It’s the 1970’s and a ski town hippie has a big plan: to sell pot along with something called Nepalese temple balls to raise money to buy a house.
The small, out of the way ski town of Ajax, Colorado doesn’t have a whole lot going on. Mostly populated by hippie types who smoke a lot of pot, rock climb and work just enough to live, it’s the kind of pristine mountain community that hasn’t been over run by tourists, or film festivals. Local resident Al Dean (Geoffrey Hanson) is one of the many getting by on house painting gigs and enjoying the fun communal atmosphere of his circle of laid back friends. Al has a plan though. His bother, a wheelchair bound Vietnam vet lives at a local VA hospital and Al wants to buy a house to take care of his brother. Al’s plan is to sell some hash called Nepalese temple balls that he’s getting in the mail from a friend. In the mean time he hangs with his friends, Tom (Buck Simmonds) and Errol (Bunzy Bunworth). Tom has returned to town after his girlfriend, Woody (Jamey Jousan) died in a skiing accident the previous winter. He falls in love with Woody’s friend, Beth (Ryan Massey) but Tom still suffers the loss of Woody, having visions of and even conversations with her. So with the romantic angle covered, the rest of the film plays itself out perfectly. Oh, how could I forget about the title character, Scrapple? Scrapple is the name of a pig that Errol won in a contest, who eventually ruins Al’s drug dealing plans. All turns out with a happy ending though, with Al realizing his dream, Scrapple escaping a roast and well, Beth and Tom may work out after all.
There are not enough adjectives of praise in the English vocabulary, or mine for that matter, that can describe how wonderful and thoroughly entertaining this film was to watch. It’s much more than ski bums and stoned hippies. The comedy, drama and love story set within; come together as a whole perfectly. These are characters that you can fall in love with and I actually wanted to see what direction their lives would take next. Scrapple won over this cynical critic and is a film that should be held up as a shining example of what independent filmmaking can accomplish.
