Magic Trip

If you're into your Beat generation writers, 60's scene doco's or drug history tales, this is a combination of all three. It covers the rather uneventful bus ride of some friends from California, notably among them is Kesey, Cassady & all kind of pre-illegal psyche's & illegal speed & weed. Cassady is a rare one, a person seemingly constantly dosed on either (or both) ultra potent LSD & amphetamines, resulting in a jabbering madman who somehow managed to pilot the neon painted bus cross-country.

Having read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and being a fan of Ken Kesey, it was very cool and interesting getting to actually see the footage he and his crew of Merry Pranksters shot. Definitely a great supplement to Wolfe's second-hand account of the trip, as it helps to paint a clearer picture of what the trip actually entailed and what the characters were actually like. Only down was using actors to do voiceovers of the group. Would have been better without, or with the real person.

You would think that 40 hours of footage shot during the legendary bus ride would be a treasure trove, but this film only shows insignificant tidbits. Narration could be better, but interviews read by voice actors are horrible. They make it sound like this is some children cartoon. Cassady's charisma is radiating even from filmed footage. Kesey asks him if he would like some LSD, to which he answers "I would, yes, I would". Finest moment of this film!

"The messiness of Kesey's trip is reflected, for worse more than for better, by Magic Trip, which fails to provide much insight into any of its subjects." - Nick Schager

I was born in 1992, so I always find pre 90's americana documentaries like this to be very interesting. Though this one loses some points for being a little directionless. With the plethora of great footage they had I felt they could have made better use of it. As is the filmmakers don't present a clear enough message. However they did manage to document an impressive amount of what was going on. This gives the audience a much better understanding of what the experience must have been like.

I think this is a film that you really need to read between the lines with. Kind of a "if you know you know" type of thing. Definitely not for everyone. Sometimes it is tedious to listen to other people's drug stories and you sometimes wonder, "why are these people so special that i should care". Thankfully some of Kesey's talent shined through all this and you can really pick up on his insight if you actually listen. Anyway, I got a lot out of it and related. The mushrooms probably helped.

Tedious bunch of hippies pulling some 'we we're into it before it was cool' hipster stuff and admissions at how forced their 'merriment' was. Keseys clockwork orange growing out of it seemed a fitting let-down. Wish it'd all been about Cassady