I can almost reproduce the "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" from memory, but I never saw this film back in the day or since. I just watched it, and it was quite a surprise. It has a tone which is quite alien to Arlo's own tone as a performer at the time. Arlo sang back then as a cheerful, confident comic voice with a political subtext a millimeter below the surface, rallying the movement. The film is dark and depressing in many spots, and in the other spots it is really a scathing portrait of Arlo and (male) hippiedom as selfish privileged irrelevant sexist jerks (truthfully there was a lot of this), isolated in a land of violent intolerant yahoos.

(Which means, I suppose, that most people in America in 2017 will find it relevant, since they can enjoy the negative caricatures of their enemies as long as they are willing to ignore the negative caricatures of themselves. This continued relevance is part of why I rated it as high as I did!)

Jarred by all this, I looked up the film afterwards on Wikipedia and discovered that Arlo had nothing to do with the script, which was basically Arthur Penn's work. (On the other hand, he decided to act in it!) There are more parallels with "Bonnie and Clyde", considering both as crime movies, than you would think! There are a lot of notable editorial decisions, such as:

• So far as we can tell, the movie Arlo has few political beliefs, and wants to get out of the draft by any possible means just because he doesn't want to go.

• The movie starts off with Arlo fighting the draft by trying to make the Black clerk's day miserable with his snarky answers.

• The whole movie is framed within the months of Woody Guthrie's dying of Huntington's chorea (displaced in time, btw).

• To bring down the tone further, Shelly, a heroin-addicted friend of Arlo's, is invented and treated as pitiable and doomed.

• Ray Brock is portrayed as sexist, verbally abusive toward Alice, and verbally and physically abusive toward Shelley. (Women in general have little to say or do in this movie except sleep with the male characters. Alice is portrayed as basically reacting ineffectually to the chaos around her.)

• Although the title song was sung by the real-life Arlo as a rallying cry for anti-war and anti-draft mass action, none of this comes into the film at all.

With its scenes of cars and motorcycles gunning down the road, its voice overs from a youthful Arlo Guthrie, its attempts at humor, and its generally nonchalant tone, "Alice's Restaurant" may strike some viewers as nothing more than the hippie version of "The Dukes Of Hazard". Why was this film made? What's the point?

In 1969, the film's creators assumed that viewers "got it" ... the clothes, the lingo, the character's motivations, ... ergo, no explanations needed. And none were needed then, or so long as the political and social environment of 1969 continued.

But it didn't continue. The world changed. America changed. Now, 36 years later, the film's clownish images and vapid script suggest a cinematic shallowness, bordering on burlesque, rather than an effort to impart a meaningful message. We are thus forced to consult historical points of reference, to make sense of what we see and hear.

In this film, as in other 60's counterculture films like "Easy Rider", the plot is secondary. To tell a story is less important than to communicate a powerful philosophy. Invariably, that philosophy would include some reference to personal freedom, resentment of institutional authority, peace, and non-materialistic values.

In "Alice's Restaurant", therefore, the clothes, the lingo, and the character's motivations are expressions of that "Age Of Aquarius" philosophy. Had the film's creators explained, by way of script or visuals, the underlying rationale for this philosophy, they could have rendered a timeless message to future generations.

As it is, the film now has mostly nostalgic appeal to older viewers who need no explanations. To young viewers, who lack historical reference points, the film may seem like some quaint period piece, that has almost no relevance, in an era of capitalistic exploitation and lost idealism.

Based on his folk song, Arlo Guthrie plays himself. He's facing the draft and joining the counter-culture. His father is in the hospital with dementia. He encounters and befriends various people. He and his friend are arrested for a massive case of littering but they get off easy as the blind judge fails to see the evidence. He's called up for the draft but his littering conviction keeps him out of the war.

Arlo Guthrie and his song come from a time and place. I'm not familiar with it. I'm sure there is great meaning to some of this film. I'm not privy to it. To me, it's simply a rambling journey following a less-than-charismatic lead. He's not really an actor. He's playing himself in the most casual way. This is a time capsule of a certain time. It meanders too much to be a compelling narrative but it does have some interesting aspects. It's respectful of the counter-culture. There are a few funny cute moments. The second half is more surreal and therefore much better. This is one weird movie.