Trailer
Plot summary
The story moves through a chain of unrelated vignettes rather than one continuous plot. Micky, Davy, Peter, and Mike interrupt the dedication of a bridge, running past officials while horns and sirens sound. Each is later kissed by the same groupie, who says she could not tell them apart, a moment set against images of screaming fans at a concert. Together and separately, the four pass through scenes in the guise of different genres, from mystery to war picture to western to desert adventure, the shifts mimicking a viewer flipping television channels. The group pushes back against the fiction built around them, that they are not the musicians and performers they know themselves to be.
Cast
- Charles Irvingas Mayor Feedback
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Head (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Michael Nesmith learned they would not be allowed to direct themselves or receive screenwriting credit, the three staged a one-day walkout, leaving Peter Tork the only Monkee on set. The studio ended it by giving the group a larger share of the film's net, but the rift ended their relationship with producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider.
- The film's plot and peak moments came together around November 1967 at an Ojai, California resort, where the Monkees, Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson brainstormed into a tape recorder, reportedly with a quantity of marijuana. Nicholson used the tapes as the basis for his screenplay, which Rafelson said he structured while under the influence of LSD.
- Bob Rafelson said he and Jack Nicholson were arrested at the film's New York City premiere for trying to put a Head sticker on a police officer's helmet as he mounted his horse.
- Head was one of the first films advertised with an MPAA rating: New York daily newspaper ads on November 1, 1968 displayed its G rating.
- The script names the character Lord High 'n' Low as 'Dernsie' and Bruce Dern, which Peter Mills says indicates Bruce Dern was the original choice for the part before Timothy Carey was cast.
- Michael Nesmith had recorded vocals for 'Daddy's Song' and wanted to dance it in the film, but songwriter Harry Nilsson asked that Davy Jones perform it instead; Toni Basil choreographed the routine and danced alongside Jones.
- Micky Dolenz recalled having to hold his breath underwater as long as he could, then waving frantically at two scuba divers who swam to him with a silver mouthpiece so he could surface, while Jack Nicholson called for one more take.
- A planned long sequence to be shot in Japan involving the Monkees and Godzilla was removed before filming began; Godzilla was the name of a character in the script.
Stills
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