Sweet, good-natured, almost contemporary docu-drama of the rise and fall of the hippie subculture. Guthrie is no actor, but carries the movie on the strength of his youth alone. As difficult to grasp and hold onto as a moment in time -- which is what represents, and represents very well.

the song is entertaining and twenty minutes long. the film is not, and an hour and a half.

You can have anything you want -- at Alice's restaurant. Except a good film

basically a terrible plot mixed in with a pantomime of the song.

Like the other big youth movies, so-called, of 1969 (_Easy Rider_, _Last Summer_), Penn's slight expansion of Guthrie's rambling protest ballad avoids coddling its audience. It is most effective, in fact, when it is gravely cautioning. The sour, melancholy notes sounded at a hospital death bed, at a gently snowy funeral, and at the funless farewell party are quite affecting, while the obligatory anti-Establishment spoofery comes close to Mad Magazine crudeness, crumminess.

Odd '60's project shows its age. It's about people you don't really care about, and its only real virtue is that Penn doesn't try to make them look better than they are. Those looking for hippie nostalgia won't find a lot of it here.

Hated the song, quite liked the movie

A pretty silly movie based on an Arlo Guthrie song..but has some great moments