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This blog is a story of one fan's effort to "write" a wrong.


In 1979, a film called Hair, based on the seminal rock musical that defined the late Sixties and early Seventies, was released by United Artists. Fans of the work by Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt MacDermot were hopeful that this snapshot of an era they lived in would receive proper treatment on the screen. What they received was...less than that. The story was considerably altered, and only half of the score was used. The story was no longer about "the Tribe" (as the show's ensemble was dubbed in the Broadway mounting) as a whole; they were reduced in large part to a dance troupe that shunted on and off once in a while, with no real connection to the central characters. The authors (and the show's original Broadway producer, Michael Butler) considered the film a failure and a disappointment; ironically, its director, Milos Forman, considers it one of his finest works.

Many have deemed the problem with the film as being too close in time to the events it portrayed to show them as history, and too far away in time to claim that the story had any relevance to the world around it. Hair was no longer shocking and exciting; thanks in part to the attention it drew to social issues at the time, none of what made it a hit was controversial anymore. The draft was over, now and forever; young men would no longer be conscripted by their country in time of war. Interracial sex was no longer a novelty, or for that matter a headline. Homosexuality, be it open or guarded, was no longer being swept under the rug. Long hair on men was the norm, and no longer considered a revolt. Promiscuity and having children out of wedlock was no longer uncommon, and it wasn't particularly frowned upon either. All the big issues Hair drew attention to in its call for change were gone.

But some things never change. There will always be unpopular presidents. There will always be unjust wars. There will always be a cross-section of young people who band together, find their own natural aesthetic, and try to change the world they live in. Kids who question authority, and the society they're living in. Kids who yearn to change the world, and seek to find a new way, and start by recreating themselves. Unkempt, wild, free, deep, unique, colorful, original, beautiful, hip.

They will always tune in, turn on and drop out; they will hang out in self-made clouds, maybe not of incense and grass, but of blissful escape (technology, for example, claims to bring us closer together whilst really isolating us from the world in our own self-made cloud, and allowing us to escape reality -- witness the popularity of FarmVille on Facebook). They will always laugh and cavort and find a new camaraderie and freedom of expression. They will commune and join hands in both protest and song. They will avoid facing what's really going on, wrapped in their drugs and protests and trends and radical politics, until it's too late. People are always dying. And man's inhumanity to man will wipe us all out unless we "let the sun shine in" and wake us the fuck up to what's really going on around us. As long as this continues to be true, there will always be an audience for Hair.

It's all worth telling again, and telling in a way that embraces the modern need for brevity and sparkle. Hair and modern sensibilities in entertainment could co-exist with the right touch. And that's why I'm writing a screenplay aiming at a closer adaptation of the original play. That's why I'm diving deep into my project. It's pure fan wish fulfillment. I have no hope in hell of selling the screenplay, or even getting anybody to read it. But I'm not going to let Hair die. Hair the way I see it, like it or hate it. Hair for an audience of one, or none. Hair, because those who forget history's mistakes are condemned to repeat them.

To follow more of the reasons why I want to re-do this project, and why the authors disliked the film in their own words, please view the "Statement of Purpose" page in the nav bar above. Also, the appropriate legal "Disclaimer" can be accessed the same way. Thank you for reading and following along, on my journey back to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius! Keep the memory alive! "Let the sun shine in!"