Between "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man," Arthur Penn shot this 1969 dramatization of Arlo Guthrie's famous song/monologue, "The Alice's Restaurant Massacre," which fills the airwaves every Thanksgiving. Guthrie plays himself as he visits his friend Alice in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, agrees as a favor to take her trash to the dump, finds the dump closed, and drops the load on a heap of other garbage. The local sheriff discovers this massive case of littering and a manhunt, arrest, and court appearance ensues -- which events came back to haunt Guthrie when he gets called up for the draft. This "slice of hippy life" has its funny and haunting moments -- a visit to his dying father Woody Guthrie (played by Joseph Boley), the burial in a light New England snowfall of a friend who died of a heroin overdose -- but is a bit aimless. Watch for M. Emmet Walsh as the infamous Group W sergeant. Patricia Quinn plays Alice Brock, and the real Alice appears several times briefly as "Suzy."
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
