Trip to Where is a propaganda film produced by the US Navy to warn sailors on shore leave about indulging in psychedelics, which were all the rage in the late 1960’s.
The opening sequence, a psychoactive, surreal trip that lasts nearly 8 minutes, is enough to consider this an undiscovered masterpiece of psychedelic cinema.
The Doors-like soundtrack and warped visuals makes one wonder if the filmmakers had first-hand experiences with certain substances.
After the inevitable trip to the emergency room, hospital physicians take us on an excursion through the dangers of drugs.
There’s the woman down the hall, a crystal meth addict who is in the midst of a psychotic episode.
As the doctors gossip about the paranoid, delusional behavior of the patients in the ward, we visit Mary, an alcoholic, barbiturate junkie who is about to be transferred to a mental institution.
The performance you will agree is a true tour-de-force.
The doctors, disgusted with the patients, run into a police sergeant in the lobby who bemoans that dealers sell drugs for money.
A little thorazine calms the bad trip down, and the doctor finally releases the men with a caution.
Later on deck, Bill has a flashback while on duty, and his shipmates give him grief about it.
They decide that smoking “grass” on their next day off will mellow Bill out, take the edge off.
Down at a dive bar, one of sailors, Joe, scores a dozen joints of “Acapulco Gold” from a mobster.
Later, as the sitar music flows and the party gets started, Joe plays up his street cred.
