| Director | Bob Rafelson |
|---|---|
| Genre | musical film |
| Runtime | 85 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $750,000 |
| Box office | $16,111 |
Unlike most movies, there is no "plot" per se in this movie, rather a succession of seemingly unrelated scenes. The throughline in the film comes from the themes inherent in it: a biting satire of television; an indictment of fame, especially fame gained too early in life; commentary on the Monkees themselves and their experience as both product and performers; and a meditation on the power of media.
Head begins at the dedication of a bridge. As a local politician struggles with his microphone during the dedication speech, the four members of The Monkees, Micky, Davy, Peter, and Mike, suddenly interrupt the ceremony by running through the assembled officials, to the sound of various horns and sirens.
A later scene shows each member of the group having just been kissed by the same groupie, who tells them that they were indistinguishable. This is juxtaposed with images of screaming fans at a Monkees concert, who would do anything to be that close to their idols. This kind of juxtaposition of opposites will be seen throughout the film. As the movie continues, they make their way both together and separately through a series of unrelated vignettes, each being a different type of movie (a mystery, a war movie, a western, a desert adventure, etc.). This nonlinear narrative mimics the experience of changing channels on a TV set, flipping through various shows and various genres as part of the film's satire of television.
Subsequent scenes, some reflecting the humor of their television show, others displaying clips of such real-life issues as the Vietnam War - and conspicuously, the execution of Viet Cong operative Nguyen Van Lem in 1968 - provide commentary on the way in which media reduces everything it displays to some short of entertainment, even clips of people being brutally murdered, a scene that was widely shown on TV at the time. Throughout the film, the Monkees rebel against the unrealistic fiction that had been created about them - that they were mere actors on a TV show and not the talented musicians and performers the actually were - which they were trying to dispel with this movie.
At the end, The Monkees find themselves back on the same bridge they were on at the beginning of the movie. Just as before, they jump off the edge, demonstrating that they can "think outside the box" (the black box that in which they have been trapped at various points in the movie, representing the personal and artistic confinement of their TV show), and go in a direction not considered by all the "normal" people who use the bridge. Sadly, and in spite of their best efforts, the Monkees end up exactly where they started, looping back into the scene on the bridge to imply that life is circular, and the harder you try to escape from your circumstances, the more you end up back where you started.
In the final moments of the film, the group still underwater, is seen to be trapped - once again - in a huge tank, staring uncertainly through the glass and struggling under the water, perhaps suggesting that escaping one's fame - and one's status as a money-making product - is not as easy as gaining it.