EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s movie is brought to you by Eddie R., who subscribed at the Big B&S’er tier.

Would you like me to write about the movies of your choice? It’s simple!

1. Visit Ko-Fi.
2. Join as a monthly member for just $1. That makes you a Little B&S’er.
3. As a Medium B&S’er at just $3 a month, if you pick a movie or a director, I’ll write about them for you. In fact, I’ll do one for each month you subscribe and even dedicate the post to you.
4. For $5 a month, you basically get some major power. As a Big B&S’er, I’ll write an entire week on any subject you’d like. Every month, if you’d like.

Wow, what a mystery film. Marijuana Man claims to be from 1968. But if you’re a history nerd or just someone who watched a lot of weed documentaries, you’ll know that the Drug Enforcement Administration wasn’t actually established by President Nixon until 1973. Did the filmmakers somehow possess a psychic link to future federal bureaucracy? Did a time-traveling narc fly a 70s chopper back to a 1968 pot farm?

But who cares? This has a wild man just farming his crop and avoiding that helicopter while trying to win over a young lady with his kind bud. And you get some jammy music from a band called Airhead.

They’re not the 1990s band that was also known as Jefferson Airhead. Or the movie.

Marijuana Man — and that’s what I’m calling him — goes ham on a mushroom while sharing a joint with another hirsute individual. By the end of their session, they’re just lying in the grass.

But all good things must end. A woman doing a tarot spread foresees that Marijuana Man is living in a world that just can’t last, up against people he doesn’t even know he’s battling. So yeah, she may have drawn the fool, and he may have found the death card, but maybe he knows that the death draw really represents profound transformation and the natural ending of cycles. This card encourages letting go of what no longer serves you to allow for personal change.

Despite the ending, where the DEA takes him out, I get the feeling that he’ll live on through his crop. The hippie girl passes out his seeds and sends the others out into the world to plant his magic. And wow, they must have used that helicopter for the shot at the end, when everyone walks away and plants the seeds.

Preserved in the digital archives of the Prelinger Collection, Marijuana Man is a fascinating, gritty artifact of late-1960s or early-1970s independent filmmaking. Most likely shot on location in Marin or Sonoma County, this has some great looks at some early hybrids grown back in the old days. The footage itself stems from the collection of John Carlson (1951–2021), a notable San Francisco filmmaker, lighting technician, and educator who taught cinematography at the City College of San Francisco and worked for decades as a chief colorist at legendary Bay Area labs like Monaco Film and Video.

Thanks, Eddie R., for sending this my way. If anyone is reading this knows more about this movie, please reach out!

You can watch this on YouTube.