Supervan

Supervan (1977)

The ‘70s were a strange decade for sure and Supervan reflects that. The story is about a guy named Clint that leaves his job and heads to a festival that celebrates all things van. Along the way Clint loses his ride saving a girl from some bikers, but ends up with the supervan. Basically it is a solar powered, laser shooting, lady-attracting machine. But the bikers and an evil auto company/oil exec wants to do away with both Clint and the non-guzzling creation before it does any damage. This leads to car chases, fistfights, and a van showdown as Clint uses the supervan to win a contest.

Like I said the ‘70s were a strange decade. As best that I can tell this movie was tossed together to show in drive-ins and appeal to the customized van crowd. Now I was alive in the ‘70s and my dad even customized a couple of vans (shag carpeting and everything!) so I dig the crowd that the movie was trying to appeal to. But it just isn’t very good. The story is pretty weak and makes no sense at all and again really just exists to justify the car chases and other silliness. I’ve seen a bunch of flicks like this, but what makes Supervan not work for me is all the filler. The movie is 90 minutes or so long and has way too much filler. We get scene after scene of random people partying at the van festival. They are drinking, having wet t-shirt contests, and making out. You know the basic stuff that people did outside in the ‘70s. Plus we get to see close-ups of many of the customized vans. It has been many years since I’ve seen that many naked ladies in profile, majestic wolves, and wizards. I could have waited a few more years…

Now there are some things that appeal to the cheesy movie lover in me. I mean the van has lasers in it! That has to count for something, right? We also get the always-enjoyable sheriff that is incompetent and ends up driving his car into a ditch. That is a must of course. And the main bad guy, the executive, has an improbable connection to Clint thru his daughter. Oh and of course there is the inexplicable change of heart where the bad guy decides to stop trying to have Clint arrested and/or beaten up. Yeah this is a goofy movie. Oh and it needs to be said that if you are a devotee to the “art” of the customized van via the 1970s you are going to get a kick out of what you see here.

I suppose that is the appeal to a flick like Supervan. It isn’t the kind of movie that you should or were supposed to take seriously. When I watch one like this I almost feel like I’m sitting in a drive-in instead of my recliner. But there is still far too much filler in this one to give it a recommendation (Corvette Summer is a way better movie).

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer