Ringo and Freddie, two 16 year teenagers from upstate New York, hitchhike to Florida in 1966, the summer before the "Summer of Love," to see an old girlfriend. They don't make it but they battle with segregation, discrimination, injustice, almost get killed by rednecks, and learn about an underground community in Baltimore where Ringo falls for someone else.—Don Rittner
The Meaning Behind The Making Of Karen Or Bust
The film Karen or Bust is set in a pivotal time in American culture and history. The year 1966 was the year before the "Summer of Love" and the Hippie Counterculture. It was a time when the British subculture of Mods and Rockers came to America with American Mods sharing an interest in fashion and music. Mods wore suits and other clean-cut outfits, and preferred music such as soul, rhythm and blues, beat, and British blues-rooted bands like The Who, The Yardbirds, and of course The Beatles. They wore their hair down in a Beatle cut. CPO jackets and Dingo Boots were common fashion.
Rockers were centered on motorcycling and Elvis. They wore black leather jackets and motorcycle boots or brothel creeper shoes. They were heavily influenced by Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The common rocker hairstyle was a pompadour, while their music of choice was 1950s rock and roll, played by artists including Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Bo Diddley. Mods did not like Rockers and it was mutual.
The Hippie movement was now showing up in places like San Francisco and New York City and was slowly replacing the Beat generation of the 1950s and early 1960s. Beatniks were no longer hip. The Mods and Hippies were similar in philosophy and purpose but considered themselves different. Mods did not want to be called hippies.
There were close to half a million American troops in Vietnam with that year seeing an international day of protest and 200,000 protesters demonstrated around the world against it. Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to go to war. The American public had finally tuned its support for the war from 52% down to 37%. The draft deferment began so that students could convince the Draft Board they could serve the nation in other ways besides killing people in a place they never heard of. Many people began knowing someone in their community who was killed in Vietnam.
A new car cost $2,650 and a gallon of gas was 32 cents. The miniskirt saw hemlines at the upper thigh. Batman the campy TV show with Adam West was a hit and Star Trek made its television premier. Neil Armstrong and David Scott went into space in March and became the first to dock two spacecraft while in orbit. They were almost killed when the spacecraft began to violently tumble before they were able to stabilize it. There were race riots in Atlanta. Ronald Reagan entered politics. Author Jacqueline Susann first novel Valley of the Dolls was published and sells 31 million copies. Simon and Garfunkel release Sounds of Silence and it hits Number 1 on Billboard. The Monkee's "I'm a Believer" was a hit along with the Beatles controversial album "Yesterday and Today" being released while their earlier "Rubber Soul" was number 1 for six weeks and "Revolver" album stayed for seven weeks. David Bowie released his first single "Can't Help Thinking About Me". Martin Luther King is in Chicago.
The relatively quiet decades of the post war 1950s was coming to a close. Cracks were being seen and the 60's gave rise to the fight against segregation, the war, injustice, women oppression and a host of other societal ills.
This is the background in which two 16-year-old Troy boys found themselves. Ringo and Freddie were the sons of parents who did not have wealth or a high place in society. Ringo's father could not keep a job and his mother had to hold several jobs to feed the family. They split when he was eight years old.
Troy New York, once one of the wealthiest and biggest industrial cities in America was on the down slide and an ill fated attempt to bring it back led to the demolition of most of its downtown to be replaced by an ill conceived shopping mall.
Ringo had lived on a dairy farm in the Adirondacks when he was 10 to 15 years old, an attempt to keep him out of trouble back in Troy. Upon his return, he was soon kicked out of high school, even with a 93 average, because he chose to let his hair hang down instead of up. This perceived injustice was the beginning of a series of injustices placed upon him and his friend Freddie as they start on a hitchhiking journey south to find Karen, a schoolmate of Ringo's when he lived in the Adirondacks. Both boys quickly learn about segregation and discrimination, police injustice, and are almost killed by rednecks in South Carolina. Upon their return trip north, a short stay in Baltimore introduces them to an underground community where Ringo saves the life a bullied young boy who was being beaten up. He also falls for a young woman but cannot stay in Baltimore.
Karen of Bust is about the coming of age of two baby boomers as they see and experience what had seemed to be an orderly society cracking at the seams. They were becoming part of the beginning of the 1960s counterculture that would go full battle in the latter part of the decade to right the wrongs of the past. This one experience in 1966 transformed Ringo. It made him determined to become one of those who would help change society for the good.
