1968 film directed by
Barry Shear and released by schlockmeisters
American International Pictures.
Forgotten actor Christopher Jones plays Max Frost, a 24-year-old rock star, millionaire, and part-time drug pusher. He and his brilliant, young entourage, including a young Richard Pryor as drummer Stanley X, hatch a scheme to get all the grown-ups out of the way once and for all, by getting a freshman Senator in his pocket (said Senator played by an equally young Hal Holbrook).
Before long, the voting age has been lowered to 14, Frost's crew is putting LSD in the water supply serving Washington, DC, and Max has been elected President. The film ends with everyone over thirty being force-fed acid in concentration camps, and a bunch of kids under 10 muttering darkly at Frost, in a moment that screenwriter Robert Thom, nearly 40 himself in 1968, must have thought was worthy of The Twilight Zone.
In years since, critics have hailed Wild in the Streets as a document of its time, as well as a piece of high camp. On the whole, though, it's pretty dumb. It garnered some more notoriety in the 90's, when British rave band Primal Scream sampled a choice snippet of dialogue from the film ("We wanna be free, to do what we wanna do! (crowd cheers) And we wanna get loaded!") in their otherwise instrumental track Loaded.
Also the title of the B-side of the Bon Jovi 45 "Livin' On A Prayer." Do not ask me how I know this.