The plot of this movie is absurd, Disney-on-acid: a rock star (who sounds a lot more like a 1965 Mitch Ryder wannabe than a 1968 Cream wannabe, i.e. this film was dated from the start) connives his way to the presidency. And certain elements of the flick are just as goofy as the plot: the early scenes of Max Frost's childhood, including Shelley Winters interrupting two necking preteens by screaming "DIRTY DIRTY BOY AND A DIRTY DIRTY GIRL!!" certainly seem satirical in intent, and I don't think we're supposed it take in seriously when Max Frost belts (Ryder-style again instead of adopting the fey, faux-British accent more popular in '68): "come on and vote for Sally LeRoy! She's old enough for the Congress, boy!!" But if you watch closely, there's some nasty stuff here: massacres, suicide and forced internment, none of it presented with a light touch. So are we supposed to identify with rebel Christopher Jones (jinkies, why did he disappear so quickly after this masterpiece?), or learn the bitter lessons of appeasement from the harsh fates of poor Shelley Winters (her last scene really is horrifying) and Hal Holbrook (a Kennedyesque [!] Senator betrayed by his more liberal allies [!!] - was this movie written before or after Bobby was shot?)? I think the movie is trying to have it both ways -- pandering to the youth market by supposedly extolling revolution while pandering to the "straights" by scaring the bejesus out of them with a bunch of ruthless, power-hungry hippies. Like a lot of trash, this movie makes for better sociology than art. But it's entertaining in an idiotic way (or maybe it's idiotic in an entertaining way) and there are tons of guilty pleasures here: beautiful Diane Varsi, captured halfway down her slide from "Peyton Place" stardom to oblivion; Richard Pryor, captured halfway up his climb from Bill Cosby-style polite token to foul-mouthed, confrontational genius; Congress on acid; and "Fourteen or Fight," the only protest song in history that sounds like it was inspired by the Mitch Miller show. Not a serious film, but somehow an important one.
Review of Wild in the Streets
