Hair

Claude, drafted from Oklahoma, arrives in New York and meets the group of hippies around George Berger. A day's curiosity stretches into several, and the induction papers are still in his pocket. Miloš Forman directed, from the 1968 Broadway musical. Michael Weller wrote the screenplay and Twyla Tharp did the choreography. John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo star. Its hardest move comes at the end. Berger puts on a uniform to visit Claude at the base and swaps places with him; the unit ships out at that moment, and it is Berger who goes to Vietnam and dies. The difference from the stage version is what its creators complained about. In the show Claude was already a member of the tribe, sharing a New York apartment with them; the film builds him as an innocent outsider arriving from elsewhere. On an 11 million dollar budget it grossed 38.3 million worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 82 percent, with critics praising Forman's direction and the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like musicals and are curious about America at the end of the sixties. Who it is not for: anyone attached to the stage version. The film rebuilds the story, and the change did not please the people who wrote the show.