Where’s My DVD?: Thumb Tripping
by John Seal, berkeleyside.com
May 17th 2011 9:00 AM
This week, Berkeleyside’s film writer John Seal looks at a movie he recommends
you check out on DVD.
It’s 1972, and the watch words around America are acid, amnesty, and abortion.
Kids across the nation have already turned on, tuned in, and dropped out,
leaving the country with a surfeit of stoned street musicians. They’re still
trying to find the meaning of life and their place in the universe, however –
and that’s what this peripatetic road movie is all about.
Enter Gary (Michael Burns), a winsome, rather innocent middle-class lad
slumming it on the highways and by-ways of the good ol’ U. S. of A. He’s
determined to experience life to its fullest and face every challenge squarely
– and there are challenges aplenty (albeit mostly formulaic ones) in the
90-plus minutes of Thumb Tripping.
The story commences on a fog-bound central California beach near Big Sur as the
local fuzz round up a batch of hippies for deportation to friendlier climes.
Amongst the tribe are sleepy-eyed Shay (Meg Foster), a stereotypical hippie
chick with a serious case of wanderlust, and the aforementioned Gary, a
Connecticut refugee whose clean-shaven face belies an innate curiosity and
questioning personality.
The two aren’t acquainted, but after casting knowing looks at each other in the
back of the Black Maria, bingo – they’re traveling partners and lovers. An
idyllic five-finger lunch in the sleepy seaside resort of Carmel finds love
blooming and beachside soup boiling over as the twosome share a sparse meal of
bread and broth with two fellow travelers biking their way up the coast.
Morning comes, however, and brings with it the first fly in the ointment for
our protagonists. As they trudge north along the highway, destination anywhere,
a speeding car nearly runs them over, and Gary loudly lambastes the driver with
some choice language. That’s a big mistake, as the man behind the wheel is a
complete loony named, appropriately, Simp (Larry Hankin). Even worse,
knife-wielding hippie-hater Smitty, played to full tilt perfection by cinematic
wild man Bruce Dern, is riding shotgun.
Incredibly, the four make a tenuous peace and Smitty and Simp offer a ride as
recompense for their hazardous driving – but some rides are more expensive than
others, even when there’s no money exchanged, and Gary and Shay soon regret
accepting their hospitality. After a scary admonition from Smitty accompanied
by some threatening gestures from his trusty blade, our clueless couple is once
again looking for new transport.
They find it in the form of a woman (Joyce Van Patten) whose bitter curiosity
about the hippie lifestyle stems from the loss of a runaway daughter. Matters
aren’t helped by the additional presence in the car of the woman’s two
incredibly bratty children, and after enduring a few maternal lectures there’s
a mutual parting of the ways at the foot of a cliff. Luckily for Shay and Gary,
however, friendly truck driver Diesel (Michael Conrad) takes a bathroom break
above them, and after peeing all over the pair kindly offers them a warm and
dry place in the cab of his big rig.
Alas, Gary’s faith in mankind is tested once again when Shay and Diesel engage
in a little consensual hanky-panky at the next truck stop. Turns out free love
is for HIPPIES, not bald working class guys, and jealous Gary breaks up the
party and almost breaks up with Shay. But the two have one more adventure in
store before the final fadeout: they meet Jack and Lynn, a grumpy married
couple from Santa Rosa with a penchant for classic Chevy convertibles and open
liquor containers. After a beer-drenched skinny-dipping and necking party and a
drunken sojourn in a local bar, Gary has finally had enough and leaves Shay
somewhere near the Russian River. He’s no closer to the meaning of life than
when the film started, and he probably has a nasty set of blisters to boot.
Stoic Michael Burns got his acting start as an adolescent on television. He
appeared in everything from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to Love American Style
and Wagon Train before retiring from screens large and small in favor of
academia. Thumb Tripping was Meg Foster’s springboard to success, and she’s had
a long and moderately successful stage and screen career: her credits include
Laurence Harvey’s notorious Welcome to Arrow Beach, 1980’s excellent sideshow
drama Carny, and (ahem) Masters of the Universe.
Buxom Marianna Hill (Lynn), meanwhile, appeared in a pair of Elvis features as
well as Medium Cool and The Last Porno Flick (which wasn’t). Michael Conrad’s
eclectic resume includes roles in the bizarre war fable Castle Keep,
Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic, and a three year stint on Hill Street Blues,
whilst Bruce Dern remains one of Hollywood’s finest character actors and Joyce
Van Patten remains the sister of unctuous and ubiquitous TV actor Dick.
If you ever thumbed your way across the good ol’ U.S. of A. back in the heady
days of the hippie era, you’ll love this film’s blend of clueless characters,
gauzy cinematography, mellow pop-rock, and crazy outfits. If Thumb Tripping’s
current owner did a cheap and easy digital transfer from Charter
Entertainment’s out of print VHS tape they could probably shift a few thousand
copies on the strength of Dern and Foster’s presence alone. The film’s
extensive song-track and related music clearance issues may be contributing to
its absence on disc, but this is a film that could easily hitchhike its way
into your heart—and into your home video library.
John Seal writes a weekly film recommendation column at Box Office Prophets, as
well as a column in The Phantom of the Movies’ Videoscope, an old-fashioned
paper magazine, published quarterly.
Original Page:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/05/17/wheres-my-dvd-thumb-tripping/
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