Scrapple: the early 70's stoner comedy

Christopher Hanson's ''Scrapple'' is a completely uncondescending, nearly letter-perfect re-creation of a late 60's-early 70's stoner comedy. As such, it's a very strange cultural artifact, though not an unappealing one. It opens today for an exclusive run at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village.

In reproducing the rambling tone, scruffy stylistics and laid-back attitude of such hazily if fondly remembered titles as Arthur Penn's ''Alice's Restaurant'' (1969) or Paul Williams's ''Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues'' (1972, from an early novel by Michael Crichton), Mr. Hanson has brought off an artistic stunt on the level of reconstructing Red Square out of toothpicks or building a Lego version of the Mona Lisa.

The effort itself is so impressive that it eclipses any qualms one might have about the point of undertaking the exercise in the first place. Filming on location in and around the now uber-chic ski resort of Telluride, Colo., Mr. Hanson succeeds amazingly well in turning the clock back 30 years, to a time when Telluride (appearing here under the pseudonym of Ajax) was a remote outpost populated by ski bums, substance abusers and a few prescient real estate developers.

Geoffrey Hanson, the director's brother as well as the movie's co-producer and one of its writers, stars as Al Dean, a bumbling, low-level pot dealer looking forward to a shipment of Nepalese Temple Balls (wads of hashish chewed by monks high in the Himalayas). Al hopes that the profits from his sales will allow him to buy a rundown house on Ajax's main street, where he'll be able to move with his disabled brother. (In the film's one hint of politics, Mr. Hanson suggests that the brother, confined to a V.A. hospital, is a Vietnam veteran.)

Mr. Hanson contrasts the relatively pro-active Al with the utterly reactive Tom Sullivan (Buck Simmonds), a drifter who has never recovered from the death of his girlfriend in a skiing accident. Although Beth Muller (Ryan Massey), the local singer-songwriter, has taken more than a sisterly interest in him, Tom is still in a perpetual fugue state, hallucinating his ex's presence at inconvenient moments (when he wakes up with Beth, for instance) and doing his best to avoid commitment.

The film's third focus of interest is the title character, a pig of ambiguous status -- pet or dinner? -- being raised by an Australian bartender (Bunzy Bunworth). The action, such as it is, is touched off when Scrapple devours Al's stock, forcing Al into an unholy alliance with a real estate agent (L. Kent Brown) whose real business is dealing cocaine.

There is perhaps a metaphor here. Still, Mr. Hanson seems less interested in editorializing than in depicting lazy good times, like the half-hearted softball games that occasionally united the community, or the rock-climbing and motorcycle-riding expeditions that punctuate the plot for no particular dramatic reason. Even an unexpectedly violent denouement fails to disrupt the film's nostalgic vibe.

SCRAPPLE

Directed by Christopher Hanson; written by Geoffrey Hanson, Christopher Hanson and George Plamondon, inspired by a short story by Sean McNamara; director of photography, Robert F. Smith; edited by Adam Lichtenstein; music by Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band; production designer, Tegan Jones; produced by Geoffrey Hanson and Mr. Plamondon. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 87 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Geoffrey Hanson (Al Dean), Ryan Massey (Beth Muller), Buck Simmonds (Tom Sullivan), Bunzy Bunworth (Errol McNamara), L. Kent Brown (Kurt Hinney), Grady Lee (Phil Bandell) and Scrapple, Spam and Studebaker (Scrapple the Pig).