Comments | paularubia: OF ALICES AND RESTAURANTS

paularubia

OF ALICES AND RESTAURANTS

Jun 10, 2012 02:51

Recently TCM ran a block of movies that all had the word "Alice" in the title. I recorded two of these Alice movies: "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974) and "Alice's Restaurant" (1969) (movies which, I have to admit, I've gotten confused as long as I've known about them -- I may even have thought they were the same movie at some point). "Alice ( Read more... )

Comments 7

lonesomenumber1 June 10 2012, 15:53:57 UTC

I had no idea it was so long.

Eighteen and a half minutes -- the same length as the infamous gap in the Watergate tapes. Coincidence? Arlo thinks not.

paularubia June 10 2012, 21:18:16 UTC

Ha!

kishenehn June 10 2012, 18:45:25 UTC

I went to a couple of Arlo Guthrie concerts back in the day ... it was great stuff.

paularubia June 10 2012, 21:23:21 UTC

In real life, Arlo Guthrie went to college (for a Very Short Time) in Montana. There's a scene in the movie where he's beaten up in a diner by Montana rednecks, simply because he's a long-haired hippie. Arlo said the event never happened, but the screenwriter threw it in for dramatic effect. I read somewhere that he's felt bad about how the fine people of Montana were portrayed in those brief scenes, and he apologizes profusely.

kishenehn June 10 2012, 21:49:25 UTC

Yep, he was at a little college out in Billings; I can't for the life of me imagine why.

And people do love to stereotype Montanans ... almost as much as Texans! :-p

mistersmearcase June 11 2012, 14:28:17 UTC

Yeah I rented Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and can't remember a thing about it except that it was not very interesting, but then lots of 70s cinema leaves me cold. I used to love the sitcom as a kid and later got a disc of that from Netflix, too, only to find it isn't particularly entertaining when you're an adult and it isn't the 80s anymore.

paularubia June 11 2012, 23:57:22 UTC

I'm not really a big fan of '70s films, either. And I wasn't a fan of the sitcom. A diner is a great theatrical setting, rife with possibilities for comedic (and/or dramatic) storylines, but neither one of these projects made good use of the setting. When "Kiss my grits!" is what your claim to fame boils down to, well, that's not much of a claim to fame.