First Family

First Family is a waste of time. It has a couple of funny moments, but thats about it. Buck Henry directs Bob Newhart, Harvey Korman, Rip Torn, Richard Benjamin, Fred Willard, Bob Dishy and two of the funniest ladies who ever lived Gilda Radner and my personal favorite movie actress of comedy Madeline Kahn. Ironically they play mother and daughter and in real life were only 5 years apart in age. Another sad thing is they were also very good friends and died of the same disease ovarian cancer just ten years apart. They deserved to be given a better script worth their extraordinary talents. On Saturday night live they were given better scripts. The only reason to watch this is because its the only film they ever made together. They could and should have been a female comedy team. But this is all we have.

President Manfred Link (Bob Newhart) has his fands full dealing with a contentious election year after narrowly avoiding loss in the previous election where he beat out a dead man and his dead running mate by the slimmest of margins. Add to that, Link must also deal with the idiosyncrasies of the island African nation of Upper Gorm who possess resources vital the U. S.. Meanwhile Manfred's family consisting of his alcoholic wife Constance (Madelahn Kahn) and sex starved 28 year old daughter Gloria (Gilda Radner) continually try Manfred's patience as Manfred's various aides and cabinet members try impotently to keep things controlled.

First Family came to us in 1980 from writer/director Buck Henry whom had previously co-directed Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty in 1978 which became the fifth highest grossing film of that year, had written the screenplays for well regarded films like The Graduate and What's Up, Dog?, as well as co-created classic spy spoof sitcom Get Smart with Mel Brooks. The movie was apparently troubled as test screenings to the film were so negative that Warner Bros. Regathered the crew to reshoot the ending. The movie's grosses fell well short of Heaven Can Wait, and critics of the time were equally disappointed with most of the reviews skewing negative and Siskel and Ebert declaring the film one of their "Dogs of the Week" on their TV program. The movie is rather lacking in comparison to previous efforts by its cast and writer/director and this is frankly a low point for many of them.

When you have a cast that includes the likes of Bob Newhart, Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Harvey Korman, and Fred Willard, the bar is already high considering how funny these people have been in other productions. Add to that the great Buck Henry who's given us some inspired works that are still funny and entertaining to this day and the fact that First Family is as bad as it is, it's frankly inexcusable. The pacing is ridiculously slow and turgid and while that's not a deal breaker for comedy, you need to have rich well defined characters so your audience can get involved despite the slow pace. No one is given much to work with as the movie often goes for lamebrained "culture clash" humor with the fictional African nation of Upper Gorm featuring gags like their national beverage made of Donkey Blood and Cow Urine, or offering up virgins to have sex with a statue of a fertility god called Jucamba that has a giant phallic piece (I think that's what happens, it's not clear), and the movie never takes off and most of the gags just go limp because there's no punch to any of the gags with most of the set pieces resulting in ill-timed slapstick or pratting about in silly costumes.

First Family has been all but forgotten by time and there's a good reason for it. There's rich potential for a farcical comedy set in the upper echelons of U. S. political power, but Buck Henry doesn't give his cast rich material or tight direction and instead it comes off as a bunch of people trying desperately to be amusing and failing miserably.

This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.I saw it when it came out in the theater in 1980, and I still think it is one of the best movies I ever saw.Gilda Radner was in one of her funniest movies ever when she was in this.

This had the potential to be a great movie. The cast is first rate, Buck Henry CAN write a good script (though he didn't do it here), and the basic idea is sound. But the storyline is bad. (Even a comedy has to have a interesting plot that makes sense.) And the script is weak, with too many unfunny scenes and jokes. That's really the bottom line: this movie just isn't funny. It's a shame, because this is a first-rate cast. Bob Newhart is one of my all-time favorite comedians. Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Richard Benjamin, Fred Willard, Harvey Korman, and the rest deserve better than bathroom jokes. Newhart is the best thing in the movie. He's actually quite believable as the president of the United States. Usually, fictional presidents are played by the same type of actors: Hal Holbrook, Gregory Peck, etc. The mild-mannered Newhart is a nice change of pace. I wish someone had really written a solid, funny script for him. With the right material, either in a movie or a sitcom, Newhart could be a very funny fictional president. I hate to keep belaboring the point, but this movie was bad when it came out of the typewriter. Bad script equals bad movie. Still, I don't hate watching it, because of Bob Newhart. As I watch it, I keep imagining the better movie that COULD have been.

To me, the first half is funny as heck. Overall, the White House antics amount to a perceptive spoof of scarcely managed turmoil. That exchange between mother Kahn and daughter Radner over upholding appearances even though the repressed Radner's hormones are bursting is poignant in a satirical way. And catch the punctured dignity balloon among diplomats at the UN. It's delicious.

But once second-half events move to black people's country of Gorm, the screenplay loses footing. Of course, by today's standards the spoof's racial side flirts with incorrectness, which may account for the sudden erratic uncertainty. There are still amusing moments, but the screenplay appears to thrash around with no clear direction. And the less said about the ending, the better.

Anyway, the cast amounts to a collection of TV all-stars, from Newhart to Willard to Radner. In fact, there's probably too many stars, such that vivid talents like Kahn don't get nearly enough shtick. Likely, producer-director-writer Henry was aiming at a Mel Brooks type burlesque, but only partially succeeds. All in all, White House subject matter remains a ripe target for satire, but needs better consistency than this one.