Review of Alice`s Restaurant

Introduction

Arthur Penn`s film, based on Arlo Guthrie`s famous song of the same name, takes an exuberant look at the 1960s counterculture, draft dodging, social intolerance, law enforcement, and the hardships of growing older. Like the 18-minute song itself, Alice`s Restaurant follows Arlo Guthrie (played by Arlo Guthrie) as he gets kicked out of school and travels back east to visit his old friends Alice and Ray Brock. After a huge Thanksgiving feast, Arlo is assigned the duty of disposing of the garbage. When he finds the local dump closed, he tosses the mound of garbage over a cliff, which leads to his arrest for littering. When Arlo is eventually drafted into the army and is filling out the paperwork, he finds a simple question on the back of one of the forms: Kid, have you ever been arrested? Arlo quickly discovers that the U.S. Army has a very low opinion of litterbugs.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of below average quality, suffering from a particularly bad case of grain and looking distinctly washed out and tired at times. In addition, the image is not stable, with a flicker on the image and variable contrast along with regular specks of dirt.

As far as the visuals go, they are adequate to tell the story, but aren`t particularly enthralling. The filmmakers make good use of location and sets and everything looks authentic, but the poor quality of the video reproduction detracts from the viewing experience.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital Mono, and adequately reproduces the film`s dialogue, music and effects, without causing any aural excitement.

The movie`s dialogue is clear and understandable, despite having a limited sonic range - with the sound primarily outputting mid-range tones. Similarly the music sounds flat and uninspiring.

Features

As with so many back catalogue releases, the only extra is the theatrical trailer.

The static menus aren`t very exciting but are functional and easy to navigate.

Conclusion

Below average visuals and sound are perfectly suited to this below-average movie, which is particularly dull and uninteresting for the most part, despite a promising storyline.

The performances are not especially convincing, which doesn`t help the movie to grab the viewer`s interest, and combined with the poor picture, this makes the film one to avoid unless you are a fan.

In this case, the limited extras are not a hindrance, as I wouldn`t have been very keen to watch a featurette or documentary about a film I didn`t enjoy!