| Hippy-dippy at its hippy-dippiest, Rainbow Bridge is a piece of counterculture slag that capitalizes on its footage of Jimi Hendrix (who died not long after filming). Actually, Hendrix only shows up at the very end of this long, bizarre film, bringing the same luster that Sean Connery did to the dreadful Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Prior to that, however, are the slight and stupid trials of Pat Hartley, a woman sent to Hawaii to check out a commune. She finds a utopia for Philosophy 101 dropouts and the kinds of freethinkers Joe Friday used to deflate so easily on Dragnet. Not a frame of this film is interesting--not thematically, not cinematically, not any-atically. Hendrix fans will probably find Rainbow Bridge worth it for those lingering moments of the master and his guitar, but fast-forward to get there. Better yet, track down the late guitar master's incendiary (literally) performance from Monterey Pop, bracketed by equally astonishing turns by other '60s greats. --Keith Simanton |
