Go Ask Alice

Well, I for one actually believed that "go ask alice" was the true story of a teenage girl. But it turns out it was written by an older woman as a cautionary tale on the evils of the day. As a result, for me at least, I had a hard time sitting through the movie. The acting was not very good, either. Though it was interesting to see Mackenzie Phillips in her first starring role. I think she should have written the script, seeing as how she did a lot of drugs at the time.It probably would have been a little more believable.Robert Carradine plays Bill. You may remember him from Revenge of the Nerds and Lizzie McGuire. Or you may not remember him at all. Oh, yes, they DID cast William Shatner as the father. AND Andy Griffith as the priest. But the one thing the movie didn't include was the best line from the book---"another day, another blowjob"

I remember watching this with my sister and parents when it was first broadcast on TV. For it's time it pushed the envelope though realizing by today's standards it's kitschy with innuendo and a carefully crafted script to keep it within broadcast standards of the time. It was very good, and did a fair job of scaring some kids to not try drugs. I think the most our group did as teens was 8 people sharing a joint which had no effect; though, sadly I did know friends and kids in school to totally screw up with drugs, a couple died. It served it;s purpose at the time, it would be fodder to today's teens that hear much worse watching television commercials, that are barraged worse than the drug culture of the late 60's early 70's. I love Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplanes original version of Go Ask Alice "White Rabbit" which they did not use in the film.

In the early 1970s, America was still in denial about drugs. Like the parents of Alice in this film, "other" kids use drugs and the risk to their own kids is minimal. So, this film where the fictionalized "girl next door" and her fall into drug dependence is meant to wake up folks to the potential horrors of drugs.

Jamie Smith-Jackson stars as Alice, though oddly established actors like William Shatner, Ruth Roman and Julia Adams are listed at the top of the credits--and Jamie in the middle. I say this is odd because Shatner, Roman and Adams really were barely in the movie at all and the film is about Alice! As for these screen veterans, Shatner and Adams especially did great impersonations of blocks of wood. Perhaps the film made them too out of it--and they were a bit hard to believe as their characters weren't fully established. As for newcomer Smith-Jackson, she did a pretty good job helming this film.

The big star of the film, however, is the writing. The story didn't come off as trite or that whitewashed (at least for a made for TV movie) and was good entertainment and a nice public warning about drugs. A very good and well made film overall. And, considering I have worked in drug rehab and with prison populations, I have seen first hand the horrors that might befall those who make the choice to use drugs of all types--including alcohol.

Ordinary 15-year-old teenage girl, feeling like an outcast at a new high school, falls in with the stoner crowd after being offered hallucinogens at a party. Eventually, she's a runaway living on the streets and, after returning home to her well-meaning but naïve parents, is stuck with a bad reputation among her peers--and labeled a 'fink' when she turns in a fellow teen druggie. TV-made "message movie", adapted from the fictional cult book by Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks), purports to pack a punch, but instead seems tentative and a bit awkward (this mostly due to the inexperienced younger actors in the cast). William Shatner (as Alice's natty father) and Andy Griffith (as a priest who works with dopers and drunks) seem to be cast for their name value, although both do solid work in small roles. Jamie Smith Jackson handles the lead with sensitivity and sincerity, and the picture gets a solid B for effort.

I saw this movie when it came out on television in 1973. I was 13 years old at the time. I would rate this movie as a 10. The reason being, it scared the hell out of me when I saw it. It came at a very influential time for me. I knew nothing about drugs, I knew no one who had taken drugs and I had never experimented with drugs at that time.

I was later exposed to drugs, they were very prevalent in the seventies. They were everywhere. I had tried marijuana, and a couple other drugs, but never acquired them for myself and never made it my lifestyle. Because of this movie, I was afraid of where it would take me, and that I wouldn't be strong enough to come back from it.

The characters were strong enough, the movie was good enough, the story was told well enough. well enough in fact to haunt my dreams every time I stepped over the drug line and I think that's why it was made, and it did the job it was supposed to do. I'm sure I'm not the only one.