Main Cast: Paul Jones, Tom Kempinski, Robert Lloyd, Jimmy Gardner, Arthur Brown
Release Year: 1968
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
This short experimental feature follows a young man (Paul Jones, vocalist for the band Manfred Mann) who is picked up by a successful but self-satisfied businessman (Tom Kempinski) while hitchhiking. Bored and exasperated with the businessman's prattle, the young man succumbs to temptation while the mogul checks the engine of his Mercedes Benz, bringing the car's hood crashing down on the man's head. Feeling remorse later on, he sews the businessman's head back onto his body, with the victim seeming no worse for wear. Years later, the young man is working with an architectural firm when he's called upon to join a committee led by a powerful government official (Robert Lloyd). It soon becomes obvious that along with his other duties, the man is asked to account for his actions, which could easily have led to another man's death. The Committee was shot on location at the London School of Economics, and features a musical score by Pink Floyd, which was composed and recorded shortly after Syd Barrett left the group. Influential theatrical rock combo The Crazy World of Arthur Brown also performs in the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Peter Sykes - Director, Pink Floyd - Composer (Music Score), Max Steuer - Producer, Peter Sykes - Screenwriter, Max Steuer - Screenwriter, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Featured Music
The movie follows a man (Paul Jones) who is unnamed (the credits list him as 'central character'). The movie starts out with the central character in a car with a man (Tom Kempinski) who just picked him up (listed as 'the victim' in the credits). The victim talks to him, but he's uninterested. The victim decides to pull over because he doesn't like the sound of the engine. While he's looking under the hood of the car the central character slams the hood down on him, decapitating him in the process. The central character eventually sews the head back on, and the victim wakes up. The central character tells him he doesn't want to drive anymore that day and to leave without him.
A few years later the central character is called on to be part of a committee, groups that supposedly keep the system running but really don't do much of anything. He feels paranoid that the committee was called on account of him, and runs into the victim while there, who doesn't seem to remember him.
The central character talks about this with a man listed as 'The committee director' (Robert Lloyd) in the credits. This conversation lasts for the duration of the movie, and features most of the music Pink Floyd wrote for the film.
