magic trip (miff film #6)

I think I was around sixteen or seventeen when I first read The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test. I loved it. I was going through a Tom Wolfe phase, which quickly turned into a Ken Kesey phase. When I saw that Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search by a Kool Place was on the MIFF program, I was definitely on the bus.

Directed by Alex Gibney, Magic Trip wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. It was much better. Ken Kesey, his ‘Merry Pranksters’, and a bus called Further drove across the USA soon after America lost it innocence, with the assassination of JFK. Their trip (in all its connotations) was filmed but hadn’t seen the light of day since Kesey et al had been editing it for thirty years. I really didn’t expect the documentary to make much sense, what with all the acid, but Gibney (and the narration skills of the brilliant Stanley Tucci) did a terrific job in bring out a cohesive and fascinating story.

With audio from those actually on the bus, including snippets of the speed-mad Neal Cassady, aka Dean Moriarty, I really felt like part of the journey in a way that Wolfe’s book hadn’t quite delivered. It was also quite thrilling to see cameos of Kerouac and Ginsberg. So for those fans of the Beat Generation, Kesey or the sixties in general, this documentary is a must see.

4 stars!