SYNOPSICS
Wild in the Streets (1968) is a English movie. Barry Shear has directed this movie. Christopher Jones,Shelley Winters,Diane Varsi,Hal Holbrook are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1968. Wild in the Streets (1968) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama,Music movie in India and around the world.
Wealthy twenty-two year old Max Frost - born Max Jacob Flatow, Jr. - is a rock music superstar, he a rock music franchise unto himself. He has cut ties with his parents, especially due to the control wielded by his overbearing mother, Daphne Flatow, that control against which he rebelled and is still rebelling in the form of having an entourage solely of young people, who he believes knows better than people even a few years older than them. Age-wise, the senior member of his entourage is his acid-dropping girlfriend, former child star Sally LeRoy, age twenty-four, the junior member being fifteen year old Yale law graduate Billy Cage, his business advisor and his band's guitarist. Max decides to endorse thirty-seven year old Congressman Johnny Fergus, running on the Democratic ticket for a California senate seat, as one of Johnny's platform policies is to lower the voting age to eighteen. Johnny happily accepts that endorsement because of Max's power over young people, whose votes ...
Wild in the Streets (1968) Reviews
Groovy Flashback...LSD not Required
Since I was only in fifth grade at the time of this film's release in 1968, I did not have the unmitigated joy of seeing this on the big screen. In fact, I had only heard rumors of the film's existence until I caught it tonight on one of the Starz channels. (Thank the movie gods for them!) And despite the dated but still delicious grooviness of the then-teen flick, there are shades of relevance today. The seemingly ridiculous premise: an unbelievably handsome 22-year-old millionaire singing idol (Christopher Jones)--who can make his own LSD!--helps a congressman (Hal Halbrook) become senator on the platform of lowering the voting age to 15, through sheer charisma gathers thousands of youths to rally in both L.A. and D.C., eventually wins the office of U.S. President as a Republican (!) and then forces anyone over 30 into a "paradise camp" to be forever happy on LSD so that they are incapable of causing any more trouble. To many teens at the time (and even now, I suppose), this idea was not all that ridiculous. The "establishment" was greatly concerned over the growing influence of the babyboomers, who made up over half of the population at that time, and the young people knew it. This film's message of hope for peace and love by removing "old school" approaches to politics, while also offering a great song (which actually hit the charts), attractive actors in up-to-the-minute costumes and a higher-than-usual quality of filming, appealed to the rebellious nature of youth and their demands for a cool movie that they could relate to but that would simultaneously freak out their parents. It made a LOT of money for its day and genre. The film opens with the rebel-protagonist quickly growing up with overbearing mom Shelley Winters, who chews up scenery like nobody's business. She has hilarious bits throughout the film, perhaps most notably after her acceptance of the "new order" as she extols the merits of LSD therapy! James Dean look-alike Jones intoxicates us with his gorgeous looks and charm, whether singing with his band in clubs or convincing us to go along with his outlandish hope for 14-year-olds to get the vote, since his own businessman/guitarist is 15! Other highlights of the cast include Holbrook's full-on (dare we say it, mature?) dramatic acting, which contrasts greatly with the laid-back, free-spirit antics of the other young stars of the film, especially Richard Pryor, who assists in spiking the Washington D.C. water supply with LSD! Ed Begley has a couple memorable scenes as a stereotypically crabby and uncooperative senator who eventually finds drug-induced bliss at the over-30 camp, and Army Archie and Dick Clark (!) have cameos. Post-election ugliness and the ending scene with a future child star add ridiculous but poignant twists. Today, many will see the film as over-the-top and rather campy, a weird period piece from the era of activism but also of often really bad movies. However, those old enough to have been around then will remember not just the drugs and far-out clothes but the counter-culture rumblings of the late 60s. True, this is not high art and certainly not cerebral. But far from being a throw-away film, "Wild In the Streets" remains a funny examination of a time when the demands for social change brought about extremes in actions. The posters on the message boards for this site who are searching for copies of this time capsule gem attest to its lasting appeal.
There's a new voice, rising up angry in the sky
My high school buddies and I drove into Chicago to watch this the day it opened in 1968 and were not disappointed. On the way, WLS AM radio played "Jumpin' Jack Flash", which was the first time any of us had heard that tune. I think we may have inhaled some contraband, but I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was good to be "young, dumb and full of ***!" (-to quote Mr Busey, from Point Break.) Some epic bits from this movie: 1) Richard Pryor spikes the DC water supply with LSD, resulting in a congress-full of hopelessly tripped-out Senators and Representatives. 2) Ed Begley and Shelley Winters wander about in flowing robes and caftans at the "Acid Concentration Camp" for people over 30. 3) Extremely young Billy Mumy confronting the great lout, Max Frost and declaring "We're putting everyone over 8 out of business!" 4)Diane Varsi cavorting nude in a fountain 4) Future Brady Buncher Barry Williams as the young terrorist Max. See, this is one highly-lacking-in-credibility enterprise, but you have to love it. Watch and remark to yourself how this movie could only have been made in that halcyon year, 1968. Nothing this wonderfully over-the-top crazed and ridiculously sublime has been made since nor will ever grace the screen again. For comparison (and companion) purposes, view this superb teen psychodrama in series with other 1968 befuddlements such as: "Planet of the Apes", "2001: A Space Oddysey", "Rosemary's Baby", "Putney Swope" and "The Savage Seven". Christopher Jones only immortal role was the highly Hitleresque rocker, Max Frost. Jeez, gimme the DVD already! This glorious cinematic potato is out of print!
The Sixties weren't ALL peace and love, baby
Which came first, Robert Thom's Esquire novella or his screenplay? Doesn't matter - the premise of "the youth vote" (as if it were monolithic, a consistent mistake during the Sixties) working to overthrow the establishment and creating a fully functional dystopia was a winner from the first word. Immaculately filmed despite the shoestring budget and remarkably well-acted by an amazing cast, the New York Times referred to it as the only film that year to "get it" in terms of the impact of youth culture. Academy award nomination for editing, largely from clipping what appears to be Monterey Pop footage and overlaying our presidential candidate, Max Frost. A delight then, a delight now. Nothing can change the shape of things to come.
Saw it on the Big Screen, just saw it again.
When this came out in 1968 I was 17. It made a huge impression on me then. What a wild and strange movie. I was not really ready for this movie but I liked it just the same. When Max said 14 or fight, I believed him. Of course at 17 I couldn't vote but I was facing 18 and at that time the Vietnam draft. Scary times indeed. Just the other night it was on TMC and I recorded it. I don't think I've seen it anywhere since. It was fun to watch it again, Shelly Winters looked really young, Ed Begley was perfect as the stoned out old Senator and Christopher Jones, going from rock star to politician to President and then to "old guy" played the part to a tee. The only thing about this movie I didn't care for was that it type casted Jones and he really didn't do much after this movie.
is it wrong to read this (if only in retrospect) as a jaded satire on youth culture and politics?
I was curious to read some reviews of Wild in the Streets from when it was released (i.e. Ebert's) to get an idea of what the movie was thought of at the time. There was a good line that nails what is probably at the core of the film, which is "the fascist potential of pop music," but it can be taken a step further to what the fascistic potential is of anyone who appeals to a section of the culture that can be galvanized. The movie wasn't well received- it was, granted, an AIP picture dumped on the masses as a hippie exploitation flick along the likes of Psych-Out- but now in looking back I wonder if the writer, Robert Thom (also responsible for the cult classic Death Race 2000) and director Barry Shear (mostly a TV director) were much ahead of their own audience. It skewers the old and politicians, yes, but it also skewers pop music and LSD and hedonism and even communism to a certain extent. It's a fun, absurdist nightmare 'trip' on what would happen if the "kids" took over, which leads eventually to the question: what happens when they're too old. Four sentence summary: Christopher Jones plays Max Frost, a pop star who had one of those shaky childhoods that led to a lot of acid and blowing up his parent's car. His band, a bunch of Monkeeys rip-offs (yes, that's right), are filled with a bunch of who's whos, like a 15 year old super-genius account and a black anthropologist played by Richard Pryor. At a political rally for a "youth" senator (Hal Holbrook) who wants the voting age lowered to 18, he comes up off the bat with a rallying song, "14 or fight" to lower the voting age to 14! And then everything soon spirals into a youth-controlled congress and presidency (think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with over-ecstatic flower children), with all the "old" pulled into camps where they're doped on acid and given frocks to wear. Trippy, man, trippy. Contrary to what some have said, and perhaps I read more into it than was necessary or warranted, Wild in the Streets takes a hold of its principal subjects as something that is meant to be mocked mercilessly. While nowhere near the brilliance of Network, it does have the same kind of super jaded view of humanity below the surface. Everything becomes so exaggerated that the only conceivable way to take it is as a satire; if it is meant as a "serious" look at politics and the youth culture then only a few moments stand out (actually the "Shape of Things" song is ironically powerful in the context of where it comes which is right after a few students are shot at a rally - a foreshadowing to Kent State?), but on its terms of it being a nutty but oddly lucid spoof on the political scene then it works really well. If for nothing else the cast is a hoot: Shelley Winters hams it up as the star's mother who in one scene literally crashes through security gates to get to her son who really doesn't want anything to do with her, especially after she basically kills a kid with a car! Also big props to Hal Holbrook who takes the quasi William Holdon in Network role (the one "serious" guy amid the chaos) and Ed Begley as a crusty old politico who quickly gets run out to the old-folk farm singing in circles. Along with Pryor look out for Larry Bishop and Millie Perkins. It's not high art, but Wild in the Streets has some scenes that are excruciatingly funny (I was dying during the 25 year old "chick" speaking to congress about lowering all ages to run for office to 14), and there's even some good pointers made about the state of the nation. It's exploi-satire, baby!