Audience Member
thoughtful and provocative
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The plot synopsis for this film on Flixter is incorrect and it mistakenly shows the film's date as 2005 when it is actually 1968.
The musician Paul Jones is the lead actor and it came after his debut in "Privilege". These are two movies that try to show the questioning of authority and establishment. This film also shows the interesting idea that if you are given freedom to do what ever you want, without the rules of a society, human nature might not always do the right thing. The lead character in the Committee and Privilege has a inner struggle to be an individual as opposed to another cog in the wheel of society. The outcome differs in each film.
I recommend that people who are interested in the 1960's attitudes towards society and individualism take a look at both movies.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Wierd and curious, but the satire unravels thread by thread until all that is left are men standing around talking philosophy.
Also, not to be watched for the Floyd soundtrack... music is placed very sparcely, the sound quality of the film transfer is low anyway, and the Floyd's soundtrack isn't terribly captivating.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
eric b
You're probably expecting some silly, psychedelic curiosity (ooh, Pink Floyd and Arthur Brown!), but this film's goals are surprisingly highbrow. The script's dark, surreal satire is more likely to recall Camus, Orwell and Kafka than Timothy Leary. The heart of the tale involves a world where, similar to jury duty, people are called away to serve on philosophical commitees for varying lengths of time. (One experienced participant remembers that his past group simply had to decide which of five oranges was the roundest.) Along the way, some vaguely drawn ideas about non-conformity and the individual's place in society dart in and out of the frame. The film's short duration doesn't allow such themes to be fleshed out, but perhaps it's just as well. Note that the lead character (credited only as "Central Figure") is portrayed by Paul Jones, the ex-Manfred Mann singer who starred in the equally bleak, rock-star satire "Privilege" around the same time. The Pink Floyd aspect is minimal (some organ-led noodlings such as heard on Ummagumma and More), but you do get an outrageous, onscreen performance from Brown, complete with flaming helmet.
I regret that the other user review spoils the climax of the opening hitchhiking sequence, because I think this would be better left as an unexpected shock.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Brief, surreal, enigmatic British film from the late 60's. It opens with a man killing another in a car for seamingly no reason(think Albert Camus existential murder tale "The Stranger"), only to then sew it back on, to find the man is appalled but o...(read more)therwise fine. The second half of the film involves, people from all over the country bieng summoned to spend a weekend as part of a "committee", where the man who decapated his fellow traveler earlier, is also summoned. Everyone wonders, but no one bothers to question the committee, after all it's a free weekend getaway, and they are told they will make very important decisions. Our hero is lead away from the party which features performances by psychedilic wildman Arthur Brown of (The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, seen on cover here), by an even more enigmatic stranger who proceeds to explain to him, in a 20 minute conversation, the nature of individuality and community, freedom and order, impulse and the nature of the committee. The conversation is really the cornerstone of the film (the screen-writer who became an economist after the lack of sucess with this film, likens it to The Matrix in reverse, and he's not far off. The coversation scene is also paradoied in the climax of Grant Morisson's "Animal Man").
Anyway it's a mysterious film for fans of mysterious, philosophically dense movies(it's hour time line keeps the movie from treading into boredom). The most dissapointing aspect of this film is actually the Pink Floyd soundtrack, which is good, but not nearly as good as fans of the original band(Syd Barret days) will imagine it must be. A good movie, all but lost to the common man before the days of Netflix. If you like political, psychological, and phisophically challengeing films, and "wierd tales", than this is not to be missed.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Brief, surreal, enigmatic British film from the late 60's. It opens with a man killing another in a car for seamingly no reason(think Albert Camus existential murder tale "The Stranger"), only to then sew it back on, to find the man is appalled but otherwise fine. The second half of the film involves, people from all over the country bieng summoned to spend a weekend as part of a "committee", where the man who decapated his fellow traveler earlier, is also summoned. Everyone wonders, but no one bothers to question the committee, after all it's a free weekend getaway, and they are told they will make very important decisions. Our hero is lead away from the party which features performances by psychedilic wildman Arthur Brown of (The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, seen on cover here), by an even more enigmatic stranger who proceeds to explain to him, in a 20 minute conversation, the nature of individuality and community, freedom and order, impulse and the nature of the committee. The conversation is really the cornerstone of the film (the screen-writer who became an economist after the lack of sucess with this film, likens it to The Matrix in reverse, and he's not far off. The coversation scene is also paradoied in the climax of Grant Morisson's "Animal Man").
Anyway it's a mysterious film for fans of mysterious, philosophically dense movies(it's hour time line keeps the movie from treading into boredom). The most dissapointing aspect of this film is actually the Pink Floyd soundtrack, which is good, but not nearly as good as fans of the original band(Syd Barret days) will imagine it must be. A good movie, all but lost to the common man before the days of Netflix. If you like political, psychological, and phisophically challengeing films, and "wierd tales", than this is not to be missed.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
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