Twilight Zone: The Movie

Twilight Zone: The Movie(1983)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: John Landis/Steven Spielberg/Joe Dante/George Miller

Starring: A cast full of famous faces

From: Warner Bros.

Where do I even begin with this?

It's a comment that had to be made; a novel worth of words could be written by me about the movie and why it is still infamous today. From the past I know that not everyone is familiar with what I am referring to, but that elephant in the room will be addressed later. Until last night the movie hadn't been seen in many years, and it's also been a long time for the original television series. The subsequent reboots-including the new Jordan Peele one-have not been seen by me at all. In other words, the movie will be judged on its own merits rather than be compared to the Rod Serling classic series... those comparisons are invited as three of the segments are remakes of old episodes.

The prologue and the first segment Time Out are original works from John Landis. The prologue manages to work because it stars Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks & demonstrated how people throughout the years have talked about their favorite Twilight Zone episodes. Also, they sing along to the Creedence version of The Midnight Special, which is great.

Time Out: The segment that is the source of controversy-unfortunately it is still relevant in 2020. Vic Morrow plays a bigot businessman who is pissed he is passed up for a promotion and he says some vile things about Blacks, Asian-Americans and Jewish people, none of which I will repeat here. He also brags about “being an American”... insert your own political comments if you wish. He then is in a nightmare where he is in the bodies of those minorities. This could have been more if not for real life-yet it does have a nice message & demonstrates how horrible life can be for minorities. Apparently this was going to cut more between the different time periods but as is... content-wise not the worst segment. That goes to...

Kick the Can: In more than one horror anthology I have seen before, there has been a segment which is not really horror and instead is mainly in another genre. However, here there is nothing scary at all and is sweet saccharine crap. While old people shouldn't sit around being all miserable waiting to die, this was just lame and does not even have the bitter ending the episode this was inspired by had. Not even Scatman Crothers could save this; the fact that he plays a stereotype is unfortunate. It was like the worst instincts of Spielberg were all present here.

It's a Good Life: This is where business picks up. Joe Dante transforms this into a living cartoon. As it is Joe Dante, he must have had the time of his life creating such a world with such colorful production design and bizarre moments. The tone overall is unsettling-there are also frightening moments. Another director trademark is the appearances of Dick Miller and Kevin McCarthy. Also, what a fate for the Ethel character because she was played by Nancy Cartwright.

Terror at 20,000 Feet: This is one of the most famous episodes of the show; George Miller does an admirable job of amping things up and creating some great-and terrifying-moments from the lead character-petrified of air travel-on an airplane and only he sees a gremlin on the wing. No one is quite like Shatner when it comes to acting performances but John Lithgow delivered arguably the best performance in the entire film... constantly nerve-wracked and sweaty.

For those unaware, what may turn you off from this despite its highlights... late July of 1982, Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le & Renee Shin-Yi Chin were killed on set during a scene set in late 60's Vietnam. The whole story is on sites like Wikipedia but Landis violated numerous laws by filming a dangerous scene involving a helicopter and lots of explosions. All three died in a horrific manner; Landis and four others were tried for manslaughter; while acquitted they lost a civil suit and people can get mad that soon after the trial, he was allowed to direct a big hit in Coming to America. I can still enjoy some Landis movies (like The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London) but Max is not the only one in the family that people can loathe for his actions. Despite some subsequent bad accidents and deaths that have happened on sets, the fallout from this created more regulations that have allowed for safer sets and lessen situations where directors act tyrannical & put everyone's safety at risk for the sake of “a big moment.”

The rating only reflects what was shown on screen and not the tragedy surrounding the movie. To think that Spielberg and Landis produced this-they were friends, although needless to say that friendship ended in 1982-yet it was Joe Dante and George Miller that delivered the best segments. There is a nice score from Jerry Goldsmith which is fitting for all the different segments. Plus, there are famous faces throughout and it is fitting that Burgess Meredith was the narrator-after all he starred in another legendary episode of Rod Serling's show. That show is overall better than the movie and should be watched by everyone... me included.

I'll close this out by noting: despite recent events that happened to me, I was fine with Kick the Can's premise of old people living in a rest home. At least it was not a hospice... perhaps more prescient for me is Terror at 20,000 Feet as a week from today I will have flown out of state and I haven't been on an airplane since December of 2009. Luckily, flying has never been an issue with me.