Tunnelvision

I really wanted to like this movie. With a cast like this, I expected better. Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Howard Hesseman and more. The reason I picked it up was because Ernie Anderson plays Quant O'Neil, Tunnel Vision anchorman. He only appears a few times but he narrates throughout the movie.

This movie suffers due to bad writing. I can't imagine that I would've thought this movie was funny even back in 1976 and stoned. I think I chuckled once, not sure when. It's really only worth watching to see these folks in their youth, before they became big and famous.

Tunnel Vision is a unique sort of grindhouse film. It is a feature-length collage of comedy sketches, loosely tied together by a simple (and not terribly important) framing mechanism. The production values are rather low, very rough around the edges in the same way the Python TV show was, but the humor here comes across nonetheless. Those of you with delicate taste, beware. The comedy in this film is extremely dark, savage, and mercilessly satirical. It takes on the the TV-junkie generation, ripping into network television with energy and vehemence. If you like dark humor and satire, like Terry Southern or Robert Downey, Sr., you will probably like this film. Just don't expect glossy visuals or a strong central narrative.

If you don't think today's American comedies have been dumbed down, you should give TUNNEL VISION a look. Crude and tasteless, extremely dated, but very, very smart. It's amazing how many jokes you miss because here, it's all in the writing. Sure, kids today won't get a lot of the 70's pop and political references, but if you actually paid attention in your history and political science classes (as well as TNN and TVLAND), it shouldn't be a problem. Can you say that about TOMCATS and AMERICAN PIE? The wraparound segments of a federal hearing pertaining to the effects on the nation for watching the Tunnel Vision network are eerily prophetic given the current Media Marketing Responsibility Act Lieberman and Clinton and Kohl are trying to push. Politically Correct viewers may balk at some of the bits on race, but the film skewers everybody, plus it's obvious that there's more going on then just a cheap laugh at different minority (and majority) groups' expense. TUNNEL VISION is more than just an old sketch comedy movie from the 70's, and it's sad that most modern comedies can't approach the cerebral humor on display here.

It's extremely dated, dopey and wildly uneven, but there are still some pretty good laughs to be had in this short collection of skits that take a look at what "television of the future" will be like (?) Even if the humor isn't your cup of tea, it's worth a look just to spot the large cast of then-unknown and up-and-coming comedy talent. Rent it with the similarly-themed "The Groove Tube" for an evening of mindless juvenile fun.

Stephen Feinberg, who Played the Proctologist and was one of the writers of the movie, passed away in early 2006. I met Steve in Portland in 1993, it was a year latter when he told me that he had been a writer in Hollywood years earlier, working mostly on TV promos. He asked me not to see 'Tunnel Vision', but it was too late, I had seen it already! Actually I had seen it years before, when it was released. At that time I didn't think it was that bad a movie. However seeing it as an adult my opinion was somewhat different. Yes is is a bit puerile as well as dated. Steve admitted it was not a very good movie. That said he was just a little proud of 'The Proctologist' sketch.