Hair (1979)

 'Hair' is director Milos Forman's ('Amadeus', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Man on the Moon') adaption of the hit counter culture musical of the late 60's. You likely know many of the songs which have become staples like 'Let the Sunshine In', 'Good Morning Starshine' and the titular 'Hair', but you likely don't know the others in part because many of them are vulgar. You also likely don't know the plot, which is about a young man from Oklahoma (John Savage) who visits New York City prior to reporting for army service and befriends a group of hippies (lead by the recently departed Treat Williams, who can really sing and dance) and falls in love with a young socialite (Beverly D'Angelo, who while quite striking is a little old for the part, she is also nude a surprising amount in this).

I thought the movie worked, as unusual as it is at places. Having seen it in film form I find it a little hard to imagine how you could do it justice on stage, this adaption feels quite liberated from those constraints. The main cast has a real chemistry together and there are a number of faces I found fun to recognize in the supporting players, including Charlotte Ray, a young Micheal Jetter and a literally dying Nicholas Ray who passed three months after this film came out. Despite being a late adaption of a topical show it still did extremely well at the box office, $38 million off $11 million. Though the story has been around for decades I somehow did not see that ending coming. ***