The Gong Show Movie (1980)

The Gong Show Movie (USA, 1980) 89 min color DIR: Chuck Barris. PROD: Budd Granoff. SCR: Chuck Barris, Robert Downey Sr. MUSIC: Milton Delugg. DOP: Richard C. Glouner. CAST: Chuck Barris, Robin Altman, James B. Douglas, Mabel King, Jaye P. Morgan, Rip Taylor. (Universal Pictures)

---

The Gong Show Movie may be “bad” in conventional terms, but this emerges as a telling portrait of “Gong Show” TV host Chuck Barris, as was George Clooney’s 2002 biopic, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on Barris’s autobiographical novel (which may or may not be fictional). In theory, this could have been made as a last-ditch attempt at milking more from his franchise, as his once hit TV show (where we’d laugh at the variety acts of hapless hopefuls in search of stardom) was fading in popularity.

Although this bloated home movie features Barris before and behind the camera, it is not a self-congratulatory ego trip. Rather, this nearly plotless affair, portrays Barris as a world-weary, disillusioned screw-up. (It rather makes sense that Robert Downey co-wrote the screenplay, as this film shares the same wheezed out kind of humour typical of Downey’s films.)

The story, such as it is, peripherally concerns his rocky relationship with his girlfriend (Robin Altman), or his producer’s consistent badgering of him over the show’s sagging ratings. Every once in a while, Chuck decides to screw it all and jam with his country-and-western band! Otherwise, this blur of a movie chronicles Barris and his uneasy kinship with the losers which feed his career.

Amusingly, just like Alan Freed in American Hot Wax, he is virtually accosted in every other scene by some hopeful lowlife with some half-baked act for fleeting stardom. (Even a passerby wino auditions for him!) One could compare The Gong Show Movie with, of all things, Phil Tucker’s no-budget nightmare, Broadway Jungle, which callously explores/exploits these no-talents and their pathetic bids for fame; both films perhaps see the irony that their creators are among them.

Once in a while, the predictable gags are followed by a second gag, which makes for some special moments. For example, The Unknown Comic wakes up in the morning with a bag over his head, as does (predictably) the girl in bed next to him. Then, unexpectedly, the camera pans up to see a painting of him in the nude, with a paper bag covering a certain part of his anatomy! Plus, the film has extraneous segments of “Gong Show” contestants on the air, in longer, randier sequences cut for original broadcast. Most famously, the ubiquitous panelist Jaye P. Morgan bares her breasts. These overlong moments nonetheless illustrate Barris’s out-of-control lifestyle.

Finally, Chuck takes off to Africa to find sanctuary in the desert, and then the film morphs into a bizarre musical as his co-stars appear to tell him how much they need him! Now there is no doubt: Chuck Barris and these pathetic morons are co-dependent. This is why the film is filled with so many impressionistic bits of these contestants on and offstage- “The Gong Show” is their lifeblood, too; this movie is equally about them. Suddenly, all of the ragged unfocused moments in this desperate movie begin to make sense. For all of its misfires and tired gags, The Gong Show Movie nonetheless remains one of the boldest acts of career suicide since The Monkees’ Head, and perhaps unexpectedly, one of the most telling portraits of neurosis among celebrity life.

---

Update! This review originally appeared in Vol #1, Issue #9, when the movie was still very hard to find. The movie tanked in first run (allegedly lasting a whopping three days in theaters), remained unavailable on home video, and only sporadically played on television. My review copy was thanks to the grey market DVD operation, 5 Minutes To Live (remember those guys?). Since then, Shout! Factory has released it to Blu-ray.