The Return of Captain Invincible

I just saw the film for the first time tonight, so these are some brief impressions.

This virtually unknown little movie is a weird, goofy, silly, and touchingly sincere experience. The very premise of the film is fascinating, and though we've seen the "old-time hero in the modern world" premise before and since, this is one effort that really delves into the potential of that idea. The script keeps dropping in bits of social satire and commentary; the evil villain's plot is essentially the inverse of "white flight", seeking to "purify" New York by luring all the minorities to the suburbs and then killing them. The implication that he's also the supreme evil force in the universe adds a neat mythic touch. The Captain's quest to re- capture the spirit of America that inspired him to begin with is rather sweet, and Kate Fitzpatrick is charming as the spunky heroine. (Arkin and Lee are great, but aren't they always.) The songs are generally fun, even when predictable- despite being written by a number of different people (including Richard O' Brien!) they've got a nice consistency.

It's a flawed film in many ways- the humor is uneven, ranging from the clever to the silly (often at the same time- though "Amazing Computer Brain is Stuck!" got a laugh from me.) The finale is so abbreviated that I'm convinced there were scenes that were either cut or never filmed. And, this isn't really a criticism, but I do wonder why Australians were making a movie about the American spirit.

Still, this movie doesn't deserve the sheer obscurity it seems to suffer. It's undoubtedly a unique film, and as such provides a truly fascinating experience.

I was a princely 13 when this film was made. Fortunately my first viewing was on television. The second time around I took the decency to make a VHS recording of it which still survives in digital form today. Thanks goodness I did.

That's because there's actually several versions of this film out there. There's the original cinematic version, then a DVD (which is very close to the original) and then there's the TV version that I've got (which was actually created in 1982 and is very different, especially the vastly superior soundtrack).

The TV version is the best - by far - and also the hardest to find.

This film was made by the Sydney film making clan in it's childhood years. Take a look at the surnames in the production credits and compare these to something made in Sydney 15 years later. You'll see similar surnames and different first names everywhere. Such is the nepotism that was the Sydney film scene in that era.

Much of the film was made on location at the (then only recently decommissioned) White Bay Power station. Magic moments abound in this film. Snapshots of a forgotten Sydney that range from musical interludes aboard a red rattler (complete with open doors). Production stories abound. Many from Art Dept Elex Graham Beatty who worked on this film and tells of many tales most should not hear! We can watch today and wonder how much of that liquor was real (likely 100%) and how much made it out of White Bay at the end of the production (likely less than 5%). Such was Sydney in the Eighties.

More than anything, "Return of Captain Invincible" is a fantastic hoot as well as a snapshot in history. It's long been my overall favourite Aussie film - and that includes the ones I worked on.

Watch it from end to end and if you need to, have some alcohol handy! ZM

Christopher Lee is, apart from a demigod of horror and an amazing human being altogether, a very strange and unpredictable individual… Not that long ago I saw a film called "Meat Cleaver Massacre" and Lee allegedly wanted to sue the producers for using footage of him that he wasn't aware of. He wanted to go to court because he didn't know he starred in a not even that bad film, yet he voluntarily starred in THIS totally bonkers and jaw-dropping flamboyant Aussie flick?!? What the hell kind of career-swings are these?

Anyway, "The Return of Captain Invincible" is one gigantically delirious and extravagant cinematic conglomeration of Sci-Fi, comedy, musical, superhero-action and satire. I probably never would have known this movie existed if it wasn't for the recently released documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: the Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation". I swear, I've stumbled upon a lot of crazy and obscure Aussie stuff since the fine day I watched that film, but this puppy is undoubtedly the craziest of them all! The set-up of "The Return of Captain Invincible" is a lot more clever and original than you might think, actually. One could even claim that it's a forerunner of such popular films like Pixar's "The Incredibles", "Spiderman" and "Hancock", as this movie was the first to depict the powers and responsibilities of a superhero more as a burden rather than as a blessing. The film opens marvelously with a series of newspaper clippings and black-and-white flashbacks illustrating the glorious rise and immediately subsequent fall of superhero Captain Invincible. He saved the world from Nazi terrorism but then the media soiled his reputation linked him to a communist network. The disappointed Cap retired from New York to Sydney and spent many years drinking and drifting around. Now the world desperately needs him again, as the evil Mr. Midnight plots to take over New York, but Captain Invincible is reluctant to save the hypocrites that exiled him and – moreover – he forgot how to fly…

"The Return of Captain Invincible" is the prototypic example of a 'hit- and-miss' film. Many of the conceptual ideas are terrific and several sequences are both very creative and downright hilarious, but at the same time the film suffers from numerous defaults. Practically every great scene and/or moment of ingeniousness is followed by an irrelevant and dull scene or a needlessly mushy musical interlude. The film is very uneven in its set-up, exchanging absurd jokes and singing evil masterminds with moments of sentimental romance. It sometimes even feels like you're watching two entirely different films; especially when you're watching stoned like I was… The biggest entertainment value of "The Return of Captain Invincible" lies in the smaller details. Christopher Lee's sidekick, for example, looks like an evil version of Yoda with a Fu-Manchu mustache. The undeniable highlight is, as a matter of course, owned by Lee himself when he sings a hymn glorifying evil activities. Lovers of offbeat musicals might be very interest to know that nearly all songs are reminiscent to the soundtrack of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Overall, this definitely could have been a much better film if certain parts were cut and others had been more elaborated, but it's nevertheless a unique and strangely exhilarating film. Thank you, crazy Aussie people, for yet another wondrous piece of cult legacy.

The Return of Captain Invincible It seems a law of nature that a certain percentage of movies just don't age very well. Some can be viewed decades later and still impress the first-time viewer, others you have to had seen during it's time in order to appreciate it later. Unfortunately, "The Return of Captain Invincible" belongs to the latter category.

It's not a bad film, by no means. "TRoCI" comfortably between Superman-spoof, musical satire of the US- / Australian way of life but unfortunately it's also a little too 'harmless' for most (modern) viewers. A little less slapstick and a little more grittiness / realism could have made "TRoCI" a comedic predecessor of Zack Snyder's "Watchmen".

Like with most of his roles, the performance of Alan Arkin is beyond criticism. He remains the world's most funny unfunny man. He seems to conjure up comedy as through magic and almost unexplainable. And as what is commonly known as a "Christophile", an ardent fan of Sir Christopher Lee, I consider it blasphemous ever to write a negative word in the same sentence. Indeed, "Citizen Cain", "The Godfather" or "The Seven Samurai" are all good pictures, which only have one fault: neither of them stars Christopher Lee.

Thinking what directors like Robert Altman, Blake Edwards, Jim Abrahams or David Zucker could have made from this material, the films weakest link remains the director. Philippe Mora seems more at home with schlock-horror flicks, rather than either comedy or musical. On the comedic side, his direction is restraint while there seems an almost desperate attempt to be the next "Rocky Horror Picture Show" – it isn't; by the standards of a musical, it's "Shock Treatment" at best. The songs are simply neither strong nor memorable enough, with the exception of "Name your Poison", performed by his highness Sir Christopher himself. The line "There's nothing sicker in society than the lack of liquor and sobriety" is worth an Oscar itself and makes one dream: what if Richard O'Brien had written the songs, what a musical it could have been.

I have to admit, I have a hard time giving a film that features either his eminence Sir Christopher Lee or Alan Arkin a bad rating – an old habit that I have broken only for "Star Wars II – The Clone Wars". That said, the 7 out of 10 points I'm giving should probably been a 6 or 5 ½. Oh well.

"The Return Of Captain Invincible" starts with one of the greatest spoofs of a newsreel show I have ever seen in cinema as a pre-title sequence. Funny moments and tragicomic situations follow back-to-back, but the definite scene-stealers are the songs (two of which feature Christopher Lee's voice). How much better can a song about the eductive power of alcohol start than with these immortal lines: "Mai Tai say that I'm Old-Fashioned / Tres vin ordinaire / That I want a fresh Manhattan / With white Anglo-Saxons everywhere / A Black Russian's / No Pink Lady / Give her the Singapore Sling / And Moscow Mule is not your baby / So Highball the Vodka and name your sting"? But I'm digressing: if you have a nostalgic love for old superhero movies, are not opposed to a little parody on the US and Australia alike, and are willing to follow that film in its occasionally whimsy turns, this is your choice for a late night film with friends (and don't forget to "Have a short or a Port or a snort of any sort" while watching)!