TUNNEL VISION Is A Product Of It's Time

TUNNEL VISION (Blu-ray)

1976 / 70 min

From MVD Visual

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😼

For a brief time in the 1970s, sketch comedy films achieved some popularity among the cult crowd. The best of them, The Kentucky Fried Movie, is also probably the most remembered these days, likely because it helped establish the careers of John Landis and the ZAZ team (the guys behind Airplane!). 

But before that, Tunnel Vision (as well as 1973’s The Groove Tube) was a minor cult hit that took satiric jabs at television with sketches that played like a raunchier version of Saturday Night Live. In fact, a few SNL alumni (Chevy Chase, Al Franken & Laraine Newman) appear in this one. You’ll also spot such future stars as John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Howard Hesseman, Betty Thomas and Ron Silver. However, Tunnel Vision was produced before anyone knew who any of these people were. 

Like most sketch comedy movies from the 70s, it’s wildly inconsistent and a lot of the humor is indicative of the era. Taking place in near future of 1985, the wraparound story involves TunnelVision network executives appearing in court defending their right to broadcast its content completely uncensored. This subplot is just a clothesline on which to hang an assortment of sketches parodying TV shows, commercials and news broadcasts, none of which run long enough to wear out their welcome.

Russel Crowe's dad.

Some sketches are funny, some aren’t and a few are simply stupid. Others might have been funny at one time but now seem archaic and cringy, but that’s to be expected. If nothing else, Tunnel Vision is definitely a product of its time. Speaking of which, there’s also a damn good chance that anyone who wasn’t around back then (and high) will have no frame of reference to appreciate what’s being parodied.

Yours truly was around and recalls catching it as a midnight movie a few years after it was first released (back when urban art-houses would screen cult films intended for those in the wrong frame of mind). Aided immeasurably by chemical enhancement, I found it quite funny at the time, but was also in a theater packed with similarly altered minds and their laughter was somewhat contagious. Sitting in the Dave Cave decades later for this review, I didn’t laugh much. While I wasn’t offended by the preponderance of racial humor, rape jokes and scatological gags (though newcomers might be), most of it is pretty juvenile. 

As a piece of nostalgia, however, Tunnel Vision on Blu-ray is kind of a kick. Sure, it’s crude, amateurish and has aged terribly, but to coin a cliche, they don’t make movies like this anymore (nor is anyone likely to). As a relic from a bygone era, those who recall it might enjoy the trip down memory lane. No one else need apply.

EXTRA KIBBLES

INTERVIEW - A new 45-minute conference call between co-director/co-writer Neal Israel and film distributor Stuart Shapiro. Overall, a entertaining conversation.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By film historian Edward Heuck.

TUNNEL VISION CONTINUITY SCRIPT

2 PHOTO GALLERIES - One new, one archival.

TRAILER & RADIO SPOTS

REVERSIBLE COVER

MINI-POSTER