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Released by: Olive Films
Released on: February 17th, 2015.
Director: Richard Rush
Cast: Susan Strasburg, Jack Nicholson, Max Julien, Bruce Dern
Year: 1968
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The Movie:
Directed by Richard Rush in 1968 for AIP, Psych-Out introduces us to a pretty young woman named Jenny (Susan Strasburg). She's deaf but has the ability to read lips so she gets by alright and when we meet her, she's decided to run away from home to find Steve, her brother. He recently sent her a strange post card. She hops a bus to San Francisco in search of him and learns after talking to some people she meets that he now goes by the name of The Seeker!
As she continues her search, she learns that The Seeker has as many enemies as he does friends and that there are those who would love nothing more than to silence him - it seems he's got some pretty strong opinions about enlightenment and his preferred way of achieving it. After hooking up with a fuzz rock band called Mumblin' Jim lead by a guy named Stoney (Jack Nicholson), she jumps head first into the wild world of free love and hippie shenanigans! With the cops snooping about, she winds up crashing at the band's place for a while, and soon enough, Stoney and Jenny are starting to dig one another. As Mumblin' Jim starts to become a force to be reckoned with, however, Stoney's dreams of rock stardom start to interfere with his budding romance with Jenny. Distraught and lonely, Jenny decides to take comfort with some hallucinogenic drugs… this can't end well.
Almost more of a travelogue of San Francisco's counter-culture movement at the end of the 'Free Love' era, Psych-Out takes us all over the city, really giving us a fascinating look at the city as it was in full swing. Of course, the fact that much of the film revolves around the use of mind altering substances affords Rush and company the chance to use all sorts of appropriately psychedelic visuals and swirly, trippy colored lighting too. The story seems more of an excuse to put Jenny through a series of bizarre set pieces more than a traditional narrative but as thin as the plot is at times, the movie is never less than entertaining.
The movie makes good use of an interesting cast. Susan Strasburg is decent enough as the female lead, never really overdoing it but definitely convincing as she becomes increasingly distraught with her situation. Bruce Dern tends to steal the show every time he's on screen, playing his character as the 'way out' type needed to make the part work. It's also fun to see a young Jack Nicholson here. He's got some pretty good charisma and fits into the cast quite well. Not surprisingly, it's the 'freak out' scenes (some of which are both imaginative and even a little bit disturbing!) that stand out here and that have earned the movie its cult following, but those in front of the camera do fine work. Those qualities, coupled with the time capsule footage of a San Francisco long gone, give this drug-laced cinematic oddity plenty of replay value.
Note that the version of the movie include on this disc is the 'director's cut' and it clocks in at one hundred and one minutes in length (about ten minutes longer than the version on the DVD), restoring a great sequence where one of the musicians tunes in and trips out to some naked ladies and some other sequences.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The film arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and it looks, in a word, excellent. Colors really pop here and the movie's visuals really go for a psychedelic style - this is nicely brought out in the transfer. Detail is very strong throughout the film and although things do exhibit a natural amount of film grain, there aren't any major issues with heavy print damage. Skin tones look nice and accurate, color reproduction is fantastic and the black levels are nice and strong. There is no evidence of any noise reduction and no problems with any compression artifacts or crush.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track but it sounds quite good. Levels are nicely balanced and the music that is used throughout the movie is appropriately punchy sounding. There's good depth to the track and no problems with any hiss or distortion to note.
Aside from static menus and chapter selection, there are no extras on the disc. The previous MGM DVD (which double featured the movie with The Trip) included a featurette on it but unfortunately that hasn't been ported over to this release.
The Final Word:
Psych-Out Is a trip! Very much a product of its time, it is a fascinating and bizarre film and while it is decidedly light on plot, as a time capsule of late sixties era San Francisco, it's pretty great stuff. The Blu-ray from Olive is devoid of any extras but it sure does look and sound nice, making this disc one worth having.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
