Alice's Restaurant

1969
R
1h 51m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

A cinematic adaption of Arlo Guthrie's classic song story.

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1 Video

99+ Photos

Satire Comedy Drama Music

A cinematic adaption of Arlo Guthrie's classic story-song.A cinematic adaption of Arlo Guthrie's classic story-song.A cinematic adaption of Arlo Guthrie's classic story-song.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 4 nominations total

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
After discovering that the character "Officer Obie" was modeled after him, actual Stockbridge (Massachusetts) Sheriff William Obanhein demanded that he play the role himself. His reason: "If anyone is going to make a fool out of me, it might as well be me!"

Goofs
32'45'': Flipped shot: the bulb is on Officer Obie's right, and the word "chief" on Obie's hat appears like in a mirror. Two shots later, the bulb is on the left, and the hat reads "chief" in normal letters.

Quotes
Arlo: Group W is where they put ya if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committin' your special crime. There was all kinds of mean, nasty ugly-lookin' people on the bench there. There was mother rapers... father stabbers... father rapers... Father rapers! Sittin' right there on the bench next to me!

Alternate versions
Originally rated "R" when released in 1969. In 1970 the film was re-edited to be re-rated "GP" by the MPAA.

Connections
Featured in Arthur Penn (1995)

Soundtracks
Pastures of Plenty
Written by Woody Guthrie
Performed by Pete Seeger (uncredited) and Arlo Guthrie (uncredited)

This excellent film was written by my late screen writing teacher Venable Herndon, but I saw it and fell in love with it long before I took his class.

It manages to be both good humored and effortlessly profound at the same time. The recruitment scenes are hysterically funny. I miss movies with this laid-back quality. A lot of people are adverse to this type of loose narrative structure, but since almost every flick and TV show has such a rigid structure why can't the rest of us have a couple of films to ourselves.

The final shot of Alice's Restaurant with all its beautiful ambiguity has affected me more than the final shot of the "Searchers" every time I've seen it. It manages to celebrate something and take it with a grain of salt at the same time. Hurrah for the director of photography!

A beautiful trip all round.