I may be a cold blooded cynic – not too much makes me sentimental. I don’t gravitate towards the ‘girly’ or ‘romantic’, I don’t like anything frilly, and I certainly don’t enjoy being manipulated by entertainment. I’ve always held tearjerking, weepy movies in contempt. Even lower contempt for people who watch chick flicks and blubber. I don’t watch movies and cry. I find that pathetic. But I’m not entirely made of stone either. For whatever reason, there’s one moment that’s always made me feel weepy – the finale of the movie Hair. It could be the crescendo of the music, or something about the sheer catastrophic finality of a simple mistaken identity. It might be the unexpected heft of an otherwise light spirited movie turning serious. It might even be the very fact that Milos Forman isn’t actively trying to turn on your waterworks – he’s effectively killing off his most lovable character, but he’s still keeping a hopeful tone. If it were to follow that airplane and actually show what happens to Berger in Vietnam, that would be going overboard and the effect would be ruined. But anyhow, whatever you think it is, it never fails to affect me. Taken out of context like it is here, it may be missing some of its punch, but of course I assume you’re a sophisticated film buff and you’ve seen the movie.
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