The Kentucky Fried Movie
The Kentucky Fried Movie is a 1977 American independent black comedy sketch film, produced by Kim Jorgensen, Larry Kostroff, and Robert K. Weiss, and directed by John Landis. Among the numerous star cameos are George Lazenby, Bill Bixby, Henry Gibson, Barry Dennen, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, Stephen Bishop, and the voice of Shadoe Stevens. According to writer David Zucker on the DVD commentary track, David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster, but was not selected. The film also features many former members of The Groundlings and The Second City. The "feature presentation" portion of the film stars Evan C. Kim and hapkido grand master Bong Soo Han. The Kentucky Fried Movie launched the careers of the Zucker brothers, Abrahams and Landis.
Landis was recommended to direct National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 based on his work with The Kentucky Fried Movie.
The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who subsequently wrote and directed Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its film spin-offs, The Naked Gun films.
Content
The Kentucky Fried Movie contains largely unconnected sketches that parody various film genres, including exploitation films. The film's longest segment spoofs early kung fu films, specifically Enter the Dragon; its title, A Fistful of Yen, refers to A Fistful of Dollars. Parodies of disaster films, blaxploitation films, and softcore porn/women-in-prison films are presented as "Coming Attraction" trailers. The fictional films are produced by "Samuel L. Bronkowitz".The sketch "See You Next Wednesday" mocks theater-based gimmicks like Sensurround by depicting a dramatic film presented in "Feel-a-Round", which involves an usher physically groping a theater patron. Other sketches spoof TV commercials and programs, news broadcasts, and classroom educational films. The city of Detroit and its high crime rate are a running gag portraying the city as a hell on Earth; in "A Fistful of Yen", Dr. Klahn orders a captured CIA agent to be sent to Detroit after which the agent screams and begs to be killed instead.
Cast
- Evan C. Kim as Loo
- Bong Soo Han as Dr. Klahn
- Agneta Eckemyr as Ming Chow
- Donald Sutherland as The Clumsy Waiter
- George Lazenby as The Architect
- Bill Bixby as himself
- Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver
- Henry Gibson as himself
- Marilyn Joi as Cleopatra Schwartz
- Saul Kahan as Schwartz
- David Zucker as Driver / Technician #2 / Grunwald
- Marcy Goldman as Housewife
- Dulcie Jordan as Guest #1
- Gracia Lee as Guest #2
- Sheila Rogers as Guest #3
- Joseph G. Medalis as Paul Burmaster
- Barry Dennen as Claude LaMont
- Colin Male as Spokesman / Voice Overs
- Ed Griffith as Host
- Robert Starr as Rex Kramer
- Richard Gates as Boy
- Tara Strohmeier as Girl
- Neil Thompson as Newscaster
- Jim Abrahams as Technician #1 / Stephen McCroskey - Announcer
- Jerry Zucker as Technician #3 / Man / Beaver / Hands
- Gwen Van Dam as Mrs. Burke
- Uschi Digard as Girl in Shower
Sketches
Production
Background
, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams made the rounds of the Hollywood studios with the concept and were rejected by all of them, being told, "audiences didn't like movies composed of sketches". Since the three believed in their material, which they had honed in front of the audiences with their improvisational troupe "Kentucky Fried Theater," they decided to make the movie on their own.A wealthy real estate investor offered to finance the film if they would write a script. After completion of the screenplay, the investor had second thoughts and decided he did not want to finance the film alone. He said he would try to attract other investors if the three filmmakers would produce a 10-minute excerpt of the film, which he would finance. When the trio presented a budget of the short film to the investor, he backed out.
Filming
The prospect of shooting the short film so excited the trio that they decided to pay for it themselves. The 10-minute film cost $35,000, and with it they again approached the Hollywood studios. This time, they attached a young director named John Landis to the project, who came to their attention after an appearance on The Tonight Show promoting his first film Schlock. However, once again, the studios turned them down.Distribution and release
Curious as to how audiences would react to their film, they persuaded exhibitor Kim Jorgensen to show it before one of his regularly scheduled films. When Jorgenson saw the short, he "fell out of his seat laughing." He was so impressed that he offered to raise the money needed to make the full-length version. By having his fellow exhibitors screen the film before audiences in their theaters, he convinced them to put up the $650,000 budget. When released, Kentucky Fried Movie was a box-office success, returning domestic American rentals of $7.1 million.Home media
released a region 1 DVD in 2000. This release is presented in widescreen aspect ratio and full-frame. It includes commentary by Landis; writers ZAZ; and producer Robert K. Weiss.On July 4, 2011, Arrow Video in region 2 released a two-disc special edition DVD with the following special features:
- Feature presented in widescreen 1.85:1 and full-frame 1.33:1
- Original mono audio
- The audio recollections of director Landis; writers ZAZ; and producer Robert K. Weiss
- A conversation with David and Jerry Zucker: A feature length interview with the co-creators of The Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane! and The Naked Gun about their lives and career, from growing up and starting out in show business to their comedy influences and spoofing Midnight Cowboy
- Jerry Zucker's on-set home video shot during the making of the movie
- Behind-the-scenes photo gallery
- Original trailer
- Four-panel reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
- Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
- Collector's booklet featuring brand new writing on director Landis by critic and author Calum Waddell
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 83%, based on reviews from 35 critics. The site's critical consensus reads: "The now obscure pop culture references and spoofed commercials add to Kentucky Fried Movies anarchic, anything-goes spirit and wit." On Metacritic it has a score of 61% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".At the time, Variety described the film as having "excellent production values and some genuine wit" but also noted that the film was juvenile and tasteless. Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote, "Lots of people will probably like The Kentucky Fried Movie, just as they like Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's hamburgers. But popularity is still no reason for deifying mediocrity." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that the best moments were "one-joke gags; its writers can't sustain their humor for longer pieces. So, what you're left with is a half-dozen decent gags, one overlong karate flick, and a few shots of bare breasts thrown in to titillate teenage boys." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a diverting hit-and-miss satirical anthology." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "As is inevitable in such undertakings there are some sophomoric moments, but on the whole 'Kentucky Fried Movie' is, amazingly enough, almost continually funny in its ribald way."
Writing three decades later in 2008, Ian Nathan of Empire magazine calls the film "occasionally funny"... "in a scattershot and puerile way", and he concludes the film is "smart and satirical, but very dated". J. C. Maçek III of PopMatters wrote, "The Kentucky Fried Movie is, however, profane, experimental, violent, silly, hilarious, and occasionally quite sexually explicit."
The film ranks number 87 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies list.