Head is a stoner film, yes, but it’s also a rare example of artists critically examining their own roles in the entertainment–media machine. Where the Beatles giddily ran from their fans in A Hard Day’s Night, the Monkees opened their late-’68 film by running to a suicide leap off “one of the largest suspended-arch bridges in the world.” Despite the randomness of many of its images and lines, the film is definitely about something: the boys’ efforts to get out of the box they perceived themselves personally and professionally trapped in, a box made literal and crucial to the film’s most effective scene — wherein their reprised jump off the bridge at first appears liberating but soon reveals itself to have landed them back in their place, a crate being trucked off backstage along with other props.
Hey, Hey Let Them In: 10 Reasons The Monkees Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Twelve performers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. The Monkees weren't one of them. TIME makes a case for the pop-rock group that changed music forever — one sitcom episode at a time
Reason No. 8: They Gave Us the Movie Head
Full List
Monkees Hall of Fame
- Reason No. 1: Their Chart Success
- Reason No. 2: The Quality of Their Songs, Even Those That Weren’t Hits
- Reason No. 3: The Many Talents They Discovered
- Reason No. 4: Their Standoff Against Don Kirshner and the Music Industry
- Reason No. 5: Their Vital Innovations in Music Video
- Reason No. 6: Their (O.K., Not So Vital) Innovations in Music Itself
- Reason No. 7: Micky Dolenz’s Lyrical Talents
- Reason No. 8: They Gave Us the Movie Head
- Reason No. 9: Their Central Role in Defining Authenticity in Rock
- Reason No. 10: The Real Purpose of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame