What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or Netflix? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you were having trouble getting to sleep last night, you could have gone over to YouTube and you could have watched the the 1971 film, Jud.

In fact, looking the film up on YouTube might very well be the only way that you could have watched Jud.  Jud is one of those obscure, 70s indie films that has apparently never gotten a proper video release in the United States.  The version that’s been uploaded to YouTube was taken from a Chinese VHS tape.  It had Chinese subtitles and the image was pretty grainy.  There was a point where, for three minutes, the image froze and only the audio could be heard.  In other words, it’s not the ideal way to watch any movie but, with Jud, that’s probably the best that anyone could hope for.

As for what Jud is about, it’s about a man named …. well, Jud.  Played by an appealing actor named Joseph Kaufmann, Jud has just returned to the United States from serving in Vietnam.  His uncle arranges for Jud to live at a rooming house, one that is full of the usual indie film eccentrics.  Jud doesn’t want to talk about what he saw in Vietnam and no one seems to want to talk to him about it.  But perhaps someone should because Jud is still haunted by flashbacks and nightmares, making this one of the first films to attempt to sympathetically deal with PTSD.  Jud just wants to get on with his life but, after everything he’s seen, he feels out of place in the civilian world.  A one night stand with a friendly hippy (played by future B-movie queen Claudia Jennings) leads to nowhere.  A fight in a diner leads to a police chase.  The only person who is interested in Jud’s story is Bill (played, quite well, by Robert Denman), whose status as a closeted gay man in the early 70s has taught him something about alienation.

Jud is an uneven film.  There are moments of real insight but there also moments where the film itself gets a bit too heavy-handed for its own good.  A lengthy scene where the viewer is subjected to close-ups of Jud’s roommates eating seems to go on forever.  (Anti-war films of the 70s always seemed to feature close-ups of old people eating for some reason.  I guess it was meant to be a commentary on American gluttony but it always feels more like lazy symbolism.)  Especially when compared to other films of the period, Jud deserves credit for portraying Bill sympathetically but it’s still hard not to feel that the character’s ultimate fate is a cliché.

That said, Joseph Kaufmann gives a good performance as Jud and wisely underplays the scenes that would lead a lesser actor to overact.  (Sadly, Kaufmann died in a plane crash, just two years after the release of Jud, at the age of 29.)  Despite featuring a bit more folk music that I would normally listen to, the film has a great soundtrack and, even more importantly, the songs fit well with the action.  (If nothing else, the lyrics help to share what Jud is feeling but can’t quite articulate.)  Finally, for a history nerd like me, Jud is interesting because it serves as a time capsule.  This low-budget, indie film was shot on the streets of L.A. in the early 70s and it has a bit of documentary feel to it.  Until someone invents a time machine and people get the ability to visit the past in person, films like Jud will do.

Previous Insomnia Files:

1. Story of Mankind
2. Stag
3. Love Is A Gun
4. Nina Takes A Lover
5. Black Ice
6. Frogs For Snakes
7. Fair Game
8. From The Hip
9. Born Killers
10. Eye For An Eye
11. Summer Catch
12. Beyond the Law
13. Spring Broke
14. Promise
15. George Wallace
16. Kill The Messenger
17. The Suburbans
18. Only The Strong
19. Great Expectations
20. Casual Sex?
21. Truth
22. Insomina
23. Death Do Us Part
24. A Star is Born
25. The Winning Season
26. Rabbit Run
27. Remember My Name
28. The Arrangement
29. Day of the Animals
30. Still of The Night
31. Arsenal
32. Smooth Talk
33. The Comedian
34. The Minus Man
35. Donnie Brasco
36. Punchline
37. Evita
38. Six: The Mark Unleashed
39. Disclosure
40. The Spanish Prisoner
41. Elektra
42. Revenge
43. Legend
44. Cat Run
45. The Pyramid
46. Enter the Ninja
47. Downhill
48. Malice
49. Mystery Date
50. Zola
51. Ira & Abby
52. The Next Karate Kid
53. A Nightmare on Drug Street