The boomers can have memories revived all over the place.
Certain movies got popular in the 1980s due to the rapidly expanding TV universe. The movies of which I speak had somehow missed the mark on the big screen. They were "rescued" by the burgeoning new world of cable TV entertainment. Often these channels would "reach," airing stuff that was not particularly good, or re-running stuff to excess, sometimes to ridiculous excess. It was a raw frontier, yes.
The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" may not have been obscure at the time it was current, but it owes its ultimate status as a holiday icon to 1980s cable TV. You see, that movie was in the "public domain."
The post I'm writing here is inspired by truly obscure movies. For some reason they could not initially find a wide audience. Entertainment industry experts know well the mystifying vicissitudes of the public. The music industry is the same. If yours truly, as a nobody songwriter today, were to write "Hey Jude," and if the song had not previously existed, would it gain any notice?
There is an upcoming movie called "Yesterday" about the hypothetical of the Beatles never having existed. But a guy in a serious accident awakens to realize he has all the Beatles' songs in his memory. Should he exploit all this for personal gain? What a premise. I suspect from seeing the trailer that "Yesterday" is fundamentally a love story. The guy's girlfriend has total faith in him. She buys him a guitar as a gift. So I would suggest that because the guitar is a gift of love, it bestows some sort of power.
How does the story end? I don't know but let's guess. At the end the guy may be deprived of his mystery song resource, so he is put under pressure and finds the talent within, just as his significant other knew he could! Love conquers all, at least in the movies.
I'm reminded of the baseball classic "It Happens Every Spring" - and hey, why not a re-make? - in which Ray Milland as "King Kelly" is practically out of his magical hair tonic. Presumably he has to tap his own skills. He has a love interest. And, you know how it turns out! The power of love is equated with the power of believing in yourself.
Retrieving a movie from the '80s
Now let's consider "Super Fuzz," one of a group of special movies in my mind, movies in the niche of popular cable TV fare in a meteoric way in the 1980s. I never thought I'd feel nostalgic about the '80s. Our family got HBO for free for a time. So I watched "Super Fuzz" several times. It's a uniquely joyful movie to celebrate.
Oh, of course it's absurd! It's a movie. Movies can be absurd in an annoying way or in the endearing way. Creative people in Hollywood surely sweat over this type of thing. Will a particular concept work or flop? Even the most astute minds can be stymied on this, IMHO. Think of the character "Johnny" from "Airplane." On paper I feel this character looked lame, simply silly with no redeeming value. In practice this character "worked" totally - it just did. "Well, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl." (I learned to spell "brooch" the correct way and not as "broach" as in "to broach a topic.")
"Super Fuzz" like similar obscure flicks eventually disappeared over many years. Is there anything retro that we cannot now discover online? No. So it was a totally guilty pleasure for me to call up Super Fuzz and watch it again. It was unbridled euphoria. Just like re-discovering "T.A.G. The Assassination Game" for which I have written a tribute on my "Morris of Course" blog. Linda Hamilton as an authentic college "babe!"
Anyone writing about Super Fuzz today seems to feel obligated to say it's not great art. For crying out loud, who cares? If it's entertaining, raise a toast. Yes it's a cheesy movie. But the movie never takes itself seriously. It is an oddball satire on super hero films. We see a younger cop paired with an older cop. The younger guy is none other than Terence Hill of "They Call Me Trinity" fame. The older cop is none other than Ernest Borgnine, who should need no introduction. And BTW the reason that "McHale's Navy" re-runs are so hard to find, is the raw and pejorative language used toward the Japanese. You'll recall it was a WWII Navy comedy (with Tim Conway too).
The comedy in Super Fuzz is often unadulterated slapstick. The Terence Hill character, "Speed," picks up superpowers, which prompt the musical sound byte "Soopa-soopaaah" every time he uses them. It becomes an ear worm but a delightful one.
Just enjoy, don't analyze
Perhaps the movie has a magical quality of transporting us back to the 1980s. The plot absurdities needn't call for any explanation. I don't give a rip that the movie is 'B' movie cheese. And why get carried away trying to describe it?
Too many people get defensive when trying to reflect positively on this cinema fare. What is the purpose of a movie? It's to entertain.
How conflicted might our feelings be? Well, to counter the defensiveness I discover this: "It is mandatory viewing for any serious student of film."
Super Fuzz was a 1980 movie. Disco reigned in America and is the style of theme song music. What did disco say about our culture? A topic for a psychiatrist, surely. Remember you could get a certificate of deposit at a bank with something like 13 percent interest. "Soopa-soopaaah!"
The movie's director was Sergio Corbucci. Watching this along with "T.A.G." and "Eddie and the Cruisers" might be like a fountain of youth for someone like me, at least creating a temporary illusion. Yes, a guilty pleasure, one that I will return to from the 1980 time Capsule: "Super Fuzz."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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