Commune (2005)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 573
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Movie Info
In 1968 members of San Francisco's Mime Troupe and Digger Movement decided to separate from society and form their own community, known as the Black Bear Ranch, to reconnect with nature and experience a different way of life. At the turn of the new century the resilient counterculture settlement was still active at the base of majestic Mount Shasta, and filmmaker Jonathan Berman traveled to the eighty-acre tract to explore just how the Black Bear Ranch continues to thrive despite the concerns of
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All Critics (20) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)
Commune channels a bygone era of drop-outs living an American dream on the Free Love frontier. This is the happy alternative to the apocalyptic California sub-cultures of Charles Manson and the Rev. Jim Jones.
Top CriticWatching Jonathan Berman's affectionate documentary, Commune, about the influential establishment in Siskiyou County, brought to mind the recent documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple.
Commune gets at the central, seductive paradoxes inherent in so much counterculture belief and practice.
Fitfully interesting, but would have benefited from tighter focus and finer detail.
Berman blends home movies of ranch life with interviews with former residents, their now-grown children and neighbors of the ranch.
Jonathan Berman's documentary about California's famous Black Bear Ranch is a trip.
Not exactly groovy, or anybody's idea of nirvana, dude.
Kinda down-to-earth comments make Commune kinda intriguing.
Examines what life was like at an idealized, hippie oasis back in the Sixties. Not exactly groovy, or anybody's idea of nirvana, dude.
An intriguing, entertaining and engaging documentary. My only criticism -- I simply wanted to know so much more.
It's good to hear people talking about openheartedness without irony.
It's fascinating to see how the Black Bears got onto their current path, but we don't see enough of the journey.
If not a social history of the '60s, it's a close examination of a quintessential '60s phenomenon that speaks volumes about the attitudes and experiences that shaped the decade.
The documentary is loose-limbed and not at all artful--which is to say, it's scarcely bourgeois and just as the Black Bear Ranch people would like it.
What is fascinating about Berman's Commune is how well it captures the passage of time and the life lessons learned from the commune experience.
Audience Reviews for Commune
Super Reviewer
This was so informative and interesting (well, of course it was to me as I am into anything that has to do with the '60s & '70s. :P) This documentary was great because it had in-depth interviews with a lot of the people that lived at the Black Bear Ranch. What's even cooler is that the actor Peter Coyote grew up there and he talked a lot about how it was.
Ah, the beautiful people just enjoying each other. :) That's what it's all about. It was very refreshing. I can totally picture myself living that way, or at least trying it out. I don't (yet) believe this world is so far gone that we can't have a place where people can live happily and free with one another. People, especially the ones my age, may think the '60s where so long ago, but I think the opposite. There's so much to be learned from the past generations and I plan to keep the hippie spirit alive. It's not long ago when you really think about it, humans are humans, no matter if it was 50 or 500 years ago.
This movie demonstrates the positive and negative aspects of living at the commune. It has some awesome footage too. I recommend this to anyone who is curious about what living in a commune is like, especially one of the first seemingly successful ones.
*Peace...
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