Supervan (1977)

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.

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.

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!!

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.