Alice's Restaurant

PG

Released Aug 20, 1969

1h 51m

Comedy

Drama

List

63%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

59%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Arlo Guthrie plays himself in this film based on his song of the same name. After getting kicked out of college, Arlo decides to visit his friend Alice (Pat Quinn) for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner is over, Arlo volunteers to take the trash to the dump, but finds it closed for the holiday, so he just dumps the trash in the bottom of a ravine. This simple act of littering gets him arrested, and sends him on a bizarre journey that ends with him in front of the draft board.

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TIME Magazine

[Penn] has transformed a charming shaggy-dog story into a melancholy epitaph for an entire era.

Nov 21, 2008

Full Review

Nick Pinkerton

Village Voice

Penn's genius overtakes the dropout romance, like a final post-bacchanal hangover that suggests liberation as an El Dorado dream.

Nov 12, 2008

Full Review

Variety

There are occasional flashes of wry humor and some rib-tickling sequences. But they are all too few.

May 30, 2008

Full Review

Jacob Brackman

Esquire Magazine

At one end, I suppose, to judge Alice's a brilliantly inventive auteur vision: personal, topical, hilarious, deeply pessimistic... At the other, to judge Alice's a dog; a messy porridge. In the middle: reservations, fourteen-point check-list ratings.

Aug 13, 2020

Full Review

Paul Schrader

The Los Angeles Image

When a great director is given his freedom, the least we can expect is a great failure, with pretentiousness, banality, and brilliance all fighting for precedence. But the overriding failure of Alice's Restaurant is its lackluster quality.

Jun 30, 2020

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

This immensely entertaining travesty gets so much wrong about a clan of rambunctious hippies raising hell in 1969 Stockbridge, MA, that perversely, it becomes a moving comic elegy to a social movement that rocked this nutty country.

Jun 16, 2020

Full Review

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Alec B

It meanders and Arlo Guthrie is a bit of a dull lead but it's one of the least insufferable, even somewhat enduring at times, movies from the late 60s that directly addressed the cultural climate of the time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/10/24

Full Review

dave s

Director Arthur Penn made some great films during his career. Sandwiched between two of his most iconic movies, Bonne and Clyde and Little Big Man, you'll find the irritating Alice's Restaurant, proof that songs should never be made into movies. It's never really worked and never will. Arlo Guthrie's song, an anti-establishment ditty that quietly rages against the draft, is funny and touching and really quite wonderful. The movie? Not so much. The problems? Guthrie, playing himself, proves not to be much of an actor. The story thread of the song only makes up a small portion of the movie, with the rest being pointless filler that detracts from the theme. Penn's direction feels erratic and aimless. Other than the final shot, which is wonderful, there's nothing to see here. In a nutshell, save yourself a couple of hours and just listen to the song.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Unlike the music videos began by the Beatles and the Monkees, the whole movie is Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" album forming the basis for the movie's story, and is loosely based on a real life Alice who opened a restaurant in a converted church. The movie reenacts the story about how a small town makes a big fuss about Arlo Guthrie's dumping garbage down a ravine and putting him in jail for it (things were too quiet then I guess), and how it would cause Arlo to be rejected for military service-the theme of the album's title song. Hippie life in general is covered, but not a Pollyannaish manner. Alice finally gets sick of hippies living off her hospitality and blows her top at them, a man dies from drug use, a Vietnam Veteran comes home wounded. The movie does work very well as a period piece and is recommended for understanding the 1960's.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It meanders and Arlo Guthrie is a bit of a dull lead but it's one of the least insufferable, even somewhat enduring at times, movies from the late 60s that directly addressed the cultural climate of the time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Jimbo P

Gotta understand social norms of the time and the movie was made about a song written as a memoir. A classic in its own right

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/24/21

Full Review

robert m

Thanksgiving tradition? Gimme a break. Privileged kids are surprised to discover that town dumps are often closed on Thanksgiving Day. So they throw bags of trash into public places and they get caught by a local cop who's trying to protect the community from littering. If you want to understand why much of the country hated the hippies, start with this story. What's the message? I dunno. Who cares?

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Arthur Penn

Director

Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Guthrie

Patricia Quinn

Alice Brock

James Broderick

Ray Brock

Michael McClanathan

Shelly

Geoff Outlaw

Roger Crowther

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Synopsis

Arlo Guthrie plays himself in this film based on his song of the same name. After getting kicked out of college, Arlo decides to visit his friend Alice (Pat Quinn) for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner is over, Arlo volunteers to take the trash to the dump, but finds it closed for the holiday, so he just dumps the trash in the bottom of a ravine. This simple act of littering gets him arrested, and sends him on a bizarre journey that ends with him in front of the draft board.

Director: Arthur Penn
Screenwriter: Arlo Guthrie, Venable Herndon, Arthur Penn
Distributor: United Artists
Production Co: Florin
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 20, 1969, Wide
Release Date (DVD): Jan 23, 2001
Runtime: 1h 51m
Sound Mix: Mono