Movie review in a minute: The Trip (1967)

 1 out of 5 stars


The Trip (1967) is a cult film  directed by Roger Corman, written by Jack Nicholson and stars Peter Fonda  as a young television commercial director, Dennis Hopper plays his dealer and Bruce Dern his friend who gets him to try LSD. Susan Strasberg plays his soon to be ex wife.

Peter Fonda is great. He was always great. He almost made this film worth watching. Almost. He had already tried LSD in real life and he clearly portrayed the "bad acid trip" very well. Kudos to him, as always. It is easy to see that acting was in their blood. From Henry Fonda, to Peter and Jane Fonda and down to Bridget, they are natural actors.

Dennis Hopper was a great actor, but he did nothing in this role. 

Bruce Dern overacted as usual. His character was flat..as flat as the dialogue of this whole movie, which made no sense from start to finish.

Jack Nicholson wrote the original screenplay. Corman encouraged Nicholson's experimental writing style and gives between 80 and 90 percent credit to Nicholson for the shooting script  Jack was a great actor, but a pretty lousy writer.

Directed by Roger Corman, the movie was overtly made in a way to help the viewer experience what it is like to be on an "acid trip". Corman wildly edited some scenes for The Trip, particularly the exterior night scenes on the Sunset Strip, to simulate the LSD user's racing mind. 

I guess you would have to be on an acid trip to get this movie.  About half way through, I wished I was, so I could forget I was watching it. The movie made no sense whatsoever. Even the nudity and sex scenes were wasted with the over produced acid trip psychedelic light show that was used in scene after scene. Just about every scene has nothing to do with the other and makes no sense. 

Maybe if you have done LSD you would get this movie, but otherwise, it is very hard to watch.


The movie was a big commercial success, being made for $450,000 and taking in 10 million. It spawned many movies of that genre afterwards, most notably Easy Rider, which brought together Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson again, in a much different way and tone to this movie.
 

I would advise you to skip this one, and watch better movies about the effects of drugs on "regular" people, namely Joe (1970) and/or Panic In Needle Park (1971).

 Below is a glowing review, which I did not agree with.


http://moria.co.nz/fantasy/trip-1967.htm