Top ten psychedelic moments in cinema
http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/top10/top-ten-psychedelic-moments-in-cinema20100917.aspx
by TheHairyPony
Sep 17 2010
While today's kids are all friggin' 'I-dosing' sonic drugs downloaded
from Youtube, back in the day we rolled with the analog variety.
Before we did so, film and TV informed our vulnerable minds and
fostered an intense interest in smashing through the quotidian.
While some of these portrayals seemed convincing and intriguing at
the time, it was only after you finally chased the white rabbit
yourself that you realised how difficult the psychedelic experience
is to capture on celluloid. However, sometimes they got it right.
I thought it was probably time for a survey of what is, what could be
and what never was in the world of psychedelic representation in
cinema. This journey involves Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Sutherland a lot.
10. 'pink elephants on parade'
Let's bring this trip in nice and easy with a clip from Disney's
heart wrenching tale of triumph over adversity, Dumbo. Ah yes, the
saccharine utopia of Walt's wonderland, a safe place to be right?
Wrong! Check out the intense journey into the minds eye that ol'
floppy ears undertakes after drinking from the wrong water bucket.
Starts off nice but hits bad trip territory around 2:04.
9. 'butterflies and mushrooms'
Staying on the animal tip, I'm not sure if the 1988 quasi-documentary
The Bear is entitled to the phrase 'no animals were harmed in the
making of this film'. However, I'm sure you'll be impressed by the
poetic licence used to fully realise the young cubs transcendental visions.
8. 'Did you see the size of that chicken?'
When I was 10, Young Guns was one of my favourite films. It featured
an A-list collection of bullet-proof actors (Emilio Estevez, Lou
Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland) and loosely
appropriated the story of Billy the Kid. While it spawned hundreds of
games with my toy cowboy and Indian figurines, I always had a little
trouble working in this scene. Apparently, when you drink peyote your
voice deepens and you become very interested in butterflies and chickens.
7. 'Acid and chess'
Fast-forward a couple of years to 1990 and Kiefer Sutherland had
signed up to a Young Guns sequel (Young Guns II), but also managed to
fit in a role opposite Dennis Hopper. The film is called Flashback
and is currently rocking a 5.6 out 10 on IMDB (who says research
journalism is dead). Kiefer plays straight-laced-FBI-agent to
Hopper's radical-hippie-dude. A word of warning, this isn't exactly
comedy gold, but it's quite a cute scene and effectively captures the
power of suggestion in a psychedelic experience.
6. 'Oui'
That clip also allows me to smoothly move into one of the most
authentic representations of an acid trip ever captured on screen.
This scene from Easy Rider really should be number one, but for the
sake of a cheap segue I sacrificed its standing. In this clip, you
can feel the disassociation, the gut-wrenching fear and the totally
unwieldy liberation of mental dissonance. It also has a lot of
getting naked. Were they actually tripping? I wouldn't be surprised.
Fucking hippies.
Unfortunately this clip is in French, but it is slightly sexier that
way and was the only embeddable one I could find that didn't have
Tool dubbed over it. Skip to 2:45.
(undubbed version here)
5. 'Get your hands off me man'
By the time Midnight Cowboy was released Easy Rider's hippie dream
had receded and been replaced by Warholian aesthetic self-absorption
and decadence. Yeah, I don't know what that means either. Ratso
(Dustin Hoffman) and Joe Buck (Jon Voight) get a taste of the New
York Avant-garde high life in this clip, which of course features lava lamps.
4. 'Mummy loves you'
My brain is actually starting to hurt now. Breath. Breeeath. The
psychedelic effects of nitrous oxide are well known. What was less
known, until the release of David Lynch's Blue Velvet, was how much
of a freak it turned Dennis Hopper into. This is truly one of the
greatest and most terrifying performances committed to screen. It's
kinky, voyeuristic, dangerous and very raw. Rest in peace Dennis.
3 .'The fear'
Hunter S Thompson, the human test-tube of drug chemistry, is deftly
captured by Johnny Depp and Terry Gilliam in Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas. If you are ever going to engage in this variety of drug use
(which is against the law of this nation-state), I recommend you stay
away from Crown Casino. Actually, get the hell out of Melbourne. What
I like best about this clip is how hilariously it captures the drug
buddy system.
2. 'Jacked up on marijuana'
Drugs are serious, and lest this post encourage you to indulge, I
think you should watch this educational film. Remember, if you do
drugs, you will starve to death due to connecting with the sentient,
animist and holistically interconnected nature of reality. It's all
about the hotdogs.
1. 'Eeeeeeee'
Ok, lets take this baby home. Home to 2001.
.
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