Alice's Restaurant

Alice's Restaurant


Starring:Arlo Guthrie, Patricia Quinn (II), James Broderick, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Michael McClanathan, Geoff Outlaw, Tina Chen, Kathleen Dabney, William Obanhein, Seth Allen, Monroe Arnold, Joseph Boley, Vinnette Carroll, Sylvia Davis, Simm Landres, Eulalie Noble, Louis Beachner, MacIntyre Dixon, Rev. Dr. Pierce Middleton
Director: Arthur Penn
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
You can get anything you want there, or so went Arlo Guthrie's song, a lengthy monologue about a Thanksgiving dinner and how its aftermath kept Guthrie out of the Vietnam-era draft. Arthur Penn's movie version, which stars Guthrie, James Broderick, and Pat Quinn, has a shambling, good-natured feel, much like Guthrie's epic tall tale. But as it follows Guthrie's adventures (he gets arrested for improper disposal of Thanksgiving garbage and the arrest renders him unfit for military service, in the draft board's eyes), it also examines the freewheeling nature of relationships in that period--and the toll that freedom took on those relationships. Guthrie is a natural performer, particularly funny during the draft board sequence; but the heart of the film is Quinn and Broderick's troubled marriage. --Marshall Fine
Alice's Restaurant
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • i wanna KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!
  • Alices Reasturant
  • Probably Get Slammed
  • Great document of the times. Less than great movie.
  • I WANNA SEE BLOOD AND GUTS AND VEINS STICKING OUTTA MY TEETH... I WANNA KIIIILLLL!!!
 Alice's Restaurant
Starring: Arlo Guthrie , Patricia Quinn (II) , James Broderick , Pete Seeger , and Lee Hays
Director: Arthur Penn
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Classic ComediesClassic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Allen, SethAllen, Seth | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Broderick, JamesBroderick, James | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Dixon, MacintyreDixon, Macintyre | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Guthrie, ArloGuthrie, Arlo | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Penn, ArthurPenn, Arthur | ( P ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
All MGM TitlesAll MGM Titles | MGM Home Entertainment | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
DVDs Under $7.49DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( A )( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Alice's Restaurant
  2. The Best of Arlo Guthrie
  3. Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited (30th Anniversary Edition)
  4. Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)
  5. Bound for Glory

ASIN: B000053VAR
Release Date: 2001-01-23

Amazon.com

You can get anything you want there, or so went Arlo Guthrie's song, a lengthy monologue about a Thanksgiving dinner and how its aftermath kept Guthrie out of the Vietnam-era draft. Arthur Penn's movie version, which stars Guthrie, James Broderick, and Pat Quinn, has a shambling, good-natured feel, much like Guthrie's epic tall tale. But as it follows Guthrie's adventures (he gets arrested for improper disposal of Thanksgiving garbage and the arrest renders him unfit for military service, in the draft board's eyes), it also examines the freewheeling nature of relationships in that period--and the toll that freedom took on those relationships. Guthrie is a natural performer, particularly funny during the draft board sequence; but the heart of the film is Quinn and Broderick's troubled marriage. --Marshall Fine

Description

"It is hard to imagine a more beautiful movie" (Time) than this critically acclaimed chronicle of hippie life during the late 1960s, which garnered the acclaimed director of Bonnie and Clyde his second Oscar(r) nomination*. Based on the song by folk music troubadour Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary "Dust Bowl" balladeer Woody Guthrie, this tribute film to "the lost generation" features memorable scenes with other folk artists like Pete Seeger, who join Arlo in song to make a profound statement about war, protest and change. In the late '60s, a changing social and political climate inspired a new generation to create a lifestyle outside of the mainstream. Twenty-two year-old Arlo's journey to find a place for himself and his music includes a visit to his dying father in the hospital, gigs in New York and romps with his friends Alice and Ray, who run a small restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. And when an incident at Alice's Restaurant plays a pivotal role inArlo's avoidance of the draft, it sends him down a road that he will consider a small price to pay to keep his freedom and his beliefs. *Arthur Penn: Director; Alice's Restaurant (1969); Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars i wanna KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!.......2007-03-30

arthur penn directed this very dark comedy which only tangentially touches on arlo guthries classic song. however, arlo is a born natural, and the rest of the cast wonderfully captures some moments of the late 60s (tho, as you listen to arlos frequently hilarious and always astute commentary track, much of the madness was a producers fantasy on how hippies actually behaved). the 20 or so minutes devoted to the events of the song (officer obie, the draft board, &c) are almost a set piece that can be removed from the rest of the film, but this is a movie that deserves to be watched every thanksgiving weekend.

5 out of 5 stars Alices Reasturant.......2007-01-16

I thought the quality of the DVD was good and it was delivered in a prompt manner

3 out of 5 stars Probably Get Slammed.......2006-12-07

I didn't like this film. I heard the song every Thanksgiving and even bought myself a copy. So when I found out about this film I rented it. It is an interesting cultural movie, but the acting is horrid throughout. This isn't a bad film, but for me the actors brought down my enjoyment. It obviously has a lot of fans who enjoy it. My dvd copy was not very clean, a number of pops and crackles in the sound and grainy film stock. I think that they should produce a nice version for the fans.

4 out of 5 stars Great document of the times. Less than great movie........2006-08-31

`Alice's Restaurant', directed by Arthur Penn, following on his great success with `Bonnie and Clyde' is a great bookend to that other 1960's cinematic document, `Easy Rider'. Both movies are less well known for their quality as works of film art as they are for statements of the counter-culture state of mind in the late 1960's.

I saw the movie when it was first released in theaters and I even bought Arlo Guthrie's `Alice's Restaurant' album (his first) when it was first released in 1967. At the time, I was not especially impressed with the quality of the movie; however the thrill of seeing the ceremonial passing of the torch from Woody Guthrie's generation, represented in the flesh by Pete Seeger, to the next generation was really nice, in spite of the irony that Arlo Guthrie was much less a standard-bearer of that torch than the far greater talents such as Bob Dylan, Richard Farina and Phil Ochs. And yet, it was Arlo that managed to capture the spirit of 1960's counterculture dropouts driven less by doctrinal zeal than by simple self-interest.

Like `Easy Rider', `Alice's Restaurant', the movie has a depressing ending, albeit not quite so tragic. If Penn and his collaborators are to be given any credit, it is that they took the sweet little story behind the 15 minute `talking blues' which was the album cut (the full first side of the album of the same name), and expand it into a morality play about great counterculture ambitions and less great drug culture dangers.

The weakest part of the movie may be the fact that at this age, Arlo Guthrie was simply did not have what it took to hold up a major role in a feature length movie. All the heavy lifting in the acting department was done by Pat Quinn as Alice and James Broderick as her husband who, together, were the earth mother and father of a loose band of hippies living, per the song, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As I recall from the newspaper stories of the day, the skeleton story was almost all true, as there was a real Alice and there was a real `Alice's Restaurant', evidenced by pictures of actresses Quinn standing beside the true to live Alice.

The foreground story, the famous Thanksgiving feast, the disposal of the refuse, the call to the draft board, and the segregation of our hero with the other of society's miscreants is funny enough, but from this distance in time, the background story of the failure of Alice and Ray's little commune is much more durable. It shows how fragile `new' value systems can be, when they don't have all the resources or support of mainstream society.

I watch this movie with great nostalgia for a milieu of which I was a part, and a great longing for the fact that like so many great `60's sentiments, they are preserved only in such greatly metamorphosed form to be almost unrecognizable.

An average movie which captures a distinctly admirable, but ephemeral spirit of years gone by.

5 out of 5 stars I WANNA SEE BLOOD AND GUTS AND VEINS STICKING OUTTA MY TEETH... I WANNA KIIIILLLL!!!.......2006-06-24

This movie was made in the late sixties, which was a time when Rock and Roll was great, but for the most part rock and roll movies weren't so great.
Arlo Guthries ALICES RESTRAUNT may be the exception (maybe one or two others..but anyway).. This movie captures the fun of that classic ARLO GUTHRIE rant, about thanksgiving, littering, and the Draft (and, check out the title of my review, that too). NOW- the live track that A.G. recorded manages to tell the whole story in seventeen minutes, and I have got to tell you, that for the years and years of hearing that tune every Thanksgiving, I had painted a somewhat different picture of the story.
The movie adds a lot of details, and extends the plot somewhat, to make it proper film length. None of this hurts in any way. Arlo Guthrie is very funny in the film (those Guthries were a witty bunch anyway) -and we get a good view of sixties subculture, from a sideview of Guthries counter culture, within a counter culture.
I used to have this on video, but my moms copied over it with the last episode of Seinfeld in the late nineties (der)... I haven't seen the movie since.
Arlo himself wrote a review for this one, asking us to please wait on this release until he releases it himself. MAN... I wanna help, but he wrote that review five years ago.
Well- if you ain't familiar with Alices Restraunt at all, you should get the CD. After all, the original story is told in song, and is capital H hillarious... (especially those mean and nasty father rapers) The movie manages to seperate itself a little from what makes the song great, but in itself, the movie is pretty great too.
Alice's Restaurant [Region 2]
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • i wanna KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!
  • Alices Reasturant
  • Probably Get Slammed
  • Great document of the times. Less than great movie.
  • I WANNA SEE BLOOD AND GUTS AND VEINS STICKING OUTTA MY TEETH... I WANNA KIIIILLLL!!!
 Alice's Restaurant [Region 2]
Starring: Arlo Guthrie , Patricia Quinn (II) , James Broderick , Pete Seeger , and Lee Hays
Director: Arthur Penn
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Allen, SethAllen, Seth | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Broderick, JamesBroderick, James | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Dixon, MacintyreDixon, Macintyre | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Guthrie, ArloGuthrie, Arlo | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Penn, ArthurPenn, Arthur | ( P ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
DVDs Under $14.99DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( A )( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Alice's Restaurant
  2. The Best of Arlo Guthrie
  3. Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited (30th Anniversary Edition)
  4. Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)
  5. Bound for Glory

ASIN: B0000AQVLH

Amazon.com

You can get anything you want there, or so went Arlo Guthrie's song, a lengthy monologue about a Thanksgiving dinner and how its aftermath kept Guthrie out of the Vietnam-era draft. Arthur Penn's movie version, which stars Guthrie, James Broderick, and Pat Quinn, has a shambling, good-natured feel, much like Guthrie's epic tall tale. But as it follows Guthrie's adventures (he gets arrested for improper disposal of Thanksgiving garbage and the arrest renders him unfit for military service, in the draft board's eyes), it also examines the freewheeling nature of relationships in that period--and the toll that freedom took on those relationships. Guthrie is a natural performer, particularly funny during the draft board sequence; but the heart of the film is Quinn and Broderick's troubled marriage. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars i wanna KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!.......2007-03-30

arthur penn directed this very dark comedy which only tangentially touches on arlo guthries classic song. however, arlo is a born natural, and the rest of the cast wonderfully captures some moments of the late 60s (tho, as you listen to arlos frequently hilarious and always astute commentary track, much of the madness was a producers fantasy on how hippies actually behaved). the 20 or so minutes devoted to the events of the song (officer obie, the draft board, &c) are almost a set piece that can be removed from the rest of the film, but this is a movie that deserves to be watched every thanksgiving weekend.

5 out of 5 stars Alices Reasturant.......2007-01-16

I thought the quality of the DVD was good and it was delivered in a prompt manner

3 out of 5 stars Probably Get Slammed.......2006-12-07

I didn't like this film. I heard the song every Thanksgiving and even bought myself a copy. So when I found out about this film I rented it. It is an interesting cultural movie, but the acting is horrid throughout. This isn't a bad film, but for me the actors brought down my enjoyment. It obviously has a lot of fans who enjoy it. My dvd copy was not very clean, a number of pops and crackles in the sound and grainy film stock. I think that they should produce a nice version for the fans.

4 out of 5 stars Great document of the times. Less than great movie........2006-08-31

`Alice's Restaurant', directed by Arthur Penn, following on his great success with `Bonnie and Clyde' is a great bookend to that other 1960's cinematic document, `Easy Rider'. Both movies are less well known for their quality as works of film art as they are for statements of the counter-culture state of mind in the late 1960's.

I saw the movie when it was first released in theaters and I even bought Arlo Guthrie's `Alice's Restaurant' album (his first) when it was first released in 1967. At the time, I was not especially impressed with the quality of the movie; however the thrill of seeing the ceremonial passing of the torch from Woody Guthrie's generation, represented in the flesh by Pete Seeger, to the next generation was really nice, in spite of the irony that Arlo Guthrie was much less a standard-bearer of that torch than the far greater talents such as Bob Dylan, Richard Farina and Phil Ochs. And yet, it was Arlo that managed to capture the spirit of 1960's counterculture dropouts driven less by doctrinal zeal than by simple self-interest.

Like `Easy Rider', `Alice's Restaurant', the movie has a depressing ending, albeit not quite so tragic. If Penn and his collaborators are to be given any credit, it is that they took the sweet little story behind the 15 minute `talking blues' which was the album cut (the full first side of the album of the same name), and expand it into a morality play about great counterculture ambitions and less great drug culture dangers.

The weakest part of the movie may be the fact that at this age, Arlo Guthrie was simply did not have what it took to hold up a major role in a feature length movie. All the heavy lifting in the acting department was done by Pat Quinn as Alice and James Broderick as her husband who, together, were the earth mother and father of a loose band of hippies living, per the song, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As I recall from the newspaper stories of the day, the skeleton story was almost all true, as there was a real Alice and there was a real `Alice's Restaurant', evidenced by pictures of actresses Quinn standing beside the true to live Alice.

The foreground story, the famous Thanksgiving feast, the disposal of the refuse, the call to the draft board, and the segregation of our hero with the other of society's miscreants is funny enough, but from this distance in time, the background story of the failure of Alice and Ray's little commune is much more durable. It shows how fragile `new' value systems can be, when they don't have all the resources or support of mainstream society.

I watch this movie with great nostalgia for a milieu of which I was a part, and a great longing for the fact that like so many great `60's sentiments, they are preserved only in such greatly metamorphosed form to be almost unrecognizable.

An average movie which captures a distinctly admirable, but ephemeral spirit of years gone by.

5 out of 5 stars I WANNA SEE BLOOD AND GUTS AND VEINS STICKING OUTTA MY TEETH... I WANNA KIIIILLLL!!!.......2006-06-24

This movie was made in the late sixties, which was a time when Rock and Roll was great, but for the most part rock and roll movies weren't so great.
Arlo Guthries ALICES RESTRAUNT may be the exception (maybe one or two others..but anyway).. This movie captures the fun of that classic ARLO GUTHRIE rant, about thanksgiving, littering, and the Draft (and, check out the title of my review, that too). NOW- the live track that A.G. recorded manages to tell the whole story in seventeen minutes, and I have got to tell you, that for the years and years of hearing that tune every Thanksgiving, I had painted a somewhat different picture of the story.
The movie adds a lot of details, and extends the plot somewhat, to make it proper film length. None of this hurts in any way. Arlo Guthrie is very funny in the film (those Guthries were a witty bunch anyway) -and we get a good view of sixties subculture, from a sideview of Guthries counter culture, within a counter culture.
I used to have this on video, but my moms copied over it with the last episode of Seinfeld in the late nineties (der)... I haven't seen the movie since.
Arlo himself wrote a review for this one, asking us to please wait on this release until he releases it himself. MAN... I wanna help, but he wrote that review five years ago.
Well- if you ain't familiar with Alices Restraunt at all, you should get the CD. After all, the original story is told in song, and is capital H hillarious... (especially those mean and nasty father rapers) The movie manages to seperate itself a little from what makes the song great, but in itself, the movie is pretty great too.

DVD:

  1. His Girl Friday
  2. Car Wash
  3. Money Talks
  4. A Slipping Down Life
  5. Monty Python Live
  6. Go
  7. My Dinner with Andre
  8. Terms of Endearment
  9. Straight-Jacket
  10. Hairspray

DVD List

DVD

DVD

That's Entertainment

The Pillow Book

American Werewolf in Paris [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Simone

Western European Archives