Gold: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality

Gold’s DVD case touts the “previously unreleased music from MC5” on the soundtrack as one of the main selling points, right below the goofball acid casualty and the hippie-chick hooters. But even the most obsessive McFreaks will feel buyer’s remorse pretty early into this 1968 experiment in just how little mental effort can be expended in making a feature-length film. Bob Levis basically took a movie camera and a suitcase that must’ve put Raoul Duke’s to shame and gave his clothing-adverse stoner friends the Blair Witch treatment. The film might be of more interest to improv-comedy nerds. That goofball on the cover is Del Close, inventor of long-form game the Harold, and the role of Hawk here is actually one of his most substantial onscreen parts in a filmography full of man-at-bars and hobo-wearing-eyepatches. Watching him ad-libbing his ass off and interacting with Garry Goodrow, member of the Committee and the Lemmings tour is interesting if not particularly enlightening, as is the anecdote-filled commentary from Close disciples Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts of the Upright Citizens Brigade.