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Social Seminar: Tom (1972)

Presents Tom, a 26-year-old who has dropped out and has dropped everything, LSD, mescaline, psilocybin and some things familiar only to obscure chemists in Berkeley.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Sponsor: Natl Inst Of Mental Health
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: need keyword

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Eric R. - - January 29, 2012
Subject: Freedom Rock
"Hey man is that FREEDOM ROCK?"

"Yeah, man."

"Well turn it up!"

Reviewer: Skins222 - - July 22, 2010
Subject: An Interesting Movie.
No, Tom is NOT representative of the 60's/70's generation. Most young people of that generation did not "turn on, tune in, and drop out", most did not use psychedelic drugs... However, some people did experiment with psychedelic chemicals for better of worst. Tom seems to have a good philosophy of life, he basically says we need to look within ourselves and question the values by which we live. With regards to drugs I say, "to each his own", the choice to take drugs or not to take drugs is a personal one and should be left to the persons choice and not governments or lawmakers. If drugs worked for in a positive way for Tom then more power to him.

Reviewer: RadioTinnitus - - January 12, 2010
Subject: Tom, are you still there?
This movie is quite captivating, but my five stars don't mean to applaud poor Tom. Tom, if you're still intact, or even if you're not, I'd like to offer to do a follow up piece on your life today and what's happened to you and your friends. Here's a sample of my work:
http://www.archive.org/details/RadioTinnitusVol2GoshenSpeedWash

I hope you're okay!

Reviewer: shakey - - March 11, 2009
Subject: Up In Smoke
I wonder if Tom is conducting telepathic conversations with Charlie Manson.

I could never hack the counter culture types who decried the injustices in the world while stewing their brains in chemicals. What alternative did they offer to societies problems? Lose yourself in a haze of drugs and eastern meditation. The fruit of the sixties generation world view can be seen all around us in 2009, and it is not a pretty picture.

The same world view is around today only it sits in the seats of power wearing a shirt and tie.

Reviewer: pheret - - January 20, 2008
Subject: Tom
i can find absolutely NOTHING wrong with tom or his lifestyle. what's he doing that could possibly be bothering other people? it's a great film!

Reviewer: marianne333 - - April 7, 2007
Subject: hmmm
I think I went out with this guy back then..or a reasonable fascimile.ah the good old days. What I can remember of them.

Reviewer: Ashra - - August 13, 2006
Subject: Wonderful People
Last night I watched this film when the mushrooms I had eaten that evening were phasing out. I was staring at my screen in total amazement and had a strong urge to meet Tom and see what he is up to nowadays.

Reviewer: CoOLbReEz - - January 29, 2006
Subject: Awesome!!
This film made me want to move to Big Sur and score some Peyote! Plus all those cute hippy-chicks and awesome waves.....who could want anymore!!! Long Live the 60's!!! Free Love, Man!!

Reviewer: ERD - - December 16, 2005
Subject: Beyond reality
An excellent film about the 1960's drop outs. There always came the reality of the morning, and then what? Take more drugs?
Many of us during that time didn't have the time to goof around or "experiment." We were too busy
surviving and living in this world-like it or not.

Reviewer: mateh - - December 15, 2005
Subject: a look into the hippie life of the sixties
informative, not much of a point to it nonetheless.

Reviewer: wappo47 - - September 24, 2005
Subject: Tom
Toms my hero.
1969... Just graduated from High School. I didn't even smoke cigarettes. Then this thing called the draft caught me, because I couldn't make up my mind on whether to do college, or not. 2 years in the Marine Corps taught me how to cope with unbearable circumstances, and we call the cure "Pot". I learned how to grow the best... I learned the meaning of cloning 20 years before Dolley was born. I actually picked peyote from its mother cactus. Then I quit the life,got a job, and went back to school where I learned about the cool things called lasers!
Now almost 40 years later I've started smoking pot again. Not to expand my mind, or to see things in a different light (I saw those lights years ago. ), but to help me fight the sickness of cancer... some brothers tell me it was the "Orange" from the Nam, but it doesn't really matter. What really matters was that I had the chance to see the person I was again.
Oh and by the way... That surfing footage was really lame. They should have filmed that scene from my deck. I'm looking at some 20 foot swells that would have made Tom fill his wetsuit!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - April 11, 2005
Subject: Duuuuuude!!
The best Social Seminar film introduces us to a fello named Tom, a guy you wouldn't want to introduce to your folks, for fear he might do something embarassing. Tom is such a pot-dope-lsd-mushroom head and his rumnations about life is too funny. Love his printing skills too! Check out his (I think) Welfare meeting and his "spot-the-bullshit" game he plays with his counsellor! Look what kind of pad 3 potheads can share (quite nice actually).. Tom says, while he's high on mushrooms, 'Let's Go Hiking!', my response, "Yes, Lets!" Highly reccomended!!

Reviewer: gd420mj - - January 2, 2005
Subject: A Psychedelic World
Being one who has well experienced psychedelics, I must say this film hits it on the head. Tom has many ideas which still hold true today. Like if we are going to survive on large scale, we need to stop acting blindly, on impulse, on an ego level, ..... If everyone else only knew. I am not a drop out,I am an engineer, but the occasional dable in it, leaves one with a different view of the world everytime. Just this past New Years, I had way too much alcohol and got sick. And even though the experiences are different, I would rather have had psilocybin. It'll leave your mind so much clearer than when you started and you'll never get sick. Praise to this film, it makes psychedelics more desirable in my opinion.

Reviewer: bruisedtoes - - March 26, 2004
Subject: TOM
A sensitive portrait of an acceptional dropout. Tom is eloquent in his considerations of the whys and hows of his psychedelic drug use.
It would be a great thing to follow up on.

Find contemporary Tom... if he is still around, and you will find a deep story.

Reviewer: Steve Nordby - - November 12, 2003
Subject: Tune in, turn on, drop out
This is part of a documentary series done by UCLA and the National Institute of Mental Health. In this one Tom seems to have taken Timothy Leary's advice. We get to see Tom talk about his youth, surfing, be interviewed by some kind of (undefined) social service agent, and get high with his friends.

Reviewer: cashel - - September 18, 2003
Subject: a fine documentary
I commend this film ,as an honestportrayal of some young adults in the 1960,s..