RETRO REVIEW
In 1956, Rod Serling created the famous television series entitled “The Twilight Zone”. The series combined the genres of fantasy, science-fiction and horror with an occasional sense of macabre tongue-in-cheek humor. The show’s immense success was attributed to the chilling stories written by acclaimed writers like Richard Matheson, memorable guest stars William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, and Cliff Robertson and of course, the “often imitated but never duplicated” monotone of host Rod Serling. The series went on to inspire young people to tell their own stories. Four of those people were Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller. In 1983, they came together to direct four pieces of a tribute of sorts to “The Twilight Zone”. What followed were laughs, screams and a horrible tragedy that irrevocably changed one man’s life forever. This was the feature-length film entitled Twilight Zone: The Movie.
The film starts with Creedence Clearwater Revival kicking in with “The Midnight Special” as two guys (Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) are driving along a mountain road jamming along to the song. As their tape gets eaten in the radio, they despair until the driver (Brooks) plays with his passenger (Aykroyd) by turning out the car’s headlights driving in darkness. After a few minutes, the driver and the passenger start playing a trivia game where they guess TV theme songs. At this point, audiences in 1983 were asking themselves if they had walked into the wrong movie. They each give a few guesses (including “Sea Hunt”, “Car 54, Where Are You?”, “National Geographic” and “Hawaii 5-0”) before their conversation turns to the infamous TV show “The Twilight Zone”. The two men talk about their favorite episodes when the passenger playfully asks the driver, “You wanna see something really scary?” Obliging, the driver pulls over while the passenger gets in the back seat. After a few seconds, the passenger turns around having transformed himself into a monster and attacks the driver. Cue: “The Twilight Zone” music. It’s an absolutely gorgeous way to start a “Twilight Zone” movie by having fun with the audience, reminding them of the source material and of course, scaring them out of the wits. It’s sad that this is the only time that Aykroyd and Brooks are onscreen together; they both have a great comedic rhythm. It’s also the only “good and un-tragic” thing that John Landis contributed to this film. What came next is hard to ignore.
After the main title, the film’s narrator (original “Twilight Zone” star Burgess Meredith) tells the John Landis written-and-directed story of malevolent chauvinist William Connor (Vic Morrow) who after a racist slur-ridden tirade is suddenly thrown back in time to 1939 Nazi Germany where he is attacked by Nazis believing he is Jewish; then, he is dumped into the Deep South in the midst of the Ku Klux Klan who are preparing to lynch him as a black man; he soon finds himself in the middle of a Vietnam warzone being shot at by US troops (with a nice nod to Landis’ Animal House thrown in). Connor is pulled back into 1939 Germany where he is detained and forced onto a train with Holocaust victims which pulls away, never to be seen again. This section of the film gets most of the attention when people talk about Twilight Zone: The Movie. During the production of the film, Landis blatantly broke the law to get two child actors to perform with actor Vic Morrow on set with a dangerous stunt involving a helicopter that ended up killing all three of them. The ensuing trial effectively crippled Landis’ career (though it is not completely responsible for where he is today) and ended his friendship with Steven Spielberg, who was nearly implicated himself. Taking that aspect of the film out of it, I feel that this segment was too punishing for audiences, almost “A Christmas Carol” without the most important element: redemption (which is what Landis had planned with his ill-conceived helicopter stunt). The next segment of the film would have to be infinitely lighter in tone to keep from the audience being emotionally disconnected.
The film’s second segment (a remake of “Kick the Can”) directed by Steven Spielberg features a mysterious man named Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers) who comes to a retirement home to bring new life to the place in more ways than one. He convinces the others to join him at night for a game of kick the can. During the game, the senior citizens suddenly revert back to childhood – literally. While they are initially overjoyed and have a lot of fun, they soon begin to worry about what will happen to them. They find that being kids again isn’t all they wanted it to be so they ask to be returned to their normal ages. Mr. Bloom leaves them by telling them to stay their own age but keep “fresh young minds”. After some very big features, I don’t think Spielberg was able to pull off a 15-minute segment in this film. Ron Howard eventually tried a similar concept with better results – Cocoon. Unlike most people, I like Scatman Crothers – his playful enthusiasm is infectious. As a kid, I grew up with him as “Hong Kong Phooey”. It wasn’t until years later that I found out he was in classic films like The Shining. Still, I really do like the score by Jerry Goldsmith in this segment, although it – like the rest of the segment – doesn’t really fit the tone of the rest of the film. However, the next filmmaker up at the Twilight Zone bat would pull off the weirdest and creepiest segment of the film.
Joe Dante, hot off the hit The Howling, remakes one of the classic “Twilight Zone” episodes, “It’s A Good Life” about a young woman in transit, Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan) who comes across a young boy named Anthony (Jeremy Licht) who is not what he seems. He has a “loving” family (including the bad guy from Innerspace as his Uncle Walt and Nancy Cartwright as his sister Ethel, who would later become none other than Bart Simpson). As the night progresses, Anthony’s magical demands become more and more frightening to the point where he wishes Ethel into the television set where she is eaten by an evil cartoon dragon. Eventually, Anthony tires of his “family” (which is really made up of people he’s tricked into coming to his house) and wishes them all away, leaving just him and Helen. Helen suggests that he try to develop his power to help people instead of horrifying them and that she will stay with him to assist him. This is Dante unrestrained and a perfect example of his love of “Looney Tunes” (which is constantly on in the TVs in the house). He also showcases a lot more of the eerie elements of the film with transforming a simple bunny rabbit into a hideous monster and pulling a cartoon demon out of the TV. Unlike the actual episode, this segment has a more “happier” ending with Helen and Anthony driving off into the sunrise with flowers blooming around them. I believe this was the first time that composer Jerry Goldsmith worked with director Joe Dante, beginning a collaboration that wouldn’t end until Goldsmith’s death in 2003. Not to mention, of course, an appearance by long-time Dante actor Dick Miller (who is apparently in everything Dante directs). The last segment would be helmed by a relative newcomer, but it would be the highlight of the film thanks to an established actor.
The final segment is directed by George Miller of Mad Max fame (later to be known for directing the Happy Feet films) and is a remake of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” well known for featuring a notable performance by William Shatner. John Lithgow stars as John Valentine, a man who has panic attacks whenever he flies. As the flight attendants attempt to calm him down and return him to his seat, Valentine is fearfully reciting flight statistics. While the flight continues, Valentine looks out his window and sees a gruesome creature ripping open an engine. Screaming his discovery, everyone looks outside to find nothing. The flight attendants attempt to convince him that what he saw wasn’t real and offer him sedatives. Trying to get some sleep, Valentine hears a knocking at his window and opens it to find the gremlin sneering at him through the window. This sends Valentine into a frantic frenzy with people having to physically restrain him. The first officer of the plane assures him there is nothing wrong. The plane lurches and the passengers begin to panic, all preparing to die. Seizing an opportunity, Valentine grabs a gun from an FAA agent onboard and shoots through the glass window pulling him halfway out the window. The gremlin notices this and starts walking toward him. It grabs his face and playfully waggles its finger at him disapprovingly before it leaps away into the night. When the plane lands, a seemingly delirious Valentine is hauled away into a straightjacket. However, one of the ground technicians at the airport finds the damaged engine and that perhaps he might not be crazy. Down the road, Valentine is in the back of an ambulance laughing to himself and it is revealed that the driver of the vehicle is the passenger of the beginning of the movie. He plays “The Midnight Special” and ends the movie by jokingly asking Valentine, “Want to see something really scary?” This is probably my favorite out of all four segments mostly due to Lithgow’s performance because he smartly chose not to replicate Shatner’s infamous performance (though a nice little joke is made of it on Lithgow’s former series “3rd Rock from the Sun”). It even brilliantly ties back into the opening of the film and gives the audience one last laugh as soon as they see Dan Aykroyd again.
Anthology films don’t have the best track record in Hollywood; both New York Stories and Grindhouse underperformed at the box office. Most say it is because audiences don’t want to sit around and watch multiple stories; they would rather concentrate on one coherent narrative. However, I think Twilight Zone: The Movie was an interesting experiment to try and replicate the harrowing stories told in 1956. Sure, the helicopter tragedy that took the lives of Vic Morrow and two young actors overshadowed the film as a whole, but once people could see the whole film they would realize the stories were unique to each director. Landis wanted to teach lessons against bigotry, Spielberg wanted to keep hope in the minds of the elderly, Dante wanted to scare and appease audiences with a kid who had unlimited power and Miller wanted to depict how fear can rule our lives and make us irrational. Together these stories may not seem like they co-exist together but they’re interesting to watch on their own and that’s why I believe Twilight Zone: The Movie should get more recognition on its own terms.
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