Very lazy filmmaking

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According to Zappa's autobiography, this film had a budget of $700,000 (and half of that went to the Royal Philharmonic) and a shooting schedule of 5 8-hour days. It's amazing he got anything done with these limits.




"It's got a wonderful defense mechanism: you don't dare kill it."

the cheapness (cheepnis?) of the sets were a statement in and of themselves. He doesn't try to hide behind top notch effects and hyper-real sets. He wants to expose the strings so to speak. To vaguely paraphrase Melville, He, Zappa wants to punch through the pasteboard mask to strike at the face of god. You can decide for yourself who or what the metaphorical mask is and who or what the god is. I believe Zappa is attacking commercialism and the spectacle of music, live and studio recorded, tv (the film was video taped) and film. Conversely, Zappa is also attacking himself. He has become part of the spectacle just by creating this work. Remember, when Zappa ridicules others, he often ridicules himself. As he states on this first album, "You're probably wondering why I'm here and so am I." You might have felt this when you saw it, but Zappa might have felt this when he made it.

I give you a D- for your inability to think critically about this film. I don't expect you to appreciate it, because it is a difficult work, but why go out of your way to blame your feeling of stupidity on Zappa's film. To quote another Zappa song, "You are what you is."

Dictated, but not read.

tony palmer would agree with you...

"Argument"? While Zappa certainly had things to say about society and such, he's not going to do it in the form of an argument in one of his artworks. And as someone else mentioned, it's not about hippies or a pro-hippie film. It is a sloppy film in some ways, but that's due to the budget/time constraints. We're lucky it was completed at all, and didn't end up like Uncle Meat. As a huge Zappa fan, I'm obviously biased, as just the music is enough for me to award a decent score, but I think it's an interesting film in any event. I gave it an 8/10 as a final rating.


http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies

They filmed the damned thing in a week. On VHS. The cuts in the beginning sequence are top notch considering this movie was edited long before fast computers were around to make the process easier.

Actually, if you watch the VPRO documentary about the making of 200 Motels, toward the end, either Flo or Eddie says that Frank says this movie will get the worst reviews of all time because the world is not ready for it, but that it didn't matter because the kids will all go to see it anyway because it's weird and about rock n' roll. This is during rehearsals when he said this.

He goes on to say that people will leave the film wondering what the hell it was about and what it was trying to say and that's the point of it: that Frank isn't saying anything. Like most of what Frank did, It's entertainment for entertainment's sake and he knows it will appeal to some and not to others and the others he really doesn't care about.