Customer Reviews

200 Motels [VHS]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First of all, the one thing that a lot of people miss about Zappa was that he was a master "resource" utilizer. - - He knew what he wanted his projects to look and sound like, and was great enough of an artist/producer to find/discipline people capable of delivering his vision - - So the big question : Despite his notorious reputation for his mixture of music and oddball stage antics, given a REAL big budget to make a real big motion picture, could he pull something off ? - - The answer... UNBELIEVABLY FRIGGIN' YES ! ! ! - - The film captures the MOTHERS in their prime circa the antics of FLO & EDDIE... the bizarre stage routines of his group are MELTED together by a great theme... that TOURING can make you crazy... though surreal, beyond the paranoia and psychadelic wierdness, the backstage politics of a band touring on the road, the stresses between the leader and bandmembers... and yes, the neverending quest for the ultimate BJ come through in the form of a BRILLIANT opera, featuring a full symphonic orchestra and some surprizing guest appearences... including Ringo Starr as frank zappa. - - The music is great... the images are great... and the performances (musical, now and then sexual, and stagewise) are a brilliant and mindtripping experience... This film is DEFINITELY something to watch over and over into and really get into... especially (of course) if you're a Zappa nut - - just don't get too psyched, otherwise you might find yourself singing the words to LONESOME COWBOY BURT outloud on the bus on the way to wherever...

Frank Zappa himself does not say/sing a word in 200 Motels, though he is often seen on screen. The starring roles are taken by Flo & Eddie, Jimmy Carl Black, Ringo Starr, Miss Lucy & Miss Pamela, & more Mothers & their friends. If you expecting a straightforward plot or a 'proper' film this isn't it, but if you want pioneering experimentalism, many subplots, a lot of bizarre humour & music, this is the place. Set in the typical American town of Centerville [despite being filmed mostly live to videotape in England], on a seemingly endless tour, the title referring to approximately how many places the real life Mothers of Invention had stayed over the previous 6 years, complete w/ "vile foamy liquids" & groupies galore [listen to the Fillmore East lp of the same year as this film as that is about 1/2 of the lyrical content]. Reality & fiction merge, cameras are openly visible, breaking all the rules of Hollywood which we don't really need anyway. The special effects & psychedelia take their toll, as the 1st time I saw this my head was spinning after. It does help to be somewhat familiar w/ Zappa mythology to get what's going on & all the obscure references, for instance, Cal Schenkel's animated sequence Dental Hygiene Dilemma is based on a band member Jeff Simmons who had recently quit the "comedy group" to get his own band together & be really "heavy", while Donovan acts as his conscience & spiritual guide. In another scene Jim Black becomes Lonesome Cowboy Burt, who frequents the redneck bar & likes to aim his rifle @ an image of a hippie on a dartboard, whilst serenading the waitresses. There are numerous other things to mention, but I think everyone should see this, it's one of my favourites definitely. I'd better finish off this review because "they're gonna clear out the studio!!!"

I first saw this movie back in the 80's and fell in love with it immediately. I am a Zappa fan and own the entire Zappa music catalog on CD. Why this movie is still so great to me many years later is that it so well documents the lifestyle of rock musicians in the early 70's. And, it's fun!!! And funny!!!

I would recommend it most for people who are fans of both Classical and Rock music, because there is a lot of both in the movie. Zappa didn't see any difference in the two forms of music beyond technical issues. Further, the accomanying imagery blends concert footage, social commentary, and some wonderful animations, dance, and abstract visuals.

This movie is both fun and sophisticated. It's silly, so don't expect something deep. But it does have it's intellectual side as well, so don't expect MTV. And be prepared to laugh at quite a few sacred cows. Nothing is sacred in this film.

I recommend watching it with friends who are in a mood to party and discuss the meaning of life all at once. You can either sit and watch it or just let it play in the background as your party goes on. If you like to relax and keep it light and loose, this movie is definitely an excellent ingredient towards that process.

This is a film about the world of musicians unlike any other. It is not a traditional concert documentary or a melange of interviews and images. "200 Motels" is more like a combination of performance art and philosophical musings on the artist`s role in society.
The key theme is noted at the beginning, when the narrator asks, "What can we do with the musician in society- what is his purpose?" If you work in any creative field, play music, or majored in anything remotely Liberal Arts- related, you`ll relate to this in a big way! Zappa goes on to show us exactly what kinds of challenges a working musician faces in a milieu which is at often at odds with his own goals. The numbing sameness of the towns and cities that bands travel through is satirized, as are the archetpal characters that await them there: greedy promoters, shapely groupies, and wacky locals, as personified by the cheerful and lecherous Cowboy Bert. This movie may not seem very coherent at first, but if you watch it closely, you`ll see that it keeps returning to the theme of the musician being perpetually outside the society he entertains. Along the way, there is a lot of good music, often accompanied by a fine orchestra, and a good deal of satiric/scatological humor. It`s been said that Zappa ferociously slams pop and rock music in this film and on many of his albums, especially early efforts like Cruising With Ruben and the Jets. I personally tend, however, to think that much of the satire is good-natured. Although he was at heart a jazz/ avant-garde enthusiast, throughout his life Zappa composed and performed many kinds of music, including standard rock, doo-wop, and classical. And many of these varied influences appear in "200 Motels" as well.
I highly recommend this fun and thought-provoking flick. And don`t miss the concluding musical number, in which the Zappa band and the orchestra sing a tribute to those normally considered to be weird or deviant by society. It`s a different kind of movie, all right!

If you're unaware of Frank Zappa then this might scare you away from him. Start off by listening to his albums (okay CDs) first then warm your way to concert footage (which you will love, trust me on that one!). The film does have a clever plot and great acting. Also the guys from The Turtles (who tour with him for awhile) and Ringo Starr (who plays Frank in the movie) are the stars in the film. Frank, however, has to deal with the BBC studio schedule and their orchestra so you wont get to see him a lot. If your a fan you'll love it!

What an all-time classic.
I saw it a bunch of times in the theaters, when it was first released.
Is it ever going to come out on DVD?

(Centerville .... a nice place to raise your kids ... )
("He made me do it!", says Ringo Starr, dressed as Frank Zappa ...)

Frank Zappa was a creative genius, and his "200 Motels" was a true video masterpiece! "200 Motels" tells a simple story about how touring in a rock band can seem to make you crazy. Zappa used a new medium of the early 70's, what we now call "video", and really pushed it beyond the known limits. The effects he used in this movie have often been copied, and were used to describe the weird world of touring. City after city, sandwich after sandwich, the towns all begin to look fake after awhile; the effects where used to emphasize how the struggles of touring and how all that traveling and responsibility really tweaks your brain, your ability to perceive reality. This movie was possibly the first true "music video", since it originated in video, and possibly tweaked the minds of the engineers up in the control booth. When you look at how the video was structured, well, it's all shot entirely in a studio environment. It's a story within a story, and like so many other filmmakers, Zappa was almost making fun of himself, in a lighthearted manner, much as Felini and Allen have done in some of their films. Yes, this movie is twisted, in fact just as twisted as life in America tends to get. This movie is best seen projected in a theater, and unless you have a t.v. larger than 27", I recommend you wait, because it really needs to be seen larger than life!

200 Motels fits neatly in Zappa's concept that everything is related. Using members of the Mothers from different time periods and following a storyline that places characters in amd out of space (one character is talking to one group of mothers, then suddenly we are shifted to another location where the conversation is being continued in a completely different context with other band members). This is Zappa at his most audacious. Music is not easily digestible 3:30 songs with memorable hooks, this is Zappa playing with the Orchestra. Frank himself rarely appears on screen, allowing Ringo Starr to fill in his part. With Beatle Ringo, Turtles Flo & Eddie, and Who Drummer Keith Moon making appearances on and off throughout the film, what we have is Zappa's dream/nightmare of what it is like to spend a year on the road, where every town looks the same. Sets are relegated to cardboard cut-outs to increase the uniformity, and Zappa also pays tribute to Kubrick, with appearances of 2001's monolith and Clockwork Orange's pig-masks. This is the first film shot on video, then transfered to film stock, which allows for quicker editing and electronic image manipulation. Rated R for nudity, language and beer drinking (Remember, Zappa was anti-drug)

I've waited for three years (out of my 19) to find this video. I finally did and it is genius. It is thought provoking and the music is amazing. LONG LIVE FZ

If you know nothing about this movie, there are a few facts you should be aware of before watching that help mitigate the usual hatred this movie elicits:

1) It had a budget of $700,000. Of that, $400,000 went directly to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, so effectively this movie had a budget of $300,000.

2) It had a shooting schedule of five 8-hour days.

Given these two tourniquet-like limitations, it is amazing that Zappa got ANYTHING done, let alone this final product. A good companion piece to this film is "The True Story of 200 Motels" which documents these (and numerous other) obsticles Zappa encountered while making this beast. If Gail Zappa ever gets around to issuing a DVD of 200 Motels, hopefully she will be precient enough to include The Making OF as a bonus feature... but I digress.

Yes, this film is technically "bad," but it's so bad it's good, and it has much self-effacing humor within it about how bad it is. Admittedly, the movie doesn't have a plot per se: it is a collection of "road stories" designed to underscore the central theme that "touring can make you crazy." 200 Motels has a heavy dose of Dadaism, which admittedly I have never been a big fan of, but in this case it semems to work, as it lends well to the budget limitations and surreal feeling of the film. Likewise, much of the score is avante garde neo-classical, which I have never been into (if I want classical music, give me the baroque masters.)

If you are new to the Zappa universe, this probably is a bad place to start, as the film relies heavily on "inside jokes" and references to the previous corpus of Zappa/Mothers musical inventory -- what is known as his "Conceptual Continuity." I've got his entire catalogue so I GET the jokes, but friends I've shown this to who knew little to nothing about FZ merely scratched their heads with a perplexed look. Tellingly, though, they all admitted they *liked* it, even if they didn't *understand* it.

Obviously, this film is not for everyone, especially those prone to epilepsy (a joke/warning which is made early in the film!) or those who need a linear, well-defined plot. If you're willing to risk something "different," though, give it a try.