10 Trippiest Psychadelic Movies Of The 60s, Ranked

The 1960s was known for its various counter-culture movements, and these 10 movies attempted to translate the era of the decade to film.

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Hollywood did its part to make the most of the flower power decade, but, globally too, growing hippie subcultures found a lot of representation on the big screen in the sixties. There’s a huge array of groovy, spiritual-leaning, psychedelic films that take a deep dive into the political and cultural movements that rose up during that time.

Some filmmakers did try to exploit the “happening hippies” just to draw in young audiences, but several other films were able to depict the tensions and anxieties of that era via some really interesting narratives, and here are ten of the best—and, of course, trippiest. Far out, dude.

10 Blow-up (1966)

This mystery thriller was Michelangelo Antonioni’s first English-language film and made the most of the cultural climate of the era. It also connects nuances of psychedelia with existentialist debates which dominated many European films of the sixties.

The film is based on a photographer who seemingly captures a murder on film accidentally and is pursued by trouble. The plot of the film was inspired by Julio Cortázar’s 1959 short story “Las babas del diablo,” but the life of Swinging London photographer David Bailey also influenced the film’s script in significant ways.

9 Wonderwall (1968)

Scott Pilgrim fans may love this loopy, wondrous film which was director Joe Massot’s debut venture. The film follows Oscar Collins (Jack MacGowran), a microbiologist who collects butterflies for his research and becomes obsessed with the life of his hippie neighbor Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin.

The film did a good job of upholding the unusual drug-fuelled excess of the era, though the script was somewhat flawed. George Harrison did the soundtrack for the film, and he famously spent £15,000 of his own money on the project, which would eventually become his debut solo album, Wonderwall Music.

8 Barbarella (1968)

Often referred to as the first female sci-fi, this film attempted to unite themes of groovy psychedelia with a science fiction narrative. It was not received very well when it came out, but its influence found its niche as the films of the 60s began to be explored in the modern age.

Jane Fonda plays a 41st-century space adventurer named Barbarella who is assigned by the President of Earth to retrieve the inventor of the laser-powered superweapon called the positronic ray, Dr. Durand Durand, from the Tau Ceti planetary system which the leaders fear could fall into the wrong hands.

7 Skidoo (1966)

No one would picture the iconic comedian Groucho Marx as a mobster, but this Otto Preminger film takes many other brave liberties with this trippy and funny screenplay. Preminger was also responsible for noir outings like Fallen Angel and Laura and brings a subtextual sense of macabre in Skidoo, the film follows an acid trip that helps a retired mobster expand his mind to design an escape plan from prison.

Despite its creative novelties, body-painting, and era-specific flamboyant aside, Skidoo is not a very timeless film; it was a film made to be enjoyed specifically in that decade and may come across as a little jaded and out-of-touch today.

6 The Girl On A Motorcycle (1968)

This Jack Cardiff film is the epitome of the break-free spirit that defined the sixties. Marianne Faithfull stars as a leather-clad woman named Rebecca who leaves her home and her husband in her French countryside home and rides to Heidelberg to meet up with a former lover (Alain Delon).

The film tells the story of Rebecca’s life, leading up to these events and features really nuanced psychedelic elements, but its most notable accomplishment was introducing the full-leather bodysuit as motorcycle gear, and it was after this film that this fierce one-piece styling replaced regular leather jackets as a go-to fashion pick for female motorcyclists.

5 The Trip (1967)

This Roger Corman film accurately tracks the LSD experience in the context of the anti-establishment cinematic movement; it also had its release at the peak of ‘Summer of Love’ and had a very notable impact in the cultural milieu. The story goes as follow: Peter Fonda plays an advert director named Paul Groves whose wife Sally leaves him, propelling him towards a breakdown of sorts.

Groves goes to his friend ‘LSD guide’ friend John, who takes him to a ‘freak-out,’ where Paul experiences reveries of flower girls, sex, the joys of hippie life, but also extreme visions of death, witches, and torture chambers.

4 The Love-Ins (1967)

The Love-Ins also chose to focus on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood like many other indie outings of that decade. The Arthur Dreifuss film is loosely based on the life of psychologist Timothy Leary, who was an advocate of psychedelic drugs.

To be specific, Leary inspired the character of the philosophy professor, Dr. Jonathon Barnett, who resigns as a teacher and decides to become an active ally for the counterculture youth movement, especially vis-a-vis the use of LSDs, especially by the hippie communities. Despite its slick, colorful screenplay, the film was accused of exploiting the trending hippie culture without having too much substance

3 Psych-Out (1968)

Much like The Trip, Psych-Out was also a counterculture era psychedelia outing, but it’s more intense and conscience-driven. The films also accurately depicted the tumult and squalor that the hippie communities had to live through, and it’s considered a reasonable account of that decade.

In the film, Strasberg plays a deaf young woman named Jenny who has left home to look for her missing brother which leads her to the bohemian haven of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which is often referred to as the birthplace of the ‘60s counterculture movement. There, Jenny meets an LSD-loving rock group and starts a relationship with a band member named Stoney (Jack Nicholson).

2 Point Blank (1967)

Point Blank is referred to as psychedelic noir that didn’t follow a rigid narrative-based progression and instead explored a curious form of story-telling that focused on understanding the temporal anxieties and the workings of time and space. The film is based on a 1962 crime thriller The Hunter by American writer Donald E. Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark. The film is structured like a noir mystery, but, as it progresses, it takes in the tonality of an avant-garde melodrama

1 Easy Rider (1969)

Denis Hopper’s Easy Rider is often credited for ushering in the American New Wave era of filmmaking; the road trip drama was able to encapsulate some of the most significant tensions of American within its premise without being too high-brow.

Two biker hippie friends, namely Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) embark on a cross-country trip after concluding a drug deal, and it was during the course of this trip that they experience different facets of American living, especially in the smaller towns.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/trippiest-psychadelic-60s-movies-ranked/