tbaltmail Coming of age story set in a surreal version of the "old west" where the bands play thru Marshall stacks and the gunslingers play virtuoso drum solos... A young Don Johnson (of Miami Vice fame) seems slightly out of place here, and the film descends into gloopy melodrama in it's latter stages - but the involvement of the Firesign Theater crew at least ensures a fair helping of the bizarre. Well worth a watch for anyone with an affection for Seventies rock and the attendant culture - some great moments, including the opening scene.....

thefensk A previous reviewer called this a real hoot. I agree. You have to remember that this movie (and I haven't seen it in probably 30 years) was basically written by the Firesign Theatre guys. It was billed as an "electric western" and it was a staple on the old Midnight Movie circuit. For the uninformed ... in the days before personal video, unique movies like this one would play in venues billed as "midnight movies" ... which were a cheap alternatives to clubs and such for Saturday night entertainment. Midnight movies were generally enjoyed in a somewhat enhanced-state-of-mind. Whew.Since I've never seen this movie on TV and don't think it was ever in wide distribution ... it may well have gone "straight to midnight movies" in much the same way that some movies go straight to video. Heh.

Ghenghy Still dont remember why I bought this DVD, or why it sat for 3 years before watching it. Anyway, this movie is a real hoot. From Don Johnson's premiere as an 18 yr old Prom Queen lookalike with a sidearm to Country Joe's surreal insertion into an old west shoot-em-up saloon. The whole thing is just twisted as hell, and fun.A recommended rental with a 6 pack. 7 tokes.

batzi8m1 Siddhartha done as a Rock and Roll Comedy Western by two of the members of the Firesign Theatre - What's there not to love. Even if you don't recognize the themes of self discovery based on Herman Hesse's classic story of the Buddha's early journey, this is still a fun movie featuring the classic American western outlaw story done as a send-up. It's like a light hearted version of El Topo only it made me laugh where the other made me squirm - in a good way. This is not to say that the story is the same as either. It merely shares the same themes. Particularly amusing are the scenes with Country Joe and the Fish as the bungling highwaymen. Louisiana Man Doug Kershaw as the lone fiddler in black and the James Gang's opening scene are breathtaking and funny at the same time. It reminds me of Hesse's line in Steppenwolf when Mozart laughs at the hero in his dream because he can't hear the music through the static on the radio. This music celebrates the joy of life that epitomized the counterculture rebellion against the darkness of the times. Max Frisch, the Swiss author, defended an attack on the silence of the Swiss writers during the horrors of Nazi Germany by saying he wanted to set up against that all the other things that still can be called life. This movie was part of that movement -- forget superficial commercial ventures like Hair or JC Superstar or the Tommy movie -- this was the musical of the rock and roll generation as much as Rocky Horror was the musical of the Glam Rock generation. Only back then young people were just grateful to be alive and have any dreams at all. It's no wonder that the votes on this one has old farts like me rating it much higher than anyone else. I guess you had to be there back when these musicians couldn't even get radio airplay. I haven't seen this in nearly twenty years when it last played at one of the revival houses but it's one of the few movies whose scenes I can replay in my mind an laugh out loud. This is how we celebrated all those other things that we still called life.Although I would no longer condone such practices, this film appears to have been made to also be enjoyable under the influence of the popular psychoactive alkaloids of the era.