Head: The Monkees Riff on Their Legacy

Don't ask me how, but I had never seen Bob Rafelson's cult favorite Head (1968), the movie that exploded and disrupted the Monkees' legacy as the prefab four. I love the psych-laden soundtrack, particularly "The Porpoise Song" which presents a typical Monkees melody with psychedelically appropriate lyrics.The song's appearance early in the film offers a good entry point as it reaffirms how Rafelson and co-writer Jack Nicholson analyze and invert the television Monkees and their humorous quests. Indeed, the movie takes typical show plot points and changes them into something even stranger. In the first scenes of the film, the four Monkees, Peter, Mike, Davy and Micky, run through the officials who are dedicating a bridge. Often, the show shows them running around in a more positive manner. As they fall into the water, the song plays while the band sinks into a psychedelic montage of lights. The film ends in the same spot, perhaps signifying the failures of the band and the music industry that simultaneously sold the band as a product and did not allow them to make the art they wanted to create. 

The film's atypical plot presents a series of seemingly unrelated scenes that drop the band into various generic plots that mimic a viewer flipping through the channels. Throughout, the Big "Victor" (Victor Mature) chases the band. While not every vignette works as comedy, the film interestingly plays with pop culture legacies and boy band and movie tropes. The Monkees are not heroes necessarily, but they navigate the divide between art and commerce, searching for meaning among the disparate plot points, and literal boxes that continually trap them. Each time they attempt to break out and show their talents, they are trapped.

As a swan song and stream-of-conscious continuation of the show, Head finds success in its continual reworking of the band's story as talented people trapped in a system that uses them. They become successful through commitment and conformity, but even when they break out of the mold as artists, they must leave the trappings of the brand behind or never make it on their own. How it lampoons each member's band role supports this. Each Monkee dresses more like their actual selves without the matching outfits -- I miss Mike's trademark hat but know he never wanted to keep wearing it. They also lampoon who they are as figures within the band. Davy going from dancer to boxer is particularly effective while Micky shines as the obvious front man doing battle with tanks. The band never expected the renewed fame they received when MTV reran the show in the 1980s. As a revival era fan of the show and someone who loves the Rafelson and Nicholson collaborations, I highly recommend this one.  It takes the Beatles film proto-video formula and adds a healthy dose of New Hollywood weirdness while anticipating Monty Python and other Nesmith ventures like Tapeheads (1988). For the average viewer, the film is fun for the celebrity cameos, which include Frank Zappa discussing Davy's talent, Annette Funicello, and Dennis Hopper. The oddball humor is a plus, and it works at least as often as Python or SNL.