The Vintagent Classics: Viva Knievel!

VIVA KNIEVEL! (1977)

Run Time: 1:46:00
Producer: Warner Bros
Director: Gordon Douglas
Writer: Antonio Santean, Norman Katkov
Key Cast: Evel Knievel, Gene Kelly, Lauren Hutton

FILM MAKERS

“In the same year that Star Wars was shattering box office records and shifting the culture to a new dimension of merchandising, special effects, and unending Mark Hamill mania, an old icon was inhaling the fumes of a once proud career. That man was Evel Knievel. With the infamous Snake River Canyon jump three years behind him, Knievel was dying for a hit; a new enterprise by which to recapture the country with his unparalleled flair for the dramatic, as well as one of the world’s most enviable heads of hair. Thankfully, Hollywood was coked-up just enough to throw a few million his way, and what resulted was Viva Knievel!, a film so legendary that it was quickly disowned by everyone within earshot. A film so incompetent, so dreadful, and so uniquely embarrassing that co-star Gene Kelly would sign on for Xanadu as a cleansing ritual. A movie so egregious it would think nothing of asking Leslie Nielsen to play a drug kingpin, or worse, that Frank Gifford be paraded before incredulous eyes wearing the same mustard sport coat and ketchup shirt on three separate occasions. It’s the sort of clueless action-adventure with precious little by way of actual motorcycle stunts, but enough out-of-control semi-trucks to satisfy even the most hardened veteran. And without a sense of humor in sight, it’s just about all we can take when Dabney Coleman shows up as the head doctor of a ritzy Mexican sanitarium.” – Read more of this fantastic, hilarious review at Ruthless Reviews

Viva Knievel premiered in June 1977, three months before Evel Knievel and his associates attacked promoter Shelly Saltman with an aluminum baseball bat on September 21, 1977. With Knievel losing most of his sponsorship and marketing deals as a result of the bad publicity, the film became much less commercially attractive, only opening in four further international markets after Knievel’s conviction. In addition, the wholesome image of Knievel the movie promoted and the plot point concerning Knievel’s promoter being corrupt seemed ill-judged in the light of the events that saw Knievel imprisoned. As a result, the film fell into comparative obscurity until the DVD release.