The Distant Drummer
The Distant Drummer | |
---|---|
Directed by | William Templeton |
Written by | Don Peterson |
Produced by | Frank Kavanaugh |
Narrated by | Robert Mitchum Rod Steiger Paul Newman |
Cinematography | Charles E. Francis |
Edited by | James E. Carpenter |
Music by | E. Robert Velazco |
Release date | 1970–72 |
Running time | 22 minutes |
Country | US |
Language | English |
The Distant Drummer is a short-lived series of four 22-minute American documentary films produced in the early
Narrated by Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger and Paul Newman
The first film, A Movable Scene, focuses on the rise of the counterculture and its association with
The third entry in the series, Bridge from No Place, narrated by Rod Steiger, was released in 1971 and centers upon the experience of drug culture. Addicts, including Vietnam War soldiers describe what it feels like to be addicted and treatment options are discussed.[2]
The fourth and final Distant Drummer film, Flowers of Darkness concerns the dangers associated with
Robert Mitchum's narration
Opening lines in Robert Mitchum's narration of the first Distant Drummer film, A Movable Scene:
"This is the straightened society. The orderly, well-managed, well-disciplined world of the establishment. It is made possible by the
Thousands of snapshots on police station walls remain the only link between many of America's most affluent families and the children who embodied their great expectations. Nearly everyone in the hippie community smokes marijuana — whether they call it pot, grass, hemp, gage, joint or mary jane — the marijuana is the basic background for the shared drug experience. The experience is shared to such an extent that roach pipes are always in demand — a roach is a marijuana butt and it requires some form of holder for those last few drags. The new generation, whether they are runaways or rebels-in-residence, use marijuana as a symbol of discontent with the basic values of the establishment. For some, there exists a social imperative beyond flaunting society's rules — for these adventurers the mind-expanding drugs open a window on a whole new frontier..."
Counterculture and anti-drug documentaries as historical artifacts
Alongside such familiar counterculture documentaries as Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock, which was also released the same year as A Movable Scene and A Movable Feast, a number of little-known and rarely-seen features and short films depicting the hippie era were also produced in the early 1970s and remain as time-capsule chronicles of their period. Because of the didactic stridency associated with some of these films' anti-drug lecturing, the productions have been frequently classified as camp and shown as fillers at Turner Classic Movies' Saturday night–Sunday morning film showcase series, TCM Underground.
References
- ^ Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene at Archive.org
- ^ The Distant Drummer Bridge from No Place at U.S. National Library of Medicine
- ^ The Distant Drummer Flowers of Darkness at U.S. National Library of Medicine
- ^ Flowers of Darkness at RateYourMusic
- ^ Flowers of Darkness at Dangerous Minds (October 31, 2012)
- ^ Flowers of Darkness at The Open Video Project
External links
- A Movable Scene at IMDb
- A Movable Scene at the TCM Movie Database
- A Movable Feast at IMDb
- Flowers of Darkness at IMDb