Supervan
(1977/Cheezy Flicks DVD)
Picture:
C- Sound: C Extras: C- Film: C
Considered
by some one of the dumbest films ever made and by others one of the most
unintentionally hilarious, Lamar Card’s Supervan
(1977) crosses the bandit/chase films that were hugely popular in the 1970s
with the Science Fiction and fun vehicles trend. Hit TV shows like Ark II already had vehicles that could use nuclear and solar power,
so the makers got legendary George Barris (along with Sterling Frank) to create
the (supposedly) solar-powered Vandora and built the hick formula around it.
For a van
competition called the Freakout, Vandora will take on some of the best
customized vans (in both their engines and custom body work) to win a big
prize, or so the plot goes. However, the
film becomes constantly distracted by drug use, sex, wet T-shirt contests, the
Vandora riding all over the place and sounding more like a 1950s UFO, plus the
police get to chasing everyone and even Charles Bukowski shows up!
The young
leads bicker often, while Vandora has all kinds of gadgets. It is basically a Plexiglas see-through
rectangular body lined with the kind of soundproofing materials that looks like
egg cartons, then the dashboard has every CB radio and analog gadget of the
time you can think of and some that make no sense. Essentially, the makers decided to throw in
everything but the kitchen sink (unless it is hidden
in the van too) and make a formula film that seemed spaced-out in all kinds of
ways. Down to its abrupt ending, Supervan is a howler of a time capsule
film you have to see to believe. To say
any more would ruin it.
The 1.33
X 1 image is very soft and suggests the film was shot in soft matte so it would
look good on TV but also look good at 1.85 X 1.
Director of Photography Irv Goodnoff does an ambitious shooting job and
would next lens The Van (aka Chevy
Van, even though the van in the film was from another company, they
wanted to use the hit song). This film
deserves to be restored just because of all the great footage of vans and the
country. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a
little cleaner and clearer so you can hear all the funny dialogue and wacky
sound-a-like songs that want to sound like actual Super Hits of the 1970s. Trailers and Intermission shorts are the only
extras in all cases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
