CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE
dir. Richard Crawford, 1970
98 mins. United States.
In English.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19 – 7PM in-theater
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Q&A WITH FILMMAKER RICHARD CRAWFORD LIVE VIA ZOOM! (This event is $10.)
Made fifty-one years ago in the wake of a fresh new mode of studio filmmaking, CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE is a lost piece of cinema history: one of the first dramatic independent feature films to deal directly with the controversial political and cultural issues surrounding the Vietnam War era. “An authentic Sixties flashback,” it is a now-classic story of women’s liberation, free love and rock ‘n roll, all set during an anti-war protest in Berkeley.
A young Marine, Paul (played by Geoff Gage), has two weeks emergency leave from Vietnam action to return home. He meets a beautiful young woman, Melissa (played by Andrea Cagan), who turns him on to the counter-culture lifestyle. The war debate that ensues casts light on the country’s divided opinion about the war and threatens Paul and Melissa’s love affair. CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE is a pure and earnest discovery, not lastly thanks to the sounds rooted in weed, activism and then-fresh performances from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe & The Fish, The Steve Miller Band and Kaleidoscope.
Carlsbad, CA resident Richard Crawford, who would go on to become an Emmy award-winning producer/director, filmed CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE in San Diego and Berkeley in 1970 during the War that ended five years later. After a brief release in 150 cities in 1972, this original psychedelic entry was taken out of circulation for dubious reasons, shelved, and even banned by the U.S. military. A legal dispute locked the film out of circulation for 35 years. Only in 2006 was Crawford able to get the rights back to his film, when it had its European premiere at the Viennale, Rotterdam, and Leeds International film festivals.
“Absolutely stunning and something very special…a very moving, political, cinema-graphic film …absolutely fresh- it’s as if no time has gone by… It ‘s eye-opening, joyful, delightful, liberating, amazing, surprising… so full of images you wouldn’t expect…” — Hans Hurch, Director of the 2006 Viennale International Film Festival
