Search - Tunnel Vision on DVD

Tunnel Vision

Actor(s): Philip Proctor, Howard Hesseman, Ernest Anderson, Edwina Anderson
Director(s): Neal Israel, Brad Swirnoff
2

Movie Details

Content Advisory: Nudity, Not For Children, Adult Language, Adult Humor
Movie Release: 1976
DVD Release: 12/04/2001
Format: DVD
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
Studio: Eclectic DVD Dist.
Members Wishing: 10
Genres: Comedy, Parody/Spoof, Satire

DVD Synopsis

This futuristic parody on television is made up of various sketches, and features some early performances of later well-known comics. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Actors

Philip Proctor - Christian A. Broder
Howard Hesseman - Sen. McMannus
Ernest Anderson
Edwina Anderson - Melanie Edwards

Editorial Review of DVD

The Eclectic DVD release of the 1970s time capsule Tunnelvision proves that bad taste and self-consciously outrageous comedy was invented long before the debut of the Fox television network. Set in the not too distant future, Tunnelvision uses the concept of a renegade TV station as a springboard for a series of short skits lampooning TV shows, commercials, and news programs. Full of bad language and "shocking" statements against political, spiritual, sexual, and racial sacred cows, this now painfully unfunny movie received surprisingly strong reviews in its day. The movie hasn't aged very well, and it's now more useful as sociological tool for understanding post-Watergate America in the 1970s than as entertainment (though ironic anti-humor fans will probably enjoy laughing at all the jokes that fall flat). Eclectic has released the movie in a pan-and-scan version only, though it actually pops into widescreen for a few frames here and there. Likewise, the sound is flat and a bit muddy, but the overall technical merits of the movie itself are weak enough to make this point negligible. Star spotters will have fun looking for Howard Hesseman and future cast members of Saturday Night Live and SCTV, while other viewers may want to check out the DVD releases of Kentucky Fried Movie and The Groove Tube instead. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide

Member Movie Reviews

RD C. (allepaca) from TEMPE, AZ wrote on 11/6/2009...

An SNL/SCTV-like series of skits, of about the same consistency of a typical episode of either. Some skits are very funny, some not so, but all in all it was probably the second-best of the "skit-flix" of the time. Of the genre and time period, only The Groove Tube really stands up better. Both set the tone for later films such as Amazon Women on the Moon, and the multitude of National Lampoon and ZAZ farces that followed.

Tunnel Vision is particularly funny for those of us who are old enough to remember the TV shows, political hearings, and commercials that are being parodied... and the general tone of it's TV-industry and political satire is (unfortunately) just as valid today as then.

One supposes it's a matter of taste... but those who think that, say, Kentucky Fried Movie, was better, really need to justify their opinions with something other than simple sarcastic spewing. The writing in Tunnel Vision is at least as inventive and clever, and it's really only the 70's themselves that make it "dated". Yes, it obviously had a lower budget-- all the more reason to appreciate its accomplishments.

KFM was glitzier, and had more "starpower" (assuming you consider Bill Bixby a star), but in essence, was only a derivative attempt to latch onto The Groove Tube's inertia. Tunnel Vision is much more original. And to complain about the language, while then implying that KFM is "better"...? Well, there's just no accounting for hypocrisy, I guess. Almost any PG-rated film of today has worse.

If one doesn't care for the 70's in general, then yes, "it doesn't stand up well". But I would suspect that the real motivation for that opinion might be more rooted in personal disdain of the noticeable anti-authoritarian, don't-believe-the-corporate-bullsh$$t attitude that pervades MOST of the successful movies of that era, including this one. One has to remember that the country was still in recovery from Nixon, Vietnam, and a fairly major recession... an era all-too-reminiscent of the quagmires of today. No, this isn't a movie for die-hard Republicans....

And it is interesting to recognize some of the cast members (mostly comedians) so early in their careers, who would go on to other flicks, sitcoms and later stardom... Such as Chevy Chase, Howard Hessman, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Phil Proctor, Betty Thomas, Tom Davis, Neil Israel, a chubby(!) Larraine Newman, and yes, senator Al Franken (who is also billed as a "creative consultant"; i.e. contributing writer?)

If you liked The Groove Tube, and the unedited Putney Swope, you'll like this Flick.