Can only recommend this if you really enjoyed The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I think this would likely bore you if you're not already familiar with the Merry Pranksters and some of the events from the book.

These people think they are a whole lot more interesting than they actually are

http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.com/2016/01/magic-trip.html

El aclamado documentalista Alex Gibney nos describe cómo fue el viaje a través de los Estados Unidos en los años 60 del escritor Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest") y de su grupo de "bromistas" en un bus psicodélico lleno de LSD y un espíritu entre beatnik y hippie. Su usted sabe algo sobre la contracultura de los años 60 y sobre Kesey, este documental no le aportará nada nuevo. Para los iniciados será un viaje revelador.

Far out, man. A great honest look at Kesey, his pranksters, their road across the US and influencing the mainstream and counter-cultures.

Ken Kesey was a far better human than Leary ever was.

fun and educational social history

This wonderful documentary depicts the heritage of the radical action group The Merry Pranksters, as a series of almost flicker-like visions and voices. With the 16mm color footage being actual, Magic Trip is more than just a psychedelic home movie. It is an initiatory ritual towards a method of de-programming instead of programming. "Further" will you go...

Did not keep our interest.

On a visit to New York City in 1963 to attend the premiere of the stage version of his novel "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," Ken Kesey witnesses the construction of the World's Fair site and starts to plan a cross country trip the following year when it will be opened.(What? No Mets game in the new stadium?) At the same time, as Kirk Douglas recalls in his autobiography "The Ragman's Son," Kesey was already showing the tell-tale signs of taking LSD that he had begun as part of a government experiment a few years previously. That would provide the fuel for his friends on the journey, The Merry Pranksters, in a converted school bus, driven by the legendary Beat Neal Cassady who would be fueled by speed. As I recall from reading "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe(strangely not mentioned here even though it covers the same territory) in high school(Did I ever mention that I had the coolest history teacher ever?), the filmed footage which makes up the bulk of the documentary "Magic Trip" was brought up. At the time, that footage was not edited down into a manageable length and we can clearly see why as most of it looks so rough that it should come as no surprise that it was filmed by amateurs on drugs, with the exception of the World's Fair footage which looks cool. The documentary uses after the fact interviews to piece it all together and it sort of works to make a case for Kesey and his friends being not only a second generation Beats, but also the root genesis of the hippies. However, in the end, we only find out the fates of Kesey and Cassady and the divergent directions their lives would take them.

"Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place" Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood's road, LSD, counterculture documentary Magic Trip is a film that is hard to wrap my head around. I can't really gather my feelings toward the film. Did I like it? Yeah, I guess I did. Why did I like it? I have no idea. Maybe it is that I love seeing footage and hearing stories about the 60's and the counterculture. Maybe it is that I love Gibney's approach to his documentaries(If your at all a fan of documentaries, his is a name you should know). Maybe it is because Ken Kesey is such an interesting human being. In the end, I just liked the film and who cares why. Magic Trip is about "a long, strange trip" from California to New York. On the surface it is about a road trip with a bunch of eccentric people who have their own views on the world, and express them through the use of LSD and by painting up their bus and playing music on top of it as they drive through city after city. At its core though, the film is about the start to the hippy, counterculture that the 60's is so well known for. At the time that Kesey and his friends set out for New York, there was a lot of change going on in the world. The Civil Rights movement was just starting to take shape. The hippy generation was coming to the forefront. So I guess if asked what this movie was really about, you could say, "Change." But wondering what it is about isn't what it's about. What was the counterculture movement about? It was about change. There's a lot of stuff going on in Magic Trip that won't be for everyone. It's presented in a kind of hallucinatory way. There are moments when we are supposedly in a trip right alongside all the people on the bus. We see colors flash across the screen and see people going crazy as they battle a "bad trip." The movie also comes off as disorganized and free formed. If you think about it, that was the only way to tackle a movie about this "trip." The counterculture movement was very freeform, so presenting this story in a disorganized way makes sense. Still, it could be off putting for some. I just look at this film, not as a sensical documentary like most of us are used to, but as an excursion into a time I can only see through pictures and videos. The 60's were all about change and the only way for me to experience it all is in films like this. As it is, this is a film that is more than it seems. It's also extremely interesting, even if we don't get the point of it all.

Wow, what I would give to have been born about 50 years earlier. It doesn't even matter that none of the information is revelatory because watching the lost footage is a treat in and of itself. What an epic journey it must have been. The recording of Kesey during the government LSD tests was really amusing and accompanied by some sensationally trippy visuals.

Digging up this film was an act of inestimable value for the family tree of culture, pop and otherwise, descending from the Merry Pranksters. Not for any audience, but those of a certain bent will rejoice at the chance to go furthur into this story and witness the historical documentation of this bowl of corn from the time just before 75% of the kernels started popping at once.

Fascinating and entertaining

Entertaining movie about Kesey's busride cross country to get to the NY fair. Lots of commentary by those that were actually on the bus. Learned a few tidbits of information about some of the main players....for one thing I did not know Neal Cassady went along for the ride....

Not especially compelling as a movie, but fascinating as a document of the time and some of the crazy shit we did that would get clamped down instantly these days. Seriously; sleeping on top of and climbing around on the bus while driving? That wouldn't last long these days. Interest to see some of our cultural icons in action, as well. Regardless of, or maybe because of, how ineffective, unpersuasive, and uninspiring so much of what they do in front of this camera is.

As disjointed as the the people involved were at the time of filming.

If you're into 60's culture, this revived documentation of writer Ken Kesey and his cross country bus ride with the Merry Band of Pranksters is an essential. With psychedelic images peppered, it feels as close to an LSD trip as you'll get without being on the drug.

I tried too hard figuring out what was original footage, but it had some interesting parts I guess.

I was expecting this to be really bad, but I found it interesting and captivating.