Hair (film)

Hair (1979) is a musical film directed by Miloš Forman and starring John Savage, Beverly d'Angelo and Treat Williams. Based on the 1967 musical of the same name, the film was nominated for the César for Best Foreign Film.

Argument

Hair is a rock musical that focuses on the lives of two young people against the backdrop of the hippie counterculture of the Vietnam era. Claude Hooper Bukowski is an innocent young man who is sent to New York City after being drafted into the army ("Age Of Aquarius"). Before joining him, Claude takes a self-guided visit to New York, where he meets a 'tribe' tight-knit group of hippies led by George Berger and Sheila Franklin, a debutante of wealthy descent ("Sodomy"). Claude later catches and rides a runaway horse, which the hippies have rented and with which Claude exhibits his skills to Sheila ('Donna'). Claude then returns the horse to Berger.

That night, Claude is stoned to death along with Berger and the tribe. He is also shown various racial and class issues of the 1960s ("Hashish", "Colored Spade", "Manchester", "I" 39;m Black/Ain't Got No'). The next morning, Berger finds a newspaper clipping that gives Sheila's address. Tribe members -LaFayette "Hud" Johnson, Jeannie Ryan and "Woof Daschund" - they organize a private party to introduce Claude and Sheila, who secretly enjoys the interruption of their rigid environment ("I Got Life"). After Berger and company are arrested, Claude uses his last $50 to bail Berger out of jail, where Woof's refusal to cut his hair leads to the soundtrack's title song ("Hair").

When Sheila can't borrow money from her father, Berger returns to her parents' house. His mother gives him enough money to rescue her friends. They later attend a peace rally in Central Park, where Claude tries acid for the first time ("LBJ", "Electric Blues/Old Fashioned Melody", "Hare Krishna" 3. 4;). Just as Jeannie proposes to Claude, to keep him out of the army, Sheila shows up to apologize. The "journey" Claude's story reflects his internal conflict over which of the three worlds he fits into: his own Oklahoma farm culture, Sheila's upper-class society, or the hippie-free environment.

After leaving his trip, Claude has a fight with Berger and the tribe members, apparently because of a practical joke they play on Sheila (stealing her clothes while she is swimming, forcing her to take a taxi in underwear), but also because of their philosophical differences over the war in Vietnam. After wandering around town ("Where Do I Go?"), Claude finally reports to the draft board, completes his enlistment, and is sent to Nevada for basic training.

It is winter in New York when Claude writes to Sheila from Nevada ("Walking In Space"). She in turn shares the news with Berger and his friends. Berger devises a plan to visit Claude in Nevada. Meanwhile, Hud's fiancee, with whom he has a son, LaFayette Jr., wants to get married as they had planned ('Easy To Be Hard'). The tribesmen trick Sheila's brother, Steve, into getting out of his car, then heading west to visit Claude.

Upon arriving at the army training center where Claude ("Three-Five-Zero-Zero", "Good Morning Starshine") is stationed, the hippies are turned away because the base is on alert (the MP on duty also assumes a condescending attitude towards Berger, caricaturing his accent). Some time later, Sheila speaks with Sergeant Fenton at a local bar. She lures the sergeant, with sexual advances, to a secluded desert road, stealing his uniform. The hippies steal Fenton's car and Berger cuts his hair and puts on the uniform (symbolically becoming a responsible adult), drives the sergeant's car to the army base. He finds Claude and offers to take his place for the next count, so that Claude can meet Sheila and the others for a farewell picnic they are having for him in the desert.

In an irony of fate, just after a disguised Claude sneaks away to the picnic, the base becomes fully activated with immediate shipments to Vietnam. Berger's ruse is not discovered; Clearly horrified at the prospect of joining the war, he is taken to the plane and boarded. Claude returns to see the base empty and the Berger plane taking off and flying towards Southeast Asia ("The Flesh Failures").

Months later, Claude, Sheila, and the tribe gather around Berger's grave at Arlington National Cemetery, in a scene where it is implied that he died in the war. While singing 'Let the Sunshine In', they mourn the loss of his friend. The film ends with what appears to be a large-scale peace protest in Washington, D.C.

Distribution

• John Savage as Claude Hooper Bukowski.
• Treat Williams like George Berger.
• Beverly D'Angelo like Sheila Franklin.
• Annie Golden like Jeannie Ryan.
• Dorsey Wright like LaFayette "Hud" Johnson.
• Don Dacus as Woof Daschund.
• Nell Carter as Central Park Singer ("Ain't Got No" and "White Boys").
• Cheryl Barnes as Hud's Promise.
• Richard Bright as Sergeant Fenton.
• Ellen Foley as a Black Boys Singer.
• Miles Chapin like Steve.
• Charlotte Rae as Lady in Pink.
• Laurie Beechman as Black Boys Singer.
• Nicholas Ray as the General.
• Michael Jeter like Woodrow Sheldon.
• Renn Woods as Girl with Flowers (Singer of "Aquarius").
• David Rose as the Acid King (unaccredited paper).

Themes

The songs "My Conviction" and "The Air" from the musical were not included and there are other various but small modifications to adapt the songs to the action.

• Aquarius (**)
• Sodomy
• Donna/Hashish
• Colored Spade
• Manchester
• Abie Baby/Fourscore
• I'm Black/Ain't Got No
• Party Music
• I Got Life
• Frank Mills
• Hair
• L. B. J.
• Electric Blues/Old Fashioned Melody
• Hare Krishna
• Where Do I Go?
• Black Boys
• White Boys
• Walking in Space
• Easy to be Hard
• 3-5-0-0
• Good Morning Starshine
• What a Piece of Work is Man
• Someone to Love
• Don't Put it Down
• The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine in