Hippies

This "documentary" had a definite agenda that distorts the actual impetus of the hippie movement. As in any group there were negative aspects and people who took advantage of the circumstances and dynamics. To suggest that the movement attracted mostly criminals is ridiculous. There were good and bad people. People did drugs but it wasn't the driving force behind the movement as claimed by the producers of this piece of crap. The documentary claims that John Lennon had a 1000 acid trips but makes no documentation of this.Lennon never claimed that he was Jesus Christ. He did offend christians by claimin the Beatles were more popular than Christ. That is the main problem that this film has. It makes ridiculous claims and offers no proof that they are true. The makers did get one thing right and that is the perverse clandestine efforts of the federal government to suppress political dissent against the war in Vietnam, the aggressive arms industry and the promotion of racial equality. As in present times, the resistance to and fear of meaningful change was the key motivation of those in power.

A very good and accurate documentary of the era. Reading some of the flaming critical "reviews" makes me laugh because they are so wildly inaccurate. This documentary is very good, a synopsis of what it was like back in the '60's and '70's. There was very little good that came from the "movement" or lifestyle known as hippies. But apparently some are still fighting the fight by condemning what they feel is inaccurate to their "free" society desires. Some never grow up. But those who did, provide a realistic view of life back then.

But if you are interested in seeing a good documentary that paints a very fair portrayal, watch this film. Excellently put together, and very good interviews with many who were there, front and center.

(Showing in January 2009 on the history channel). I'm glad to see that they actually dug deeper than most newsreels of the time to research the individuals and groups that were an active part of the "hippie" rebellion movement. Most clips of the time just show lots of flower-power children of the time smoking dope and dancing, then we're off to Woodstock, for the freaks and problems of drugs, violence, and overcrowding. In this show, they research the individuals and groups that were involved, which is more than most reports did. Sure, drugs were involved, but also there was the rebellion factor; so many of the children watched their fathers work Mon-Fri, nine to five, and this ten years after the McCarthy hearings, the children were determined not to let a big government be completely in charge of their lives. Probably also some anger over the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam war, and later, the Kent State shootings (see Wikipedia.org for info). The show also points out that by the time the Beatles and more run-away hippies arrived, the original goal had disappeared, and now it WAS just a bunch of hippy wanna-be's. Just my opinion. i welcome input... ksf-2

Simply said, a very bad documentary loaded with mistakes. It seems to be propaganda against the hippie movement. I thought Peter Coyote would have thought better than to add to this garbage. I say that because I like the guy. It forgot to mention had the hippie movement not happened, and had LSD not been discovered the same year as atomic fission, the world would have destroyed itself. Where's the balance in this film? There is none. Skip it if you want a more accurate picture. There are better films. Since the History Channel showed a very well written documentary on LSD to Peyote, I really thought this would have been represented better. Try again History Channel. The only good part of Hippies was watching the commercials for Ice Road Truckers.

Some amazing stock footage from the period is used to paint an ugly and grossly unfair picture of the so-called hippie movement. This commercial for establishment orthodoxy exposes the filmmakers astonishingly poor grasp of the history that fueled and molded the counterculture movements from 1965-72. Typical for History Channel pabulum, the narrative tries desperately to define the movements with drug use, more drug use, sexual perversion, more drug use, and then (in an act of brash and comical audacity) crowning Charles Manson as the prince of the hippies.

This is a story for people who believe Iraq was involved in 9/11 and that Fox News is a serious journalistic entity. And quite honestly, narrator Peter Coyote should know better than to lend his venerable voice to this exercise aimed at the "Leni Riefenstahl Fan Club."