“200” (1975): An Animated Psychedelic Bicentennial Tribute

by G. Jack Urso

“200” (1975). From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.

 

This 1975 animation by Vincent Collins, funded by a Bicentennial Project Grant and produced by the United States Information Agency, celebrates the first 200 years of the founding of the United States of America in a psychedelic explosion of imagery and sound invoking the symbols associated with the celebration. Vincent Collins made his mark in the very wildly weird 1982 film Malice in Wonderland, a hallucinatory psychedelic interpretation of Alice in Wonderland.

The American Bicentennial year of 1976 was just three years after the U.S, withdrew from Vietnam and only one year after the war finally wound down in favor of North Vietnam. In short — we got beat. Not to forget, we also just recently endured the nasty business of Watergate and the closing years of Richard Nixon’s presidency, leading to his resignation. Yet, as I recall, there was a great sense of patriotism over a broad base of Americans. No, not everyone was sold on it, there was still a lot to be critical of, but the feeling we survived a big test of our faith in the principles America was founded on prevailed. The test, however, continues.

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