Wild in the Streets (1968)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"Wild in the Streets" is a film about the youth of American rising up to take political power via a reduction in the voting age. It was released in the 60s and reflects some of the issues of its time.Today, the messages of the youthful upstarts might be seen as similar to the confused political fledglings referred to now as millennials. But the film is a parody of the counterculture--those who wanted more than change, they wanted revolution. In the 60s, many objected to the fact that 18-year-olds could be drafted but could not vote. Christopher Jones plays the role of Max Frost, a megalomaniacal rock star who energizes American youth--and some older members of the establishment who want to benefit from younger voters--to push for a younger voting age--somewhere between fourteen or eighteen.The film imagines what might happen if such a movement took hold and gained power. It shows Frost as a near-dictator whose power corrupts him. He is without a conscience and he indulges his every whim. Frost also is immature (surprise!). And as a member of the counterculture, he endorses the use of hallucinatory drugs and the disbandment of all institutions of authority.Though the film offers some moments of sharp insight, it mostly feels like it was written by a writer who himself was under the influence. And in the end, it is no more relevant regarding youth culture and politics than "Bye Bye Birdie".The ending is anticlimactic and ham-handed--hoping to deliver a pithy insight that it undercuts by final scenes that are amateurish.

The title I really want to put down for this review would get me kicked off the IMDb. Needless to say I've never been a fan of it for various reasons.I just think it's ridiculous. For those of you who've read my previous reviews, you'll note that I've never gotten along with "youth culture", and always thought the most vapid of years to be preadolescence to 20- something. American International (known for the bikini movies and other 60's teen films) cranked this out clear with a youth audience in mind.An angry teen becomes a pop star, and with his notoriety and millions, he manages to rally the youth of America into putting him in the white house (or communal flat for the chief executive). Think of McWorld aged maybe six to ten years, and you got your movie.I don't have too much more to say about it. I think the same theme was handled much better in "Logan's Run", and done so with a lot more aplomb. The whole nazi concentration camp theme, the aggrandization of drugs, the supposedly plausibility of a youth uprising, and everything else in this film, is not only out there, but isn't all that compelling.I watched it again after forty years just to see if I had missed something the first time. Nope. It's an interesting film in a rubber- necker gawking at a car accident sort of way, and for that you might want to see it once, but it's really just out there.High production values, a story that moves well, there's little to fault in the technical department, but what a train wreck thematically. And for those of you like me who don't remember teenagers of the 60s, 70s and 80s with any kind of fondness, it may make the fur rise on the back of your head. Otherwise I'd dismiss it.

Shrewd, surly rock star Max Frost (superbly played by the handsome, charismatic Christopher Jones) convinces sleazy, opportunistic Senator Jimmy Fergus (a terrific Hal Holbrook) to lower the legal drinking age to 14. After Max is elected president by a landslide victory, he makes the retirement age 30 and places anyone who's 35 and over in rehabilitation camps where they are regularly fed LSD to keep them docile. Director Barry Shear, working from a diabolically creative and wickedly witty script by Robert Thom, relates the outrageous, yet chilling and creepy satirical premise with tremendous rip-roaring brio and style (Shear also helmed the harrowing "The Todd Killings" and the exciting crime caper yarn "Across 110th Street," plus did the pilot for "Starsky and Hutch"!). Richard Moore's bright, vibrant cinematography makes expert use of funky freeze frames and snazzy split screen. The rousing garage rock theme song, "The Shape of Things to Come," peaked at #22 on the pop charts (and has been recently used as a jingle for Target department stores). The legendary Paul Frees tackles narrator chores with his trademark plummy aplomb. The remarkable cast qualifies as another significant asset: the ever-crazed Shelley Winters as Max's monstrous, overbearing mother, Diane Varsi as a former child star turned zonked-out hippie chick, Millie Perkins as Fergus' sweet wife, AIP biker pic regular Larry Bishop as a trumpet player with a hook hand, Ed Begley as a crusty old senator, Kevin Coughlin as a cagey adolescent whiz kid lawyer, Richard Pryor as Max's groovy drummer, and Bert Freed as Max's weak, emasculated father. Dick Clark, Walter Winchell, Melvin Belli, Pamela Mason, Army Archerd and Jack Lathan pop up as themselves. The sequence with all of Congress wacked out on acid is positively gut-busting. The final hilarious line of dialogue makes for the perfect closing zinger for this gloriously insane movie. The MGM DVD offers an excellent widescreen transfer along with the theatrical trailer on an ideal doublebill with Roger Corman's equally nutty "Gas-s-s-s."

This film could only have been made in 1968. No other time era produced such insanity. It's great fun and the ultimate American International Teen movie. I remember seeing this film four times when it came out in 1968. I also bought the book by Robert Thom (which was better and had a much better ending), the soundtrack album, the 45 record of "Shape Of Things To Come" with "Free Love" on the flip side and I even have a one sheet movie poster from the film. I guess I fell for this movie! The people here who dislike the film take it too seriously. It is a wild fantasy about teenagers taking over the United States and putting all adults in concentration camps! How can you take such a plot seriously? Dr Strangelove was more plausible but this film cuts with some great satire of it's own. A one of a kind film you won't forget!