Head is a psychedelic motion picture starring television group The Monkees and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was written and produced by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, and directed by Rafelson. The film’s title appears to be a sort of joke as the Beatles had released the film, Help, and the physical beginning of a movie is called the “head.”
The distorted consciousness and psychedelic elements of Head resemble that of an LSD trip, a widespread recreational drug at the time. Some film critics now consider the film to be an allegorical deconstruction of The Monkees’ experiences as pawns of the Hollywood starmaking machine. The storylines and peak moments of the movie came from a weekend visit to a resort in California where The Monkees, Rafelson and Nicholson brainstormed into a tape recorder.
Head makes fun of the band’s image and the band members’ personae. A poor audience response at an August 1968 screening in Los Angeles eventually forced the producers to edit the picture down from its original 110-minute length. The 86-minute version premiered in New York City on November 6, 1968 and later debuted in Hollywood on November 20. It was not a commercial success but eventually found a cult following.
