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Spirit of '76, The
Warner Bros. // PG-13 // June 3, 2003
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Spirit of '76, one of those movies that seemingly everyone with cable in the early '90s managed to stumble upon at least once, picks up where Bill and Ted left off. The movie begins in the year 2176, a monochromatic era where all knowledge of history was wiped out after a series of destructive magnetic storms. With Earth at a crossroads and the destruction of civilization imminent, the leaders of the future turn to the past for guidance. What better place to start than the founding of our country...1776? The inventive Adam-11 (David Cassidy) is enlisted to helm the travel to the past, in exchange for the rare fuel his machine needs to hop from era to era. Along for the ride are Heinz-57 (Geoff Hoyle) and the beautiful but stuffy Chanel-6 (The Wonder Years' Olivia d'Abo). Technical limitations (and dramatic convention) require that our band of plucky heroes spend no more than twelve hours in the past or run the risk of being trapped forever.
Adam-11's flaky display indicates that the travelers have arrived in the year 1776, but unbeknownst to them, they missed the mark by two hundred years. Unaware, they enlist the help of a pair of stoners (played by Redd Kross' Steven and Jeff McDonald) to guide them through 1976, dressing in garish era-appropriate garb and doing their best to be brought up to speed on the culture of the time. The travelers' quest for the Constitution is interrupted by the UFO-obsessed Rodney Snodgrass, whose meddling divides the group, threatening both the fate of their mission and the future as we know it...knew it...will know it...whatever.
1990's The Spirit of '76 was written and directed by Lucas Reiner, and if that last name sounds eerily familiar, then yup, he's Rob's brother and Carl's son. The movie owes a lot to the children of celebrities, as it was cast and produced by Susan Landau, featured costume design by Sofia Coppola, was conceived and co-written by music video director Roman Coppola, and includes a brief appearance by Moon Unit Zappa. The Spirit of '76 is a pretty basic fish out of water tale, pitting the usual collection of naïve characters against sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, and exploitation in a wholly unfamiliar environment. Hundreds of thousands of other comedies have tackled the same general premise, but The Spirit of '76's setting and cast really set it apart from the rest of the lot. This is a movie that stars members of two incredible bands -- the McDonald brothers from Redd Kross as well as the entirety of Devo -- not to mention '70s luminaries like David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Tommy Chong, Barbara Bain, and Don Novello. The Spirit of '76 really sells the look of the seventies, from its vivid, horrifying use of color to the props and set design. It's a kitschy movie with an irrepressibly goofy sense of humor, constantly winking at the audience and tossing in seemingly every possible reference to the fads of the decade as it could in the space of its lean 81 minute runtime. The Spirit of '76 isn't the sort of movie that kept me in stitches throughout, but its corny, silly sense of humor was definitely skewed enough to hold my attention and keep me entertained for the duration.
The Spirit of '76 hits DVD courtesy of Warner Brothers and Castle Rock with a surprisingly lavish release. The disc includes an impressive assortment of supplemental material, as well as a very nice widescreen presentation and a great stereo surround track.
Video: The Spirit of '76 is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The presentation is phenomenal, brimming with detail and offering an above-average level of crispness and clarity. Contrast and black levels are both rock solid. The image, at least once the journey from the sterile future to the past is underway, is bright and colorful, and those distinctively '70s hues almost leap off the screen. What minimal complaints could be made are mostly relegated to the first minute or so of the movie, where the bulk of the speckling occurs. Some of the footage in 2176 exhibits a bit of film grain, particularly in the matte paintings of the city. A mild amount of grain is also visible in a handful of other scattered shots, but rarely to any great extent. It's nice to see a relatively obscure low-budget movie from thirteen years ago look this groovy on DVD.
Audio: The Spirit of '76 features a great Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track (192Kbps). The soundtrack not surprisingly consists mostly of hits from the decade, including "We're An American Band", "The Hustle", "Kung Fu Fighting", "Play that Funky Music", and "Boogie Fever". The songs sound rich and full, featuring a healthy dollop of bass and making their presence known in the rears. The matrixed surrounds also occasionally reinforce sound effects like the whirring of the time machine. The lower frequencies owe most of its activity to the soundtrack, though some effects, particularly an exploding Pinto and a collision with a fireworks stand, are accompanied by some substantial rumbling. The movie's score is appropriately drenched in wah and flange effects. Dialogue remains clear and easily discernable throughout. The audio sounds great, and I don't really have any complaints at all.
The Spirit of '76 is closed captioned, and the disc also includes subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: The first of the extras is the least interesting: the usual list of cast and crew filmographies, which take a brief look at the work of David Cassidy, Olivia d'Abo, Leif Garrett, producer Susie Landau, co-writer Roman Coppola, and writer/director Lucas Reiner.
Lucas Reiner is joined by his father Carl for the disc's audio commentary. Riddled with frequent, lengthy pauses, it's not exactly the most engaging I've heard, and the junior Reiner admits to not having seen the movie in a decade. A lot of the discussion revolves around the cast/crew and the look of the film, which was shot in 25 days on a million dollar budget. Lucas talks about how the no-growth policy in the Alameda made shooting in the dated city cheap and convenient, how many of the props and costumes were donated or dug out of obscurity from people's basements, and even how the time craft was cobbled together from two hot tubs and a bunch of old clocks. He also notes some of the rights issues that arose, from snagging various pieces of music and even re-recording some for use in the film, along with avoiding mentioning specific products by their exact name or slogans. The writer/director likens the project to what The Man Who Fell to Earth was to sci-fi, coming "four or five years too early", preceding the inescapable '70s revival that soon followed. He also mentions Francis Ford Coppola's influence on the ending of the film. It's kind of a slow-moving commentary, but there's a decent amount of information that makes it somewhat worth wading through.
"Behind the Scenes of Spirit of '76" (5:25) was produced for this DVD by American Zoetrope, continuing the movie's Coppola connections. The featurette mostly intersperses vintage interviews with the cast with full-frame clips from the film. The topics include costumes, their characters, and working with writer/director Lucas Reiner. Its last few minutes include some brief behind the scenes footage, taking a quick peek at the shooting of the disco scene.
The "Additional Scenes and Outtakes" feature runs eight minutes and fifteen seconds, consisting of thirteen snippets of footage. The first two deal with Chanel-6's introduction to drugs, first with Eddie Trojan offering her coke followed by Tommy Chong's detailed instructions on proper bong usage. Olivia d'Abo also pops up in the next two pieces of footage, cracked up by Leif Garrett in his character's car and after a kiss. Since I'm getting kind of tired of writing complete sentences, I'll rattle the remainder off in an obscenely run-on sentence. A freezing Adam-11 forgives Chanel-6 on the way to the fair, Chanel-6 and Heinz-57 perform an in-depth analysis of platform shoes, there's an extended spoof of Iron Eyes Cody's "Keep America Beautiful" ads, an extended version of Heinz-57 bolting from the House of Liberty, on-set audio of extras doin' the Hustle in a disco, more with John Popper's evil twin harrassing Heinz in the AMC Pacer, the boys at the science fair reluctantly chatting up Snodgrass' parents, David Cassidy slipping when hopping back into a dune buggy, and finally, Adam-11 and Chanel-6 debating the artistic merit of his time machine. The footage, culled from a rough cut of the film, is oddly windowboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not enhanced for widescreen televisions.
Aside from just starring in the movie, Steven and Jeff McDonald's band Redd Kross contribute a music video for "1976" (3:17), which also played over the film's end credits. The video alternates between full-frame clips from the movie and black-and-white performance footage.
Rounding out the extras is an anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer (1:48), presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.
A couple of off-kilter TV spots (I guess; they're not labeled as such) are hidden as Easter Eggs. The first is available by highlighting the smiley face on the main menu, featuring Dr. Joyce Brothers, Michael McKean, Rachel Sweet, Tom Kenny, and Ann Magnuson chatting about the impact of platform shoes on their lives. Selecting Ms. Liberty's torch on the 'Features' menu reveals a non-sensical rant by comedian Barry Sobel about the '70s and Marsha Brady.
The Spirit of '76 comes packaged in a snapper case. The inside flap lists the movie's twenty-five chapter stops, and the art screened on the disc is in the shape of a disco ball. The DVD's menus are static and enhanced for 16x9 displays, and the main menu has the Dickies' title track playing underneath.
Conclusion: The Spirit of '76 is an intentionally dumb, campy movie, but...hey, I like intentionally dumb, campy movies, and I'd recommend this to others of the same unfortunate mindset. Though not some sort of criminally overlooked comedic masterpiece, The Spirit of '76 is a lot of fun, and the movie's gotten a very nice release on DVD. Since it's unlikely to appeal to all tastes and doesn't seem like the type of movie I'd be itching to pop in my DVD player every couple of months, The Spirit of '76 is probably best suited to a rental, but this disc is still very much recommended.
Adam-11's flaky display indicates that the travelers have arrived in the year 1776, but unbeknownst to them, they missed the mark by two hundred years. Unaware, they enlist the help of a pair of stoners (played by Redd Kross' Steven and Jeff McDonald) to guide them through 1976, dressing in garish era-appropriate garb and doing their best to be brought up to speed on the culture of the time. The travelers' quest for the Constitution is interrupted by the UFO-obsessed Rodney Snodgrass, whose meddling divides the group, threatening both the fate of their mission and the future as we know it...knew it...will know it...whatever.
1990's The Spirit of '76 was written and directed by Lucas Reiner, and if that last name sounds eerily familiar, then yup, he's Rob's brother and Carl's son. The movie owes a lot to the children of celebrities, as it was cast and produced by Susan Landau, featured costume design by Sofia Coppola, was conceived and co-written by music video director Roman Coppola, and includes a brief appearance by Moon Unit Zappa. The Spirit of '76 is a pretty basic fish out of water tale, pitting the usual collection of naïve characters against sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, and exploitation in a wholly unfamiliar environment. Hundreds of thousands of other comedies have tackled the same general premise, but The Spirit of '76's setting and cast really set it apart from the rest of the lot. This is a movie that stars members of two incredible bands -- the McDonald brothers from Redd Kross as well as the entirety of Devo -- not to mention '70s luminaries like David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Tommy Chong, Barbara Bain, and Don Novello. The Spirit of '76 really sells the look of the seventies, from its vivid, horrifying use of color to the props and set design. It's a kitschy movie with an irrepressibly goofy sense of humor, constantly winking at the audience and tossing in seemingly every possible reference to the fads of the decade as it could in the space of its lean 81 minute runtime. The Spirit of '76 isn't the sort of movie that kept me in stitches throughout, but its corny, silly sense of humor was definitely skewed enough to hold my attention and keep me entertained for the duration.
The Spirit of '76 hits DVD courtesy of Warner Brothers and Castle Rock with a surprisingly lavish release. The disc includes an impressive assortment of supplemental material, as well as a very nice widescreen presentation and a great stereo surround track.
Video: The Spirit of '76 is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The presentation is phenomenal, brimming with detail and offering an above-average level of crispness and clarity. Contrast and black levels are both rock solid. The image, at least once the journey from the sterile future to the past is underway, is bright and colorful, and those distinctively '70s hues almost leap off the screen. What minimal complaints could be made are mostly relegated to the first minute or so of the movie, where the bulk of the speckling occurs. Some of the footage in 2176 exhibits a bit of film grain, particularly in the matte paintings of the city. A mild amount of grain is also visible in a handful of other scattered shots, but rarely to any great extent. It's nice to see a relatively obscure low-budget movie from thirteen years ago look this groovy on DVD.
Audio: The Spirit of '76 features a great Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track (192Kbps). The soundtrack not surprisingly consists mostly of hits from the decade, including "We're An American Band", "The Hustle", "Kung Fu Fighting", "Play that Funky Music", and "Boogie Fever". The songs sound rich and full, featuring a healthy dollop of bass and making their presence known in the rears. The matrixed surrounds also occasionally reinforce sound effects like the whirring of the time machine. The lower frequencies owe most of its activity to the soundtrack, though some effects, particularly an exploding Pinto and a collision with a fireworks stand, are accompanied by some substantial rumbling. The movie's score is appropriately drenched in wah and flange effects. Dialogue remains clear and easily discernable throughout. The audio sounds great, and I don't really have any complaints at all.
The Spirit of '76 is closed captioned, and the disc also includes subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: The first of the extras is the least interesting: the usual list of cast and crew filmographies, which take a brief look at the work of David Cassidy, Olivia d'Abo, Leif Garrett, producer Susie Landau, co-writer Roman Coppola, and writer/director Lucas Reiner.
Lucas Reiner is joined by his father Carl for the disc's audio commentary. Riddled with frequent, lengthy pauses, it's not exactly the most engaging I've heard, and the junior Reiner admits to not having seen the movie in a decade. A lot of the discussion revolves around the cast/crew and the look of the film, which was shot in 25 days on a million dollar budget. Lucas talks about how the no-growth policy in the Alameda made shooting in the dated city cheap and convenient, how many of the props and costumes were donated or dug out of obscurity from people's basements, and even how the time craft was cobbled together from two hot tubs and a bunch of old clocks. He also notes some of the rights issues that arose, from snagging various pieces of music and even re-recording some for use in the film, along with avoiding mentioning specific products by their exact name or slogans. The writer/director likens the project to what The Man Who Fell to Earth was to sci-fi, coming "four or five years too early", preceding the inescapable '70s revival that soon followed. He also mentions Francis Ford Coppola's influence on the ending of the film. It's kind of a slow-moving commentary, but there's a decent amount of information that makes it somewhat worth wading through.
"Behind the Scenes of Spirit of '76" (5:25) was produced for this DVD by American Zoetrope, continuing the movie's Coppola connections. The featurette mostly intersperses vintage interviews with the cast with full-frame clips from the film. The topics include costumes, their characters, and working with writer/director Lucas Reiner. Its last few minutes include some brief behind the scenes footage, taking a quick peek at the shooting of the disco scene.
The "Additional Scenes and Outtakes" feature runs eight minutes and fifteen seconds, consisting of thirteen snippets of footage. The first two deal with Chanel-6's introduction to drugs, first with Eddie Trojan offering her coke followed by Tommy Chong's detailed instructions on proper bong usage. Olivia d'Abo also pops up in the next two pieces of footage, cracked up by Leif Garrett in his character's car and after a kiss. Since I'm getting kind of tired of writing complete sentences, I'll rattle the remainder off in an obscenely run-on sentence. A freezing Adam-11 forgives Chanel-6 on the way to the fair, Chanel-6 and Heinz-57 perform an in-depth analysis of platform shoes, there's an extended spoof of Iron Eyes Cody's "Keep America Beautiful" ads, an extended version of Heinz-57 bolting from the House of Liberty, on-set audio of extras doin' the Hustle in a disco, more with John Popper's evil twin harrassing Heinz in the AMC Pacer, the boys at the science fair reluctantly chatting up Snodgrass' parents, David Cassidy slipping when hopping back into a dune buggy, and finally, Adam-11 and Chanel-6 debating the artistic merit of his time machine. The footage, culled from a rough cut of the film, is oddly windowboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not enhanced for widescreen televisions.
Aside from just starring in the movie, Steven and Jeff McDonald's band Redd Kross contribute a music video for "1976" (3:17), which also played over the film's end credits. The video alternates between full-frame clips from the movie and black-and-white performance footage.
Rounding out the extras is an anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer (1:48), presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.
A couple of off-kilter TV spots (I guess; they're not labeled as such) are hidden as Easter Eggs. The first is available by highlighting the smiley face on the main menu, featuring Dr. Joyce Brothers, Michael McKean, Rachel Sweet, Tom Kenny, and Ann Magnuson chatting about the impact of platform shoes on their lives. Selecting Ms. Liberty's torch on the 'Features' menu reveals a non-sensical rant by comedian Barry Sobel about the '70s and Marsha Brady.
The Spirit of '76 comes packaged in a snapper case. The inside flap lists the movie's twenty-five chapter stops, and the art screened on the disc is in the shape of a disco ball. The DVD's menus are static and enhanced for 16x9 displays, and the main menu has the Dickies' title track playing underneath.
Conclusion: The Spirit of '76 is an intentionally dumb, campy movie, but...hey, I like intentionally dumb, campy movies, and I'd recommend this to others of the same unfortunate mindset. Though not some sort of criminally overlooked comedic masterpiece, The Spirit of '76 is a lot of fun, and the movie's gotten a very nice release on DVD. Since it's unlikely to appeal to all tastes and doesn't seem like the type of movie I'd be itching to pop in my DVD player every couple of months, The Spirit of '76 is probably best suited to a rental, but this disc is still very much recommended.
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