The Spirit of '76

• USA • 1990 • 82m •

• Directed by: Lucas Reiner. • Starring: Mark Mothersbaugh, Gerald V. Casale, Carl Reiner, Nancye Ferguson, David Cassidy, Bob Casale, David Kendrick, Geoff Hoyle, Olivia d'Abo, Jeffrey McDonald, Steve McDonald, Liam O'Brien, Ann Block. • Music by: David Nichtern.

Future Americans decide to time travel to 1776 to ask the founding fathers for the solutions to their problems. A glitch in the time machine changes their destination to 1976. Still believing themselves to be in 1776, the time travellers attempt to study this "ideal" civilization.

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Trailer

1:45

Review:

Founding USA documents have descended to tee-shirt decorations and ornamental kitsch. The draft and political oppression are in full swing. The one person who can explain things to a time-traveler works in a peep show. The great ideas on which this country were founded have become mere commercial garbage to cash in on, not principles to live by.

I thought it was brilliant satire. A similar point is made in "Time After Time" (1979) where HG Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern San Francisco and is astonished to see some ideas he had written about brought to life. The nearly magical technology of telephones for example, has been reduced to a toy in the form of a Mickey Mouse telephone. That difference between ideas and actual practice is what drives this movie, which is far more than a comedy, successful or otherwise.

Review by tommyc-1 from the Internet Movie Database.

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