The Spirit of '76
A Reiner-Coppola production sounds like the ultimate Hollywood tag-team, right? Well, not when it's director Lucas Reiner (son of Carl, brother of Rob) and screenwriter Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford, brother of Sofia). In this forgotten (and largely forgettable) movie, David Cassidy (
Partridge Family), Olivia d'Abo (
Wonder Years), and some clown named Geoff Hoyle (yes, he really is a professional clown) are sent back in time from 2176 to 1776 in order to find the original Constitution, the contents of which have been lost over the centuries, so that democracy can be saved. There's only two problems: (1) the Constitution wasn't drafted until 1787 (ratified in 1789); and (2) the time machine doesn't work properly so the three intrepid adventurers are sent back to 1976. Upon "landing" somewhere in Southern California, our time travelers meet a pair of dimwit teenagers (brothers Jeffrey and Steven McDonald of the punk-pop band Redd Kross) who guide them on a nostalgia trip through mid-Seventies
kitsch culture and protect them from nemesis Eddie Trojan (Leif Garrett, Cassidy's real-life teen idol rival). Many cameos and bit parts including Tommy Chong, Moon Unit Zappa, the members of DEVO, the Kipper Kids, Iron Eyes Cody, Julie Brown (West Coast not Downtown), Don Novello (aka Father Guido Sarducci), and (predictably) Carl and Rob Reiner (Rob steals the show as an est-like self-help guru). It's all good stupid fun, but the best thing about the movie is probably the theme song,
1976 (by Redd Kross, of course). Rating: 7.5 if you want to re-live the 1970s for an hour-and-a-half, 5.0 otherwise.
So how did a pair of relatively unknown rockers land leading roles in this movie? Well, the McDonald brothers were photogenic, they were afficionados of Seventies trash, and they had some previous acting experience (albeit in the "homemade" movies
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and
Lovedolls Superstar). It probably also helped that Steven was dating set director Sofia Coppola (she appears "naked" on RK's
Third Eye album). But don't feel sorry for Jeffrey – he had a long-term relationship with Bangle Vickie Peterson (they appear together in a 1986 MTV Rock Against Drugs PSA) before marrying Go-Go Charlotte Caffey.
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