For today's Hippie Hotties article, we are going to talk about a little-known hippie flick that felt like the hitchhiker's answer to Easy Rider: Thumb Tripping.
Is anything more 60s and 70s than hitchhiking? We now know how dangerous sticking out your thumb to hitch a ride can be, but back then people did it a lot - especially hippies. The plot of this film follows a hippie chick and a guy that she meets who hitchhike across the country together and meet all kinds of people. They meet a man named Smitty at one point who turns their trip dangerous.
Shot in beautiful Big Sur, California, this movie feels like a hippie fever dream. Everything is bright and sunny! This story starts right outside of Big where hippies and hitchhikers are rounded up by local authorities and dropped off in town with a warning to stay off the beach. Um, but the beach is free? And beautiful? If I were a vagrant hippie in Big Sur, I would 100% live on the beach.
Anyway, they aren't allowed to, so a young woman named Shay figures out a plan to get by. She falls for a many named Gary and the two of them head to the town of Carmel. Gary is an average, conservative dude while Shay is a free spirit. Meg Foster plays Shay and she is the bouncy brunette of our dreams.
Gary and Shay decide to hitchhike and to be open-minded about accepting rides. Gary says that they should accept rides from anyone who offers...and that has consequences! They first get picked up by two guys named Smitty and Simp. If this were me, I would never trust two people named Smitty and Simp, but again this movie isn't about me.
The characters in this movie do everything that I wouldn't do! Anyway, Smitty and Simp are bad news. They try to run the hitchhikers off the road, so Gary swears at them. Who wouldn't? These two crazy guys turn around and demand an apology...and offer a ride.
Oh, I should mention that Bruce Dern plays Smitty.
Shay accepts the ride like a total airhead and she soon learns that these guys are bad news. She and a reluctant Gary are warned once the guys stop at a gas station that getting into their car was the worst decision of their lives. Now Gary and Shay have to run away to survive!
They actually do get away and the movie isn't over yet. They head to San Francisco where they pass and meet so many other hippies on the side of the road. One of the other hippie chicks they meet is Lynn who is played by the inimitable Marianna Hill whom you may remember from Medium Cool. They meet her at a roadside bar in Santa Rosa where she is dancing on bar tables in her white bra and panties. She's like a hot go-go dancer and it's fun to watch her go!
They all hang out together and spend an afternoon drinking and banging. You can see part of that fun afternoon here:
Uptight Gary is not cool with guys giving Shay so much attention, so drama ensues. Marianna's character has a guy, too, and they also fight. The guys don't seem cool with their girls getting drunk and taking off their clothes, but I sure am. Isn't that the beautiful part of the hippie era? That women are free to take off their clothes and have a groovy time? Regardless of how I feel, the guys in this movie don't love it. Both of them fight with their ladies which leads Gary and Shay to have an uncomfortable talk.
Gary tells her that she is not really the free woman that she thinks that she is. "You made up your own rules, so you don't have to deal with people." Then in the morning, a man stops to pick them up. They say a sweet goodbye and Gary climbs into the car alone. The couple part and that is the end of the film.
Yet again this movie shows us the 70s view of hippies as opposed to the 60s. Gary's parting words to Shay about her lack of true freedom despite being a free spirit is an indictment of hippies as a whole. Free love, drugs, and rock music can't help you escape from your problems. In fact, by the early 70s, people were starting to see that those things can create a lot of problems.
This film is honestly better than it has a right to be. It seems like it is going to be a messy, 70s romp, but it's a proper film with good character development. It shows how messy human feelings can be no matter how much we all set intentions to be cool and free. None of them expects to feel jealous and angry at one another, but that's what happened.
I've got to be honest and say that I appreciate this exploration into the complicated feelings people end up having while trying a hippie experiment. They figured hitchhiking would be easy and fun, but they were hit with the disappointing reality that is was dangerous tense. They all go their separate ways and that is probably for the best. At least we saw them have a good time together before they all said goodbye.
