BARBARA (1970) ** ½

After making love on the beach, Leslie (Nancy Boyle) and Tom (Robert McClane) are sexually assaulted by a peeping tom named Max (Jack Rader).  They kind of like it though, and he asks them to come see him at his place up the beach, which turns out to be a tent.  When Leslie finally works up the courage to go there, she finds he’s already balling a jailbait babe named Barbara (presumably played by herself).  Leslie doesn’t seem to care though as she immediately strips down and bangs Barbara too.  Together, the lovers soon turn into a foursome, but boredom eventually dictates they look “outside their circle” for new sexual experiences. 

Gratuitously avant garde, relentlessly artsy-fartsy, and incoherently experimental, Barbara is… well… something.  It’s an alternately frustrating and fascinating film.  It’s uneven as fuck, but it’s pretty interesting and definitely memorable.

Some moments are very of the time.  Some are ahead of its time.  Some moments made me just say, “Time out!”  There are scenes that are purposefully in your face, almost as if to shatter your expectations and/or chastise you for wanting to watch a dirty movie.  I’m thinking specifically of the gay rape scene.  This probably had the raincoat crowd bolting for the exits back in the day, even with the silly subtitles that accompany the dialogue. 

The black and white cinematography is decent, even if they sometimes go overboard with the filters.  The music runs the gamut of monks chanting to the typical hippie flower power folk rock you’d normally hear in something like this to weird tones played in reverse.  The editing is sometimes unnecessarily arty, but it’s occasionally effective. 

Barbara is a mixed bag to be sure, but its depiction of hippie life is probably closer to what the actual hippie experience was versus the idyllic shit you’re used to seeing in movies and TV.  I mean, most hippies really didn’t go to Woodstock and live in communes.  They were probably more like these characters:  Living in a tent, getting high, and fucking. 

All of this is fine in small doses.  However, how much of it you are willing to take probably will depend on the individual viewer.  It’s one thing to show characters broaching taboo (for the time) subjects as homosexuality, interracial sex, and incest, but once they start bringing in shit like breastfeeding and bestiality, I personally had to pump the brakes.  

I can’t say it works.  I can’t say it’s good.  I can say I admire the brazen spirit of the film, even if I can’t follow it down some of the trails it blazes. 

One thing I can say in its favor:  You never know where it’s going next.  Just when you think you’ve seen it all, out comes a random ass Kung Fu training montage.  It’s not “good” in a traditional sense, but to give it anything less than ** ½ would be a crime.