Gold: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality.
(Wild Eye Releasing)
Everyone in love with the counterculture of the 1960s has rented Woodstock, read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and daydreamed to the tune of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. So, what’s left?
Well, if they’re really that interested in sixties society fringe, they could check out Bob Levis’ Gold: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality.
This satire comes across more as an orientation video for a nudist colony than anything else, a psychedelic, polyamorous nudist colony at that. To the sound of punk predecessors MC5, the freethinking folks in the film are comically fighting the law for the freedom to don their birthday suits and ball in public.
Improv legend Del Close plays a revolutionary in the film, who frees the naked people from their cage, literally, but probably also as a metaphor. (But, I’m not sure I would have gotten to that conclusion on my own, since I tuned in to Levis’ commentary after dropping out of trying to follow the plot solo).
Definitely an era piece, steer clear from this avant garde film if you are seeking a coherent storyline. But, if you happen to be the director of a nude swingers camp and are looking for some reference material, this movie might have what you’re after, including a potential slogan in the film’s heartfelt line: “Inside every clothed person, a naked person is trying to get out.â€
