Go Ask Alice

I hope the movie is released one of these days because it would definitely bring back memories. I have not seen it since I was in Junior High School in the late '70's (they used to show it at school, perhaps as a scare tactic) but I still remember the book and the movie as having a profound influence on why I never touched drugs. I now understand this was not a true story but at the time I couldn't get over "Alice's" story and the consequences of using drugs. I still own a copy of the book and re-read it from time to time. I would love to see the movie again but wouldn't be surprised if I found it very dated and wonder why it affected me so much back then.

The movie was decent, but it left so much of the amazing imagery out. Also, the book really examines Alice's relationships with people and her feelings of loneliness. The movie was not personal enough. There is an intimacy in reading Alice's diary that draws you in and makes you really experience what she felt. I thought the movie approached this too much as a public service announcement.

I remember watching this with my sister and parents when it was first broadcast on TV. For it's time it pushed the envelope though realizing by today's standards it's kitschy with innuendo and a carefully crafted script to keep it within broadcast standards of the time. It was very good, and did a fair job of scaring some kids to not try drugs. I think the most our group did as teens was 8 people sharing a joint which had no effect; though, sadly I did know friends and kids in school to totally screw up with drugs, a couple died. It served it;s purpose at the time, it would be fodder to today's teens that hear much worse watching television commercials, that are barraged worse than the drug culture of the late 60's early 70's. I love Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplanes original version of Go Ask Alice "White Rabbit" which they did not use in the film.

In the early 1970s, America was still in denial about drugs. Like the parents of Alice in this film, "other" kids use drugs and the risk to their own kids is minimal. So, this film where the fictionalized "girl next door" and her fall into drug dependence is meant to wake up folks to the potential horrors of drugs.

Jamie Smith-Jackson stars as Alice, though oddly established actors like William Shatner, Ruth Roman and Julia Adams are listed at the top of the credits--and Jamie in the middle. I say this is odd because Shatner, Roman and Adams really were barely in the movie at all and the film is about Alice! As for these screen veterans, Shatner and Adams especially did great impersonations of blocks of wood. Perhaps the film made them too out of it--and they were a bit hard to believe as their characters weren't fully established. As for newcomer Smith-Jackson, she did a pretty good job helming this film.

The big star of the film, however, is the writing. The story didn't come off as trite or that whitewashed (at least for a made for TV movie) and was good entertainment and a nice public warning about drugs. A very good and well made film overall. And, considering I have worked in drug rehab and with prison populations, I have seen first hand the horrors that might befall those who make the choice to use drugs of all types--including alcohol.

When this film first came out I watched it and it scared the crap out of me. There are a few movies in my life that had a real impact on me and this was one of them. I hadn't seen it since then but recently watched it again and thought I didn't understand really why although saying that when I hear the music that was played during it sang by Grace Slick I still get that sinking, sad, depressed feeling that it originally gave me. Is the quality great compared to today's movies? No, I can't say it is and I've seen better telling of this type of story. Is the acting the best? No, again seen better? Is the storyline based on half-truths? Yes it is. Did it do it's job to scare the crap out of me when I was a youngster. Heck yes and I think was a big influence in the fact that now at 48 years old, almost 49, I never touched a drug in my life. So it may not have been the best acting, most truthfully storyline, the best quality but I think in it's way it saved many of us from ever even thinking about starting down the path of drugs.