Supervan (1977) User Reviews

Great fun being in the Movie Super Van

[elpato6125 · 5/10 · 24 March 2012]

The movie Supervan was filmed in St Joseph, Missouri where I was living at the time. It started filming in October during the FREAK OUT truck In held at Old MacDonald's farm just North of St Joseph.

Many of our Pony Express Van Club members were in the Freak Out scenes and later furnished vans owned by the members in many follow up scenes such as the Van and Car chase on the streets of St Joseph.

My van was in several scenes and I also had several 'walk on' roles in the movie. It was great fun to be treated as a member of the cast and enjoying plenty of free beer and great food at the lunch breaks.

The Premier of the movie was held at a theater in St Joseph with George Barris, designer of the Super Van present for the festivities.

Later I made a web page of my photos and several clips from the movie.. You can check that out searching for the name Super Van the Movie online.

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Thank God.

[weevil-2 · 1/10 · 27 July 2000]

Have you ever read a trade journal? One of those magazines meant expressly for plumbers or welders and never intended for the general public? Full of weird lingo and with content so intensely fixed that it becomes almost comedic? This movie is a little like that. Made in the 1970's with a modest budget, this stinker is entirely about CUSTOM VAN CULTURE. Airbrushed unicorns, feathered hair, racing stripes, CB radios. And don't think for a moment that this is some kind of quirky, ironic documentary. It's a really bad narrative piece of fiction. There's sort of a plot. I think somebody has to win a van contest or something similarly morbid. There's a wacky professor that designs a van that shoots lasers for some reason. The soundtrack is all 70's soft rock about Vans. The ridiculousness of the whole thing shoots through the roof when Charles Bukowski wanders drunkenly through a party scene wearing a shirt that says "Water boy for the wet T-shirt contest" (maybe they lured extras by advertising free beer). Whoah man, this movie is so bad it feels like getting clubbed repeatedly with a dead howler monkey just trying to watch it. Of course, if you can stand it, and if you are a connoisseur of bad films, this one is pretty funny in its patheticness.

The Inspiration for "Smokey and the Bandit"?

[Gangsteroctopus · 23 December 2001]

Well, maybe not. I don't know because I haven't seen "Smokey..." since I was, I think, ten..? Anyway, this film is a curious document of the '70s, a real time capsule. The best parts (to me) are the semi-verite portions when the camera wanders around the fairgrounds where they're holding the big van 'freak-out' and just records the goings-on of this peculiar gathering. These segments, for me, capture something very essential about the '70s, moreso than just about any other film I've seen in a long time.

Really bad super-stuff

[kalle-hanhisuo · 1/10 · 17 August 2008]

Way back we had a list of worst movies ever and Supervan was number one that list. It says lots about this movie. True classic and a must for everyone who likes bad movies. I mean what can you expect from a movie about a van. The best part of the movie was a scene where Supervan tried to get over a little hill and couldn't even accomplish that little task. Is there something else to say about this masterpiece? If you ever get a chance of watching it, do it. It's worst movie ever in the history of worst movies ever, which includes almost every movie ever made of course. On the other hand, the minimalism Supervan is offering is somewhat refreshing at the standards of modern flicks. It's like three chord rock n'roll song which includes everything vital and at the same it is plain nothingnes.

Pathetic excuse for a movie.

[Blumpkin1991 · 1/10 · 19 November 2020]

This isn't a movie. It's ten minutes of story and 80 minutes of filler. Lots of great footage of vans slowly parking in rows and the zany partying antics of 70s van aficionados. All of this backed by an obnoxiously loud sound track consisting of terrible rock and folk songs. And if you hated the songs the first time you heard them, don't fret, you'll get to hear them again and again! I sincerely wish physical harm to those responsible for this auditory torture. Not even the sight of Katie Saylor in a tight sweater makes this movie worth suffering through. Torture from start to finish.

A man with a van and a plan.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 30 December 2017]

Mark Schneider ('Santa Barbara') stars as Clint Morgan, a young man who wants to strike out on his own rather than follow the path that his father has set for him. He plans on entering his van in a "Freakout Competition" for vanners, with his eyes on the $5000 grand prize. However, his van gets totalled after he saves Karen (Katie Saylor, "Invasion of the Bee Girls") from being raped, and her attackers give pursuit. But good fortune comes his way: good friend Bosley (TV veteran Tom Kindle) has designed a futuristic, solar powered "super van" dubbed "Vandora" which he lets Clint use. This puts Clint at odds with Karens' arrogant fat cat father T.B. Trenton (Morgan Woodward, "Moonshine County Express"), an auto industry hot shot who's already entered his own "Trenton Trucker" into the event.

"Supervan" is no great shakes; it doesn't have much of a story, for one thing. But it's still pretty good fun for lovers of 1970s drive-in cinema. It's got a respectable amount of vehicular action and stunts, a healthy dose of comedy, a wonderful soundtrack, and is overall an amiable, appealing portrait of "vanner" culture in the 70s. Some of these vans are quite impressive in their designs and art. Legendary custom vehicle creator George Barris designed the title mode of transportation, and also appears in the film as himself. Director Lamar Card ("The Clones") keeps it all reasonably upbeat and never too unpleasant, while still understanding the requirements of an exploitation picture from this era. (There are several loving close-up shots of ladies in wet T-shirts.) Adding a goofy, science fiction element is the fact that this van is equipped with a laser gun (!), allowing for a few cheesy effects.

Attractive couple Schneider and Saylor are engaging leads, and Kindle is likewise endearing in his key supporting role. Len "Uncle Leo" Lesser turns up as a cop, and Bruce Kimball ("Drive In Massacre") as Trentons' flunky. But the show is often stolen by excellent veteran character actor Woodward, who seems to be relishing the opportunity to chew on the scenery in some scenes.

If you're into vans, or just exploitation cinema in general, you're sure to have a decent time with this one.

Seven out of 10.

Supervan is a great vanners movie!

[just_beth · 8/10 · 21 January 2002]

For someone outside the realm of vanning I could see how this movie could be confusing or even irritating, however, being a vanner I feel that this movie is a great portrayal of the vanning movement and all that it entails. Vandora, the Supervan, is excessive and borderline ridiculous, but that is what custom vans are all about. The documentation and on-location filming alone make this movie a classic. 2% Vanners Forever!!

Vans!!!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 8 December 2020]

This is a vansploitation movie. Yes, that's really a genre and there are several films in it, of which I can name Blue Summer, The Van (obviously), C.B. Hustlers (which has Uschi Digard in it), Mag Wheels, Van Nuys Blvd. and I guess you could almost count On the Air Live with Captain Midnight. There's a great article on it by Jason Coffman that goes deep into the genre that I totally recommend.

The beauty of this movie is that it posits a world where solar energy is already happening, van culture is the driving force in society and there is no AIDS to worry about, so all of the vans are a rocking and absolutely no one is knocking. It is surely paradise, if paradise only gets 11 miles to the gallon, fuel crisis be damned.

Our hero Clint Morgan has traveled to The Invitational Freak-Out, a major event for custom van enthusiasts, which means that any time we're near it, we get to see plenty of b-roll footage of painted vans and all of the accoutrements - this is not a word you want to use when selling Winnebagos - that they have inside.

Clint saves Karen (Katie Saylor, Invasion of the Bee Girls) from some bikers from another exploitation genre and they destroy his van The Sea Witch. That's when he goes to the super genius van designer Bosley and together, they all make Supervan, which uses solar power and lasers. It was really made by George Barris - who designed so many other Hollywood cars - and was based on a stock Dodge Sportsman van. This thing was so big that it had a phone intercom system inside it.

Oh yeah. It turns out that Karen's dad owns a car company that is out to make a van that uses more gas than ever before - what does it get 3 miles to the gallon? - and they have to take Supervan to the show to prevent him from making it happen, but he puts the cops on their tail.

We've seen Clint before on our site, as Mark Schneider is also in the Crown International Pictures movie Burnout, which is one of the few dragsterpolitation movies I can think of, so perhaps he is the perfect star for all things vehicular in nature.

Director Lamar Card is also there, in the nooks and crannies of strange movies that I find myself obsessed with, like producing the scumtastic Nashville Girl and directing the only Fabian-starring, Casey Kasem-coke sniffing disco freakout Disco Fever.

Beyond the near gynecological explorations of all of these vans at the absolute expense of story, this movie has a cameo by Charles Bukowski - the firebrand of a man who wrote "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire" - judging a wet t-shirt contest. I am in no way making that up.

There's never really been a movie like Supervan. To be fair, I don't think the world could have handled two. To quote the love ballad from the film, when I think of Supervan, "I'll always remember you as a milestone in my life."

An amusingly silly 70's drive-in diversion

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 1 July 2007]

A strangely affable piece of fluffy-headed 70's drive-in comedic piffle which lazily coasts along on the faintest whiff of a plot. The story as far as it goes centers on a spacey solar-powered futuristic supervan equipped with lasers and a plush interior created by your standard flaky inventor (amiable nerd Tom Kindle). Evil corporate head T.B. Trenton (white-haired perennial bad guy thespian Morgan Woodard doing his patented so-slimy-he-slides-when-he-walks villainous bit) wants the supervan for himself so he can win a big annual van contest. Starry-eyed working class zhlub dreamer Morgan the Pirate (impish Mark Schneider) makes off with both the supervan and Trenton's rebellious teen daughter Karen (cute, spunky, buxom brunette Katie Saylor). The expected wacky comic hi-jinks and crazy, careening slapstick car chases ensue.

Sure, the admittedly skimpy story ain't much and the loosey-goosey pace meanders all over the place, but what this mama lacks in intricate and sophisticated narrative substance (plenty, to be brutally honest) it surely compensates for in giddy, good-natured, just-give-the-audience-what-they've-paid-to-see eager to please stupidity. For instance, there's a totally gratuitous, but still welcome wet t-shirt contest. Moreover, a nearly endless barrage of funky-throbbing disco songs about vans and van culture blares away on the soundtrack throughout. Irv Goodnoff's pretty, hazy, sunshine-soaked cinematography boasts a few fine sinuous tracking shots and radiates a distinctly 70's warm'n'fuzzy glow (coincidentally, Goodnoff also shot the equally asinine, but still awesome "The Van"!). Blustery custom car king George Barris puts in a guest appearance and a sweetly mellow laid-back vibe permeates the entire feature. Why, we even got slack direction from Lamar Card, a sappy romantic sub-plot, lots of filler footage of the van contest, so-loving-they're-downright-fetishistic close-ups of resplendently tacky van decals, dated CB lingo ("We're doin' it to it"), a gang of hostile bikers, a jailbreak, delightfully politically incorrect comic relief lisping homosexuals, and absolutely no pretense to get in the way of the enjoyably goofy'n'silly fun.

They hopefully don't make 'em like this any more...

[BigBadB · 10/10 · 12 July 2002]

Well, what to say? The first time I saw it, I think I was completely speechless. And I think I still am, actually. Man, this sux! BigTime! Horrid story, crappy craftsmanship, etc.

I am not eve sure that it's a good turkey. But a turkey it is, most certainly! I rated a 10 to it, because I really think people should see it to se how it's NOT supposed to be done!