Magic trip : Ken Kesey's search for a kool place

Magic trip : Ken Kesey's search for a kool place

"In 1964, author Ken Kesey and his friends, known as the Merry Pranksters, set out on a cross-country bus trip from California to New York to visit the World's Fair. They also decided to record it, with several 16 mm movie cameras and audio tape. Compiled from more than 40 hours of footage shot during the journey, it was the magical mystery tour--fueled by both the countercultural sentiments of the time and lots of LSD--that became legend. The participants were not beatniks, not-yet-hippies, but a group of preppy-looking partygoers, outfitted in red, white, and blue, whose traveling bacchanal zigzagged across the country. In those more relaxed times, the Pranksters encountered only sporadic harassment, as they spread low-key mayhem in Phoenix, New Orleans, Houston, and the Millbrook, N.Y. estate where Timothy Leary held court. The film record of this famous bohemian lark is uneven, befitting an unsteady (if borderline revolutionary) group in a time of widespread cultural upheaval."--Provided by Magnolia Pictures

Contents: Ken Kesey -- The American landscape -- 25 feet an hour -- The LSD experiment -- Cuckoo's Nest -- Nothing lasts -- New Orleans -- New York -- The trip -- Strange situation -- Trip or treat -- End credits.

Special features: Commentary with directors Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood [optional audio feature]; Deleted scenes (18 min.); Ken Kesey's first 'trip' [audio feature] (51 min.); HDNet: A look at Magic trip (5 min.); Also from Magnolia [previews] (10 min.).

Gibney, Alex;
Ellwood, Alison

Magnolia Pictures

Magnolia Home Entertainment

2011

Kesey, Ken, screenwriter;
Tucci, Stanley, interviewer;

DVD

In English with optional subtitles in Spanish; closed-captioned in English.

Documentary (D)

D M34 2011 DVD

107 minutes

Gibney, Alex;
Clarke, Will;
Johnes, Alexandra

Gibney, Alex;
Ellwood, Alison