By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.3
Director: Alex Gibney | Allison Ellwood
Country: united_states
Year: 2011
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235790/
Chris says: “If nothing else, see MAGIC TRIP for its amazing archival footage of Ken Kesey and his ‘Merry Band of Pranksters’ on their infamous 1964 cross-country bus trip. They filmed hours and hours of footage along the way, but never edited it into a complete, watchable film as the sound was out of sync and mostly unintelligible. Directors Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood have molded this footage into a documentary, with new narration and interviews with some of the original participants (some of them voiced by actors) serving as its soundtrack. The trip’s purpose was to travel from San Francisco to New York to see the 1964 World’s Fair and get a record of the country along the way; that most of the Pranksters took liberal doses of LSD transformed the whole shebang into something more, anticipating and indirectly birthing the counterculture movement.
“Instead of focusing solely on the trip, the film puts Kesey front and center. We get lengthy tangents about Kesey’s middle-class upbringing, his fame as author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and his participation in a CIA-financed study on the effects of psychoactive drugs, which inspired his literary work and led to him exposing the Pranksters to LSD (among other drugs). Kesey’s narrative fully registers, but as the focus shifts to the other Pranksters, it’s occasionally difficult telling them apart. As for the actors doing the voiceovers, some fit the actual person onscreen far better than others. As always, Gibney is an entertaining, if somewhat impersonal director–sort of like a hipper Ken Burns. Despite the engrossing footage and attractive frame it’s placed into, MAGIC TRIP meanders on a bit too long and feels muddled by its end. Although it has no pictures, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test remains this trip’s definitive account. 3 cats”
Diane says: “MAGIC TRIP is a doc about the cross-country bus trip by Ken Kesey and the Merry Band of Pranksters from the coast of Oregon to the 1964 World’s Fair in NY. Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood, who transformed the raw footage, did a heck of a job. The film and sound quality weren’t very good, so they use stills quite a bit and well, and if I understood the credits correctly, had actors narrate from the perspective of the Pranksters. They added appropriate psychedelic animation and some manufactured scenes.
“Kerouac’s sober (not technically) appearance at the NY end of the trip highlights how silly and self-indulgent the Pranksters were. Loved the shots of NYers smiling at the bus as it drove through the city. A bit of longeur in the section about the aftermath of the trip, and the country’s changing attitude toward LSD. I much preferred the material about how the trippers handled the stress on their relationships.
“Just right for your needed dose of the historical countercultural-hallucinogenic-literary scene. 3 cats”
Tony says: “At the end of this movie the credits say that it was ‘based on’ the writings of Ken Kesey. My life is based on the teachings of Bob Keeshan. That don’t make me fucking Captain Kangaroo. 1 cat for preserving old footage.”