How the Cult Classic “Hair” Defined a Generation

From environmentalism to the situation in Vietnam, there was hardly a controversial topic that the 1979 film “Hair” didn’t touch upon. Adapted from the 1968 Broadway play, “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” the film is a period piece that explores many of the topics that made the hippie subculture so powerful at the time.

A publicity poster for the film “Hair” / Beverly D’Angelo with John Savage in “Hair” 1979.

Photo by Cip Filmproduktion Gmbh, Kobal, Shutterstock / United Artists, Kobal, Shutterstock

Set mainly in New York’s Central Park during the 1960s, the film follows Claude, a small-town guy, who ends up meeting a group of hippies on his way to enlist in the US Army. The play and film are both a cult favorite, and many songs from the production have become famous in their own right.

This is the story about how the rock musical “Hair” defined a generation.