from original version

A few verses from "Manchester, England" and a small portion of "Walking In Space" have been removed. The film omits the songs "The Bed", "Dead End", "Oh Great God of Power", "I Believe in Love", "Going Down", "Abie Baby," "Air," "My Conviction," "Frank Mills," and "What a Piece of Work is Man" from the musical. The latter five songs were originally recorded for the film, but were eventually cut, as they slowed the pace of the film. They can be found on the motion picture soundtrack album, although they were omitted on the 1990 reissue. While the songs "Don't Put It Down" and "Somebody To Love" are not specifically sung by characters in the movie, they are both used as background or instrumental music for scenes at the army base. There are several other differences from songs in the movie and as they appear on the soundtrack, mainly in omitted verses and different orchestrations.

The plot is changed in the film. Many of the songs have been shortened, sped up, rearranged, or assigned to different characters to allow for the differences in plot. Opinions are mixed as to whether the film was an improvement over the stage show.

In the original stage show, the character Claude Bukowski is a hippie who eventually joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam. In the movie, the plot was changed so that Claude comes to New York City from Oklahoma after he is drafted and befriends a group of hippies before being sent to Army training camp. They introduce him to their psychedelically-inspired style of living, and eventually drive to Nevada to visit him at a training camp. In the play, Claude is from "dirty, mucky, polluted Flushing," in Queens, but wishes he was from "Manchester, England," which explained why he sang a song with that title. The song remains in the film, though with a joking introduction by Berger - "he just got off the boat" - to make it apply to Oklahoma native Claude.

In the musical, Sheila Franklin is a hippie who falls in love with Berger, not Claude. Jeannie was "knocked up" by a speed freak, not by either Woof or Hud.

Arguably, the most extreme change is Berger's death in the finale. In the original play it is Claude who dies in Vietnam.

Reaction

Original writers James Rado and Gerome Ragni were unhappy with the film. In their view, Forman failed to capture the essence of Hair in that hippies were portrayed as "oddballs" and "some sort of aberration" without any connection to the peace movement.^[1] Both are quoted as saying: "Any resemblance between the 1979 film and the original Biltmore version, other than some of the songs, the names of the characters, and a common title, eludes us." In their view, the screen version of Hair has not yet been produced.^[1] However, the film was generally well-reviewed.^[2] Writing in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called it "a rollicking musical memoir.... [Michael] Weller's inventions make this Hair seem much funnier than I remember the show's having been. They also provide time and space for the development of characters who, on the stage, had to express themselves almost entirely in song.... The entire cast is superb.... Mostly... the film is a delight."^[3]

The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.^[4]

Soundtrack

All lyrics written by Gerome Ragni, Jim Rado, all music composed by Galt MacDermot.

References

External links

• Hair at the Internet Movie Database
• Hair at Allmovie
• Reviews and information from Rottentomatoes.com

From Wikiquote

Hair is a 1979 film based on the 1968 Broadway musical of the same name about a Vietnam war draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army induction center. The hippies introduce him to their countercultural lifestyle of marijuana, LSD, "be-ins", and protests.

Unsourced

• "Of course I'm crazy! We're all crazy. Let's shake on it."

-Jeanie Ryan

• "The draft is white people sending black people to make war on the yellow people to defend the land they stole from the red people!"

-A Hippie

• Berger: Where you from?
  Claude: Oklahoma.
  Jeannie: Hey, listen. I know what it's like. I used to be from Kansas myself.

-When the gang first meets Claude

• Prison Psychiatrist: And men?
  Woof: What do you mean...?
  Prison Psychiatrist: You have any sexual attraction towards men?
  Woof: You mean if I'm a homosexual or something like that?
  Prison Psychiatrist: Yeah.
  Woof: Well, I wouldn't kick Mick Jagger out of my bed, but uh, I'm not a homosexual, no.
  -After Woof refuses to let his hair be cut

• Woof, Hud, Berger: [in song] Oh say, can you see my eyes? If you can, then my hair's too short.

-During song, Hair.