Footage of Ken Kesey's 1964 LSD road trip has finally been edited into a (mostly) coherent film
In 1964 Ken Kesey embarked on a coast-to-coast-and-back road trip, spreading the word of LSD with a busload of costumed cohorts; it is the stuff of pop-culture legend, and the founding gospel of the hippie movement. But most of what we know comes from Tom Wolfe's florid account in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It's said that if you can remember the 60s, you weren't there, and in a way, Wolfe wasn't; he didn't meet Kesey and his Merry Pranksters until they had returned.
It was largely forgotten that Kesey planned his own account of the trip in the form of an improvised movie. The film would be "a total breakthrough of expression", wrote Wolfe, "but also something that would amaze and delight many multitudes, a movie that could be shown commercially as...
In 1964 Ken Kesey embarked on a coast-to-coast-and-back road trip, spreading the word of LSD with a busload of costumed cohorts; it is the stuff of pop-culture legend, and the founding gospel of the hippie movement. But most of what we know comes from Tom Wolfe's florid account in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It's said that if you can remember the 60s, you weren't there, and in a way, Wolfe wasn't; he didn't meet Kesey and his Merry Pranksters until they had returned.
It was largely forgotten that Kesey planned his own account of the trip in the form of an improvised movie. The film would be "a total breakthrough of expression", wrote Wolfe, "but also something that would amaze and delight many multitudes, a movie that could be shown commercially as...
- 11/25/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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