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Hair (film)
Encyclopedia
Hair is a 1979
American film adaptation
of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same name
about a Vietnam war
draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippie
s on his way to the army induction center. The hippies introduce him to their environment of marijuana, LSD
, unorthodox relationships and draft dodging.
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, Annie Golden
, Dorsey Wright
, Nell Carter
, Cheryl Barnes
, Richard Bright
, Ellen Foley
, Charlotte Rae
. Dance scenes were choreographed
by Twyla Tharp
and performed by the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation. The film was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture (for Williams).
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 George Berger (Treat Williams
), a young man who introduces him to debutante Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo
) when they crash a dinner party at her home. Inevitably, Claude is sent off to recruit training
in Nevada, but Berger and his band of merry pranksters including Woof Daschund (Don Dacus), LaFayette "Hud" Johnson (Dorsey Wright
), and pregnant 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.
The film ends with the main cast singing at Berger's grave.
. In the film, Claude is rewritten as an innocent draftee from Oklahoma
, newly arrived in New York to join the military. In New York, he gets caught up with the group of hippies while awaiting being sent to Army training camp. They introduce him to their psychedelic
ally-inspired style of living, and eventually drive to Nevada to visit him at a training camp. In the musical, Sheila is also an outspoken feminist leader of the Tribe who loves Berger and also Claude. In the film, she is a high-society debutante
who catches Claude's eye. In the film, Berger is not only at the heart of the hippie Tribe but is assigned some of Claude's conflict involving whether or not to obey the draft. A major plot change in the film involves a mistake that leads Berger to go to Vietnam in Claude's place, where he is killed. The musical focuses on the U.S. peace movement, as well as the love relationships among the Tribe members, while the film focuses on the carefree antics of the hippies.
The film omits the songs "The Bed", "Dead End", "Oh Great God of Power", "I Believe in Love", "Going Down", "Air", "My Conviction", "Abie Baby", "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. A few verses from the songs "Manchester, England" and a small portion of "Walking in Space" have been removed. While the songs "Don't Put It Down" and "Somebody To Love" are not sung by characters in the movie, they are both used as background or instrumental music for scenes at the army base. A new song written by MacDermot for the film is "Somebody to Love". There are several other differences from songs in the movie and as they appear on the soundtrack, mainly in omitted verses and different orchestrations. Many of the songs have been shortened, sped up, rearranged, or assigned to different characters to allow for the differences in plot. A change in tone is the arrangement of "Walking in Space", a triumphant song about an acid trip, set to a montage of scenes depicting Claude's post-draft military training. Notably, the song was accompanied by an uncredited Betty Buckley
, who was responsible for the overdubbed lyrics of singer Linda Surh, playing a Vietnamese girl.
, were unhappy with the film adaptation, saying it 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. They stated: "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.
Nevertheless, the film received generally favorable reviews from film critics at the time of its release. 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." Frank Rich
said the "if ever a project looked doomed, it was this one" (referring to the "largely plotless" and dated musical upon which it was based, Forman's and Tharp's
lack of movie musical experience, the "largely unproven cast" and the film's "grand budget"); in spite of these obstacles, "Hair succeeds at all levels—as lowdown fun, as affecting drama, as exhilarating spectacle and as provocative social observation. It achieves its goals by rigorously obeying the rules of classic American musical comedy: dialogue, plot, song and dance blend seamlessly to create a juggernaut of excitement. Though every cut and camera angle in Hair appears to have been carefully conceived, the total effect is spontaneous. Like the best movie musicals of the '50s (Singin' in the Rain
) and the '60s (A Hard Day's Night
), Hair leaps from one number to the next. Soon the audience is leaping too." According to Time Out, the film is a "smug, banal fairytale-with-a-message, redeemed only by the intermittently imaginative staging of the songs"; it "sound[s], and for the most part look[s], like a National Lampoon
parody of some ghastly Swinging Sixties compendium."
The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
.
, the film was nominated for a Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Williams was nominated for New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male. The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Film
at the 1980 César Awards
, losing to Woody Allen
's Manhattan
.
Years later, Forman cited his loss of his moral rights to the film to the studio as eventually leading to his 1997 John Huston Award for Artists Rights from the Film Foundation
:
1979 in film
The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
American film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same name
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
about a Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s on his way to the army induction center. The hippies introduce him to their environment of marijuana, LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
, unorthodox relationships and draft dodging.
The film was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Miloš Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
, who was nominated for a César Award
César Award for Best Foreign Film
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Foreign Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
for his work on the film. Cast members include Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
, John Savage
John Savage (actor)
John Savage is an American film actor, producer, production manager, and composer.- Acting career :...
, Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
, Don Dacus, Annie Golden
Annie Golden
-Career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, Golden began her career as the lead singer of The Shirts . During the early 1990s she performed as part of the duo Golden Carillo with Frank Carillo. They released three albums,Fire in Newtown, Toxic Emotion, and Back for More. She then returned to The Shirts...
, Dorsey Wright
Dorsey Wright
Dorsey Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Cleon in the 1979 film The Warriors.Wright was born in The Bronx, New York City in 1957 and earned his first acting role in 1979, in The Warriors, for which he is best remembered. He also co-starred in the film version of Hair that...
, Nell Carter
Nell Carter
Nell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin, as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television...
, Cheryl Barnes
Cheryl Barnes
Cheryl Barnes is a singer who starred in Miloš Forman’s film adaptation of Hair as the mother of Hud’s little son.Cheryl gave an audition when she showed up at an open casting call. She had no agent and was working as a maid in a motel in Maine. Her song "Easy to Be Hard" took only one take and...
, Richard Bright
Richard Bright (actor)
Richard James Bright was an American actor best known for his role as Al Neri in the The Godfather films.-Early life & work:...
, Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
, Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
. Dance scenes were choreographed
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
by Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
and performed by the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation. The film was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture (for Williams).
Plot
A naive farm boy from OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
named Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage
John Savage (actor)
John Savage is an American film actor, producer, production manager, and composer.- Acting career :...
) heads to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to enter the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and serve in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, he meets a troupe of free-spirited hippies led by George Berger (Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
), a young man who introduces him to debutante Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
) when they crash a dinner party at her home. Inevitably, Claude is sent off to recruit training
Recruit training
Recruit training, more commonly known as Basic Training and colloquially called Boot Camp, is the initial indoctrination and instruction given to new military personnel, enlisted and officer...
in Nevada, but Berger and his band of merry pranksters including Woof Daschund (Don Dacus), LaFayette "Hud" Johnson (Dorsey Wright
Dorsey Wright
Dorsey Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Cleon in the 1979 film The Warriors.Wright was born in The Bronx, New York City in 1957 and earned his first acting role in 1979, in The Warriors, for which he is best remembered. He also co-starred in the film version of Hair that...
), and pregnant Jeannie Ryan (Annie Golden
Annie Golden
-Career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, Golden began her career as the lead singer of The Shirts . During the early 1990s she performed as part of the duo Golden Carillo with Frank Carillo. They released three albums,Fire in Newtown, Toxic Emotion, and Back for More. She then returned to The Shirts...
) follow him. Sheila flirts with an off-duty Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
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
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, taking Berger with them.
The film ends with the main cast singing at Berger's grave.
Cast
- John SavageJohn Savage (actor)John Savage is an American film actor, producer, production manager, and composer.- Acting career :...
as Claude Hooper Bukowski - Treat WilliamsTreat WilliamsRichard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
as George Berger - Beverly D'AngeloBeverly D'AngeloBeverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
as Sheila Franklin - Don Dacus as Woof Daschund
- Annie GoldenAnnie Golden-Career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, Golden began her career as the lead singer of The Shirts . During the early 1990s she performed as part of the duo Golden Carillo with Frank Carillo. They released three albums,Fire in Newtown, Toxic Emotion, and Back for More. She then returned to The Shirts...
as Jeannie Ryan - Dorsey WrightDorsey WrightDorsey Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Cleon in the 1979 film The Warriors.Wright was born in The Bronx, New York City in 1957 and earned his first acting role in 1979, in The Warriors, for which he is best remembered. He also co-starred in the film version of Hair that...
as LaFayette "Hud" Johnson - Nell CarterNell CarterNell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin, as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television...
as Ain't Got No / White Boys - Cheryl BarnesCheryl BarnesCheryl Barnes is a singer who starred in Miloš Forman’s film adaptation of Hair as the mother of Hud’s little son.Cheryl gave an audition when she showed up at an open casting call. She had no agent and was working as a maid in a motel in Maine. Her song "Easy to Be Hard" took only one take and...
as Hud's fiancée - Richard BrightRichard Bright (actor)Richard James Bright was an American actor best known for his role as Al Neri in the The Godfather films.-Early life & work:...
as Fenton - Ellen FoleyEllen FoleyEllen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
as Black Boys - Charlotte RaeCharlotte RaeCharlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
as Lady in Pink - Laurie BeechmanLaurie BeechmanLaurie Hope Beechman was an American singer. As a performer, she was known for her Broadway performances in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats, and Les Misérables...
as Black Boys - Nicholas RayNicholas RayNicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
as The General - Michael JeterMichael JeterMichael Jeter was an American actor.- Early life :Michael Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. His mother, Virginia , was a housewife...
as Sheldon
Differences from original version
The plot is greatly changed in the film. In the musical, Claude is a member of a hippie "Tribe" sharing a New York apartment, leading a bohemian lifestyle, enjoying "free love" and rebelling against his parents and the draft; but he eventually goes to VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. In the film, Claude is rewritten as an innocent draftee from Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, newly arrived in New York to join the military. In New York, he gets caught up with the group of hippies while awaiting being sent to Army training camp. They introduce him to their psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
ally-inspired style of living, and eventually drive to Nevada to visit him at a training camp. In the musical, Sheila is also an outspoken feminist leader of the Tribe who loves Berger and also Claude. In the film, she is a high-society debutante
Debutante
A débutante is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. It should not be confused with a Debs...
who catches Claude's eye. In the film, Berger is not only at the heart of the hippie Tribe but is assigned some of Claude's conflict involving whether or not to obey the draft. A major plot change in the film involves a mistake that leads Berger to go to Vietnam in Claude's place, where he is killed. The musical focuses on the U.S. peace movement, as well as the love relationships among the Tribe members, while the film focuses on the carefree antics of the hippies.
The film omits the songs "The Bed", "Dead End", "Oh Great God of Power", "I Believe in Love", "Going Down", "Air", "My Conviction", "Abie Baby", "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
Hair: Original Soundtrack Recording
Hair: Original Soundtrack Recording is the soundtrack album from the 1979 musical film Hair. It was released on the RCA label. A few verses from "Manchester, England" and a small portion of "Walking in Space" have been removed...
, although they were omitted on the 1990 reissue. A few verses from the songs "Manchester, England" and a small portion of "Walking in Space" have been removed. While the songs "Don't Put It Down" and "Somebody To Love" are not sung by characters in the movie, they are both used as background or instrumental music for scenes at the army base. A new song written by MacDermot for the film is "Somebody to Love". There are several other differences from songs in the movie and as they appear on the soundtrack, mainly in omitted verses and different orchestrations. Many of the songs have been shortened, sped up, rearranged, or assigned to different characters to allow for the differences in plot. A change in tone is the arrangement of "Walking in Space", a triumphant song about an acid trip, set to a montage of scenes depicting Claude's post-draft military training. Notably, the song was accompanied by an uncredited Betty Buckley
Betty Buckley
Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...
, who was responsible for the overdubbed lyrics of singer Linda Surh, playing a Vietnamese girl.
Reaction
James Rado and Gerome Ragni, who wrote the original musicalHair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
, were unhappy with the film adaptation, saying it 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. They stated: "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.
Nevertheless, the film received generally favorable reviews from film critics at the time of its release. Writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
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." Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
said the "if ever a project looked doomed, it was this one" (referring to the "largely plotless" and dated musical upon which it was based, Forman's and Tharp's
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
lack of movie musical experience, the "largely unproven cast" and the film's "grand budget"); in spite of these obstacles, "Hair succeeds at all levels—as lowdown fun, as affecting drama, as exhilarating spectacle and as provocative social observation. It achieves its goals by rigorously obeying the rules of classic American musical comedy: dialogue, plot, song and dance blend seamlessly to create a juggernaut of excitement. Though every cut and camera angle in Hair appears to have been carefully conceived, the total effect is spontaneous. Like the best movie musicals of the '50s (Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography...
) and the '60s (A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
), Hair leaps from one number to the next. Soon the audience is leaping too." According to Time Out, the film is a "smug, banal fairytale-with-a-message, redeemed only by the intermittently imaginative staging of the songs"; it "sound[s], and for the most part look[s], like a National Lampoon
National Lampoon
National Lampoon was both a ground-breaking American humor magazine and also a wide range of productions directly associated with that magazine. The magazine ran from 1970 to 1998, and was originally a spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon....
parody of some ghastly Swinging Sixties compendium."
The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
1979 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Françoise Sagan *Sergio Amidei *Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud *Luis García Berlanga *Maurice Bessy *Paul Claudon *Jules Dassin *Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács...
.
Awards
At the 37th Golden Globe Awards37th Golden Globe Awards
The 37th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1979, were held on 26 January 1980.-Best Actor - Drama: Dustin Hoffman – Kramer vs...
, the film was nominated for a Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Williams was nominated for New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male. The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Film
César Award for Best Foreign Film
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Foreign Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
at the 1980 César Awards
César Awards 1980
The 1980 César Awards were hosted by Jean Marais. The winners were:*Best Film:Tess, directed by Roman PolanskiClair de Femme directed by Costa GavrasDon Giovanni, directed by Joseph LoseyI.....
, losing to Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's Manhattan
Manhattan (film)
Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen about a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl before eventually falling in love with his best friend's mistress...
.
Years later, Forman cited his loss of his moral rights to the film to the studio as eventually leading to his 1997 John Huston Award for Artists Rights from the Film Foundation
The Film Foundation
The Film Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation founded by director Martin Scorsese in 1990.-External links:*...
:
- What was behind that [award] was that one day I had in my contract that when the studio wants to sell Hair ...to the network but they have to have my, you know, consent or how would they...what they do with it. But I didn't have this, so what they did, they didn't sell it to the network, the sold it to syndicated television where I didn't have that right. What happened: the film played on 115 syndicated stations practically all over the United States, and it's a musical. Out of 22 musical numbers, 11 musical numbers were cut out from the film, and yet it was still presented as a Milos Forman film, Hair. It was totally incomprehensible, jibberish, butchered beyond belief...
Soundtrack
External links
- Trailer from trailerfan.com