Somewhat of a disappointment
Warning: you should probably be blitzed out of your mind to properly enjoy these. Otherwise, I found them to be an extremely mixed bag: darts of brilliant satire intermingling with silly jokes that fall flat.
Perhaps it was the times, the context in which they were originally seen--in underground New York theaters where the hippy audiences were indeed blitzed out of their minds--but these films failed to resonate with me completely as successful (sober) movies.
They're so amateurishly threadbare as to make John Waters movies look like Mercury Theater Productions. It is indeed impressive that Robert Downey was able to make these movies the way he did,--shooting guerilla style in the streets, sometimes illegally with a motely crew of assembled actors. There is a sense of wildness and abandon in creation that is both their brilliance and their shortcoming. In this way, this set is certainly important in documenting the beginning of underground cinema. And there ARE...
Putney Swope!
I 'discovered' Putney Swope just this past year, and it soon became my favorite comedy and an all-time favorite. I also bought the standalone version from another studio (not Criterion) for the commentary and extras. This Criterion edition looks significantly better but has no extras.
I tried getting into the other movies, but what I saw was so purposely weird to the point of being frustrating and not fun. But Putney Swope is so brilliant that I'm glad to have this collection with a high quality transfer.
Taboo-free underground cinema
These are wild , disrespectful and dadaist films from the sixities. A cinematic supplement to the early records of the Mothers of Invention etc.
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