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Jim's Real Detroit Column 8/26/99

“You’re saying that I’m stuck here...forever.” –time traveler David Cassidy as the camera pans to a Partridge Family lunchbox

Lucas Reiner’s Spirit of ’76 (1991) doesn’t have one critically acclaimed frame in its 82-minute running time. Despite that, it’s one of the most entertaining parodies of a bygone era ever produced. It doesn’t hurt that director Reiner had help from his family--father Carl has a pre-credits cameo and brother Rob plays a hustler whose game is the self-help business.

The cast also includes two former teen idols (David Cassidy and Leif Garrett), as well as a soundtrack that features disco favorites, a theme song by pop-punkers the Dickies, and even a track by the band Red Cross (cast members Jeffrey and Steve MacDonald).

Cassidy plays Adam-11, a time traveler from 2176 whose mission is to save the world from extinction. American culture has been virtually wiped out and the plan is to go back to the year 1776, retrieve the Constitution of the United States, and set things back on track. His time machine misses the mark by 200 years, landing him in 1976 just in time for disco fever. Reiner fills the screen with all the right markings of the era: halter tops; eight-track tapes (VideoHound editor Carol Schwartz professes that this is the only real way to listen to music); bell bottoms; platform shoes; mood rings; and even Tommy Chong kicking out a few marijuana jokes. Along the way, writer Roman Coppola lampoons disco anthem Saturday Night Fever (1977), and 1989's stoner epic Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

I really like this movie, as do quite a few other loyal fans. But it’s a hard sell to anyone who’s more Hollywood oriented. Quite often, renters complain about how bad and stupid the film is. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we like it. Hey, it’s the ’70s.

Other more successful “bad” movies have been made spoofing the goofiness of times past. The Brady Bunch Movie did well enough to warrant a sequel--of course, it had a big head start with the Brady fan base. The Wedding Singer (1997) was criticized at the time as being a little too early for a parody of the mid-’80s but did well at the box office anyway, possibly due to star Adam Sandler in his most likable roll. Perhaps if the release of Spirit of ’76 had been delayed a few years (until audiences were more ready for a ’70s parody), it too might have garnered more attention.

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