Head reveals the manner in which society impacted the making and inception of the film. The film critic Roger Ebert in his 1971 review simply titled “Head” made the statement: “I suppose it flopped in 1968 because Monkees fans were offended by it, and non-Monkees fans (i.e., anyone over 14, in either age or IQ) devoutly stayed away.” While Ebert seemed to feel that the film had its good parts, most other critics disagree with that view. Dorian Lynskey’s 2011 article released in the Guardian titled “The Monkees’ ‘Head’: ‘our fans couldn’t even see it’” summarizes the band’s feelings towards the film, and explored some of the history behind the idea for the film, as well as the making of it. None of the Monkees’ felt that audiences understood the intended message behind the movie. Head shows the lengths that the movie industry went to during the New Wave, constantly trying new unusual techniques and ideas. Those who devised and conceptualized the film intended for it to deconstruct piece by piece the Monkees’ public image. Considering that the weekend during which the film was discussed was spent in a haze of marijuana, and that when Jack Nicholson sat down to write the screenplay he was allegedly on LSD, it is not particularly surprising that the film was and remained largely a mystery to audiences across the nation. The New Wave film sought to satisfy the nation’s increasing desire for risqué, unusual experiences when they went to the movies.

Head epitomizes the nation’s growing hunger for unconventional films. Unfortunately for everyone involved, this film surpassed that hunger, and then continued on even further. When watching the film it was evident that it went too far in its mockery of war. Displaying video clips of victims being murdered intermittent with the Monkees singing onstage shows an utter lack of feeling and respect for those who lost their lives during these conflicts. Throughout this first scene showing the band onstage with screaming audience members all around them, conveys somewhat their anti-war sentiments, while at the same time shows that they feel audiences to be similar to the atrocities of war. Not only did the movie exhibit indifference when it came to war, it also revealed racist behavior in the films’ depictions of Native Americans. Throughout the film, the screenwriter managed to make light of the tragedies of war and the unfair along with biased treatment of Native Americans, while everyone who acted in the movie allowed it to slide on by. The scene that displayed a TV flipping past the channel wherein the Monkees were being torn apart by overzealous fans suggests that the band felt the public had dismissed them. The sequence presenting the band attempting to enter a café on the film lot and passing a man muttering, “who’re the Monkees anyway,” also illustrates this point.

The movie clip of Davy Jones and Frank Zappa talking is yet another in a myriad of scenes to choose from, which displays the Monkees’ opinion of their public image.

Frank Zappa in the scene says, “it [dancing] doesn’t leave much time for your music,” reiterating again their feeling of inadequacy.

The film was and still is highly unconventional. Although it utilized a popular band, it was so far gone from the films the public wanted to see that it flopped quite dramatically when it was released to the public in 1968.