.Received a Netflix membership for my birthday last week and mon dieu, there was Alice's Restaurant (the Movie) at the top of the selections. Don't know how they knew. I haven't seen the whole movie for a couple of decades (3?), just snippets on YouTube.

This is a freakin' sad movie. I'd forgotten that. As much as the song is wry and funny, the movie is a lot more the gist of the zeitgeist of the time. I don't know how Penn realized that vision for lack of a better way to describe it, but insofar as I've always thought of it as Arlo's Legend, he isn't really the star. Alice Brock (fictional or otherwise; I wasn't there so I don't know) is. The last shot of her standing in front of the deconsecrated and reconsecrated church is a heartbreaker. The theme of reconsecration desired, maybe realized, maybe not, the mess made of the church and the lives, the beauty realized and somehow lost as the bus pulls away and there she stands, it all hit me in that last shot.

Critics, whoever, should revisit this movie forty years on and give it respect. I watched it and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance back to back, an anti-hero hero movie from the beginning of the sixties and Alice, a nobody's a hero movie from later in the decade and they are matched warped bookends in theme and feel.

It made having visited the Guthrie Center, met with The People, breathed that air, watched Arlo, more dimensional. Whatever the reality and however it differs from the movie, The Kid did grow up to be a hero because when he founded the Center, he saved the spirit in that last shot in the movie, as if she could smile, go back through the big door, and it was beautiful, and right... again

Beautiful description/interpretation/reflection Len. One thing to know about: if you buy the DVD, the version I got about 10 or so years ago, it plays the movie.......then plays it again, this time with Arlo (miked-up) jumping in along the way, commenting and reflecting and remembering details and 'behind-the-scenes' kind of stuff as it happens......really cool trivia, laughs, and Arlo interpreting and joking as he does. It's an Arlo storytelling perspective concurrent and on top of and intermingled with the Movie's storytelling.........I guess you can tell I really love it!

And, as this photo hopefully shows, he was gracious enough to sign it late one night, he and Sarah Lee and me under the pines, live oaks dripping with spanish moss, and cypress trees on the banks of the Suwannee River following a magical show at the Florida Folk Festival about 2002 or maybe 3, the night before he left for Australia where he recorded the "Live In Sydney" record.

I know that version exists. Having a signed copy is cool. It would be interesting to hear the interpretations of those who created the movie as to what the message is. Penn is gone, unfortunately. I find myself reflecting because so many people now have a parodied version of those times. I sat at a rehearsal last night listening to some Christian folk making fun of flower power and it made me angry (bad reaction on my part but true). I look at the Guthrie Center, the hard work they do, and I think, how does one not see the sincerity of that, the real and realized compassion?

I'm lost, confused and a lot bummed out, maybe like Alice standing at the door in her wedding dress. It's a powerful image and it resonates. There it is.

I also feel the last scene after Arlo drives away and Ray goes back into the church, with the pan of Alice standing there in her wedding dress, the clear chill in the air and the leaves having peaked their color is SO powerful an image.......Alice as a Matriarch of her times wondering or possibly realizing she has a front row seat to watching the beautiful flower [children] so full of hope turning to seed............

Good analogy. I think it is why Joni's Songs To Aging Children Come was a brilliant choice for scenes otherwise filled with Arlo's work. It was a perfect distance view of what was coming and what was past. In the movie characters Alice was a True Believer and Arlo was full of doubt. He seemed to know what was happening but not where he was going. She, the opposite. Both were increasingly aware of being used by people whom they thought cared about them. Both were facing a world full of people who not only didn't care, they didn't want them in Their Army. The scene where Obie walks down the alley from the crowd is menacing.

Hi folks, Some movies remain 'alive' again and again. Arlo himself commented about having watched Alice's Restaurant himself and this one movie seems to have been plenty for Arlo and I agree. I enjoyed the movie because of Arlo. Those Narc issue undercover Y-fronts that Arlo advertised in such a blaze of glory as he was attempting to serve his country probably helped the Narcs identify Arlo as a 'Hippie freak' to be covered, observed and smelled for that natural growing stuff that indicates that someone has been on the 'grass'. We all know that we gotta keep off the grass or else!
Imagine a remake of Alice's Restaurant with Arlo in those Y-fronts - a whole new ball game! He probably would get arrested for impersonating a well dressed undercover Narc. Anyway folks, We have our tickets and really looking forward to hearing the Kid live again In the green-green-Grass of Ireland. If anything folks, Arlo continues to bring a little sunshine into a sad world in dire need of love, peace and 'freaks' making Arlo Guthrie and his like, even more relevant and needed today. Bring on the Kid!

Take good care of "The Kid" over on the "auld sod." We'll be seeing him over here in Lakeland, FL in 3 weeks.

I love the movie.

Hi Cheryl. As I again commented on the movie I just had to watch it again last evening and, having delved some more into Arlo, there is something about the movie that makes for a wee bit of magic - I laughed at times but more so I enjoyed the experience and isn't that what the man oozes out. And that word "Love" Cheryl is a mighty big old word when we have been touched by its reality. Another movie of the time "Easy Rider" (some great music) has Peter Fonda using the words "We blew it". When I think of our planet and the world of men today we seem to keep on blowing love away for something else. Arlo has brought and still blows a wee bit of 'peace and love' across the waters!

Peace & Hugs from Ireland

With the mess the auld paupered sod is in, believe me, we need him more than you folks to bring his good cheer and inspiration to an Ireland in dire need of some magic Arlo "Mystic Journey" moments. (yum-yum!)

just when you think what you say or what you do or what you listen to does not sink into your kids, something happens that make you stand up taller, smile and think yup thats my kid. today nolan (my 12 year old) pipes up and says "hey mom whats that song that goes (and he sings) "just a half a mile from the rail road tracks" i respond "you can get anything you want at alices restaurant"

The movie was what got me into Arlo after renting it from Blockbuster in 1988. Knew who he was and liked him alright but had never fallen for him for some reason. But the movie made me a fan. And I am what I am today because of it.

Watching and listening to Arlo on two different 'Woodstock' DVDs introduced us late comers to Arlo. There was, and is, a strange magic in his performances at Woodstock (and not just the inhaling) We got ourselves some Arlo music and that was it - HOOKED!
And then a couple of years later we get to hear Arlo performing live - that was great but then to meet 'Woodstock' Arlo following his beautiful performance, that I believe, is real 'Arlo' magic!

We got more music, visited and still watching the Guthrie clan on Utube and then got 'Alice's Restaurant' - the movie. Have and still do enjoy the movie. For some reason we are glad to have been introduced to Arlo Guthrie through 'Woodstock' but it don't matter a hoot the route, we all enjoy/love Arlo's music?

Wishing you an Arlo tomorrow night.

Part of the movie was filmed at what was at the time a boys school in Lenox call the Cranwell school,there is a scene where Arlo is walking around the front of the main house towards the well in the back with a dog which was an Irish wolfhound named Ivan belonging to the headmaster of the school Father Dalton.I attend the school in the summers when they had a camp and a few of the jesuits/teachers can be seen as extras walking on the streets of Stockbridge in the movie.
This is how I first heard of Arlo but it was a few years later when as I said in another story I learn to greatly appreciate his outlook on the world by listening to his music.Thanks Kid.

Funny thing, I never knew there was a movie until 2 days ago on Netflix. What I enjoyed most was the young Arlo on screen along with some of the other young kids. It showed a magical comical time (my half brother was in Vietnam) when I was what, 2? All those young kids at Woodstock - Jimi, Janis etc, they were so young and so talented, must've been a great time to grow up!!

Know the words to the song but always thought it was somehow fiction. I also like that Obie played himself as did the judge and the dog and Pete Seeger! I could indentify with Ray not wanting the party to end and all the kids going their separate ways as happens in life. As it will this weekend at the end of the Alifia River Rendezvous, which is a crazy time filled with great people and excellent music, and very little modern stuff!

I looked up Alice and some videos of her in her magic place (Providence) and I can identify with that too (St. Augustine for me!), and she seems to have found peace with her everlasting 15 minutes of fame. I wondered what happened to Ray - anyone know?

Then I thought about maybe being able to make the concert in Lakeland. Like folk music, but prefer it in intimate venues - y'all need to check out the Gamble Rogers festival in St. Augustine!

Peace!
Conrad