University of Virginia Library

'Alice's Restaurant': Sensitive
Treatment Of Beautiful People

By Carl Erickson
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The third partner of the grand
troika of youth films, 1968 style,
has at last reached The University
Theatre. First came "Easy Rider,"
with its simplistic denigration of
American society. Then Frank
Perry showed us in "The Last
Summer" all the emotional
inconsistencies found in youthful
relationships. Now Arthur Penn's
"Alice's Restaurant" gives us the
most stylistic and sensitive
treatment yet of today's "beautiful
people."

Texture Of Awareness

Sensitivity, in fact, is the name
of Mr. Penn's game. His direction is
a fine texture of awareness, of his
character's changing moods, of his
audience's sense of entertainment.
Paradoxically, Penn's sensitivity
does not prevent him from making
an objective statement about
human relationships in a
fast-moving, thrill-seeking world. In
that final panning shot, which
composes the most expressively
beautiful ending you will find in
any American film of recent years,
"Alice's Restaurant," the movie,
the restaurant, the hip church is
over.

Penn, with all his emotional
awareness, refuses to follow the
simplistic path of Hopper when
dealing with people's relations with
each other and the feelings
involved. Each character is too
complex to be categorized. Feelings
change. The wildly joyous wedding
scene ends abruptly in uncertain
melancholy. When Arlo is thrown
out of a window by some local
dimestore, cowboys the audience is
not allowed to luxuriate in hatred
of a distinct target. Arlo makes a
humorous quip and the film rolls
along.

It is simplicity that Penn
attacks. All of Ray's dreams tumble
not because they are too idealistic
but because he falls to realize the
complexities of human behavior.
Alice's Restaurant cannot work if
waiter's and cooks leave. Yet Ray
just wants to go swimming. Gather
one house (church) and friction will
develop. Yet Ray maintains that all
will be groovy now that they have
found a place where one can do
what he wants. Individual
relationships do not matter: Ray is
only concerned with achieving
collective good vibrations. Alice
stands alone in the final scene: Ray
is back inside the church
undoubtedly reassuring everyone
that they are all very beautiful.

Aspects Of Life

"Alice's Restaurant" is a
successful work of art easily
superior to "Easy Rider" and "Last
Summer" simply because Penn has
succeeded in capturing so many
aspects of life. He has interwoven
the visual splendor, the zaniness,
as many hips as you can find into
the tragedy, the uncertainty, the
ludicrousness, the sentimentality
without the aid of sensationalism.
All of these qualities appear on the
screen in layers, one on top of the
other. Penn juggles the layers now
placing one in full view, now
another, but at all times sensing the
underlying strata. As a result
"Alice's Restaurant is at the time
thought provoking and entertaining
qualities which up until now have
only been characteristic of
European films of the Truffant,
Godard, Bunuel, Bergman genre.

"Alice's Restaurant" is not a
happy movie not a sad one. Yet it is
both funny and melancholic. What
Mr. Penn has given us is a healthy
celebration of life and because of
his pleasing style has also given us
the most entertaining film of the
year.