In 1964, novelist Ken Kesey became one of the forefathers of the 1960s' hippie scene when he and a bunch of friends took a beat-up old school bus, painted it in psychedelic colors, loaded it up with tape decks, sleeping bags, American flags, and an undetermined amount of mind-altering drugs (including lots of LSD, which was still legal at the time...) and set off on a cross-country voyage to discover America... or whatever.
The trip was immortalized in Tom Wolfe's book, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" which transformed their spaced-out meanderings into the stuff of legend. If you read and enjoyed reading the book years ago, you will surely enjoy viewing this hilarious and informative DVD, MAGIC BUS. This is the Cold War America of the late 50s and early 60s in living color, as we watch popular tastes change from "How to Marry a Millionaire" to "Easy Rider."
This is Ground Zero for the flower-power era. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters look surprisingly clean-cut for road-tripping acid heads. They weren't really Hippies anyway; Hippies hadn't been invented yet! Old Groupies will perhaps bemoan the shortness of the film knowing that there were 30 hours of film shot on the trip. However, I would put in that perhaps this is the perfect length, because the message of it is what matters. And it matters not to the ones who went on that (larger) trip, one way or another, wishing to indulge in nostalgia and watch home movies of themselves, again. It is what Kesey says about it all that matters, and why I admire the film and him for doing it.
On one level, their adventures are ludicrous and anti-climactic...as the big trip is launched, the bus runs out of gas before they even make it off the property. They splash around in the water, they blow on instruments they can't really play, they try to make a movie with equipment they can barely operate.They decide to take acid while waiting for a tow-truck! Far f...ckin out, huh!!!
If you've never experienced psychedelic drugs, you may wonder what all the fuss was about, but, if you have tripped, then you'll appreciate the evangelical zeal that Kesey and his Pranksters felt, and will enjoy witnessing America's mind being collectively blown for the very first time. Ironically, Ken looks wholesome and benign as he urges and encourages his friends to penetrate the farthest reaches of inner space.
What happened in the 1960's that made it so cool? Something fundamental happened then that shifted American culture and created reverberations that we still continue to experience today. To those who don't mind watching scratchy, old film footage shot by amateurs and spliced together some 40 years later, this is an opportunity to experience an event that obviously sparked the classic flower power culture-up close and personal. Like many documentaries this priceless glimpse into an influential moment in time requires some determination, don't expect easy entertainment. I loved it for its time capsule significance.
Not expecting much, I was pleasantly surprised by "The Magic Bus."
In fact, I loved it. Sure some of it was filmed dramatic re-enactments, but they were faithful to reality. For example, there's footage showing "Stark Naked" as she's being lead through the halls of the hospital where she was detained. Obviously Kesey and the Pranksters weren't there to take the film footage at the time. It was staged to fill gaps in the story. But it was done perfectly, and it was necessary for continuity. It's fairly easy to tell the authentic footage from the few parts that were dramatized; it's just a matter of using common sense. Plus there's a commentary track on the DVD.
And although some of the audio dialogue was dramatized as well, it was based on transcripts of interviews; so despite these unavoidable necessities, the movie very accurately portrays the events it depicts. And many of Kesey's friends and family advised the filmmakers so it would be as true to actuality as possible. If Kesey were alive today I'm sure he would have a few criticisms of it. After all, the trip was his *creation*. He said he felt the bus trip was more of a creative accomplishment than his first two novels. He was more proud of the bus trip.
And I think most of the people who knew Kesey well were alive today they would probably love this movie. Anyway, there's a whole generation of aging hippies out there who've waited long enough! Some of the film footage and still-photos were amazingly clear, and the color was as vivid as if it had been shot yesterday. However, some of it was a little shaky, and other footage was grainy and washed out, primarily due to inadequate lighting when it was shot. You have to take the good with the bad. Overall I was overjoyed with the finished product.
Back around 1989, Jerry Garcia gave an interview for Rolling Stone Magazine that I read as soon as it came out. When he spoke of Neal Cassidy he said, "He could see around corners." The interviewer took his comment figuratively, and Garcia corrected him and said, "No, I mean it. He could actually see around corners. We'd be walking down a street and Cassidy would say, 'I'll bet you anything that we bump into 'whatsisface' just around the corner, and he would always be right." Apparently Cassidy had some kind of sixth sense.
Ken Kesey was a lucky man by any measure. According to the sociology studies made of the Haight District in late 1967 and early '68, he fits into the category of those who came from stable, loving homes and ended up being able to re-establish himself in that stabilty, where others either went off to live lives estranged from non-supportive families or wandered off to die like Cassidy did.
While taking us on that "long strange trip" that isn't over for many of the young, still out there looking for "something," Kesey manages to give us some profound food for thought. I hope this film is watched by legions of youth,and when they do, I hope they see what Kesey and everyone back then ought to have known, and that is; "We should'a known better." But then the philosopher will say that it perhaps was inevitable. Maybe it was. It takes a great deal of vision to see where and when the trip will end.
This is a mandatory film for everyone involved, but especially for those who would like to repeat the themes, thinking that a different, better result could be gained. There are certainly no more Ken Kesey's out there, just as there are no new Beatles coming from England (or anywhere). There's no reason that you can't have the music and good vibes without drugs, or gain enlightenment the old fashioned way, through travel and scholarly pursuits, and simple, clear thinking.
Ken Kesey himself was a subject for an experiment on LSD and he felt he had great ideas from the experiences. We all know the story of the Beatles and their journey through music making as a result of psychedelics but here was the start before anyone knew of the role mind expansion should take in a life. The bus made its way to the East coast operated by Californian type psychedelic users to meet up with the psychedelic gurus of the East Coast (Leary and Alpert, who were really the ones responsible for Acid's beginnings). This is a must for those wanting to go back in time to see or re-view events many us never saw. How interesting that they had filmed it and then put it all away!
What most Merry Prankster fans didn't know from reading the book was that Kesey & Co. had brought along a bunch of film equipment and shot a bunch of footage on the road. Unfortunately, Kesey and his pals knew nothing about film production, or film editing, so the project languished for years, and was abandoned for decades after the film was chopped up, chewed over and finally given up on. Contemporary documentary producers got wind of it in the last few years, however, and convinced the owners to let them re-edit the footage and condense it down into a coherent narrative, which is what you can view today. The best quote from this film is; "There are some things that take presidence over "enlightenment."
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