Co-written by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson during a substance-fueled brainstorming session with The Monkees, HEAD is a uniquely American anti-war satire, juxtaposing the quartet’s endearing levity against the dark heart of the Vietnam War. The film crashed and burned upon release but has since attained a respectable cult following thanks to new generations of fans nostalgic for its supremely 1960s experimental pop-art decadence.

For the first time in The Monkees’ short career, members Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork performed the film’s musical numbers with trained musician Michael Nesmith.

With cameos from Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Frank Zappa (as well as Nicholson), The Monkees trip along to their own psychedelic musical, rebelling against the real-life confines of their television contracts and personas while letting their freak flag fly.

“...Might be a film to see if you have been smoking grass or if you like to scream at the Monkees, or if you are interested in what interests drifting heads and hysteric high-school girls…. The movie is, nonetheless, of a certain fascination in its joining of two styles: pot and advertising…. The esthetic marijuana world is bound to come out importantly in films one way or another. This sort of movie may be testing the ground.” —Renata Adler and Vincent Canby, New York Times (Nov 1968)

“HEAD is a series of linked vignettes, more in the anarchic, fourth-wall-demolishing spirit of Looney Tunes or old silent movies than anything else that hit theaters that year…. Without particularly meaning to be, and without resorting to cliches about acid or flower power, HEAD is an almost perfect snapshot of the state of the counter-culture in 1968…. More than that, though, it's just a good movie — five decades haven't dulled its anger, its color, its sadness, its blazing weirdness.” —Petra Mayer, NPR

The Belcourt Theatre does not provide advisories about subject matter or potential triggering content, as sensitivities vary from person to person.

Beyond the synopses, trailers and review links on our website, other sources of information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media and IMDb, as well as through general internet searches.