The Kentucky Fried Movie is a 1977 American sketch comedy film directed by John Landis, and written by the trio of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (ZAZ). It comprises 26 segments parodying a variety of styles and formats, including television commercials, news broadcasts, exploitation films, and public service announcements.
The film was based upon sketches originally created by ZAZ as part of their live comedy show, the Kentucky Fried Theater. Produced independently on a low-budget, the film features a large ensemble cast with star cameos including George Lazenby, Bill Bixby, Henry Gibson, Barry Dennen, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, Stephen Bishop, and the voice of Shadoe Stevens. The "feature presentation" segment, a martial arts film satire, stars Evan C. Kim and hapkido grand master Han Bong-soo.
The Kentucky Fried Movie was released on August 10, 1977. It was both a critical and commercial success, and launched the careers of Landis and ZAZ as mainstream comedy filmmakers.
The Kentucky Fried Movie contains largely unconnected sketches that parody various film genres, including exploitation films. The film's longest segment spoofs early kung fu films, specifically Enter the Dragon; its title, A Fistful of Yen, refers to A Fistful of Dollars. Parodies of disaster films ("That's Armageddon"), blaxploitation films ("Cleopatra Schwartz"), and softcore porn/women-in-prison films ("Catholic High School Girls in Trouble") are presented as "Coming Attraction" trailers. The fictional films are produced by "Samuel L. Bronkowitz" (a conflation of Samuel Bronston and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but also a spoof of B-movie producer and American International Pictures co-founder Samuel Z. Arkoff).
The sketch "See You Next Wednesday" mocks theater-based gimmicks like Sensurround by depicting a dramatic film presented in "Feel-a-Round", which involves an usher physically groping a theater patron. Other sketches spoof TV commercials and programs, news broadcasts, and classroom educational films. The city of Detroit and its high crime rate are a running gag portraying the city as a hell on Earth; in "A Fistful of Yen", Dr. Klahn orders a captured CIA agent to be sent to Detroit after which the agent screams and begs to be killed instead.
The film does not present the sketches in their originally-intended order. The end credits reveal the original order as follows: Cleopatra Schwartz, His New Car, Household Odors, High Adventure, Argon, Danger Seekers, Eyewitness News, Scot Free, Nytex P.M., Feel-A-Round, ThatâÂÂs Armageddon!, United Appeal for the Dead, Headache Clinic, A.M. Today, Catholic High School Girls in Trouble, Courtroom, Willer Beer, Nesson Oil, Sex Record, Zinc Oxide, A Fistful of Yen.
Additionally, voiceovers in multiple segments are performed by Shadoe Stevens, Bob Holt, and Robert K. Weiss.
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams made the rounds of the Hollywood studios with the concept and were rejected by all of them, being told, "audiences didn't like movies composed of sketches". Since the three believed in their material, which they had honed in front of the audiences with their improvisational troupe "Kentucky Fried Theater," they decided to make the movie on their own.
A wealthy real estate investor offered to finance the film if they would write a script. After completion of the screenplay, the investor had second thoughts and decided he did not want to finance the film alone. He said he would try to attract other investors if the three filmmakers would produce a 10-minute excerpt of the film, which he would finance. When the trio presented a budget of the short film to the investor, he backed out.
The prospect of shooting the short film so excited the trio that they decided to pay for it themselves. The 10-minute film cost $35,000, and with it they again approached the Hollywood studios. This time, they attached a young director named John Landis to the project, who came to their attention after an appearance on The Tonight Show promoting his first film Schlock. However, once again, the studios turned them down.
According to writer David Zucker on the DVD commentary track, David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster, but was not selected. The film's large ensemble cast also features many former members of The Groundlings and The Second City, while most of the extras in the A Fistful of Yen segment were recruited from local martial arts gyms, among them Han Bong-soo's hapkido dojang. Several prominent martial artists, including Han, Jun Chong, Cho Hee-il and Phillip Rhee would appear.
Both Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow were approached to reprise their roles as Beaver and Wally Cleaver in the Courtroom segment. Talks with Mathers fell through, and Beaver was played by writer David Zucker instead.
The film's estimated production budget was between $650,000 and $1 million. Much of the film was shot at an estate in Pasadena, where multiple sets could be constructed. Due to the film's low budget and the high, varied number of sets required, many of them were built outdoors without ceilings so they could be lit naturally with sunlight, reducing the need to construct and maintain lighting equipment.
The exteriors of Dr. Klahn's lair in A Fistful of Yen were filmed at Yamashiro Historic District.
Curious as to how audiences would react to their film, they persuaded exhibitor Kim Jorgensen to show it before one of his regularly scheduled films. When Jorgenson saw the short, he "fell out of his seat laughing." He was so impressed that he offered to raise the money needed to make the full-length version. By having his fellow exhibitors screen the film before audiences in their theaters, he convinced them to put up the $650,000 budget. When released, Kentucky Fried Movie was a box-office success, returning domestic American rentals of $7.1 million.
Anchor Bay Entertainment released a region 1 DVD in 2000. This release is presented in widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio and full-frame (1.33:1). It includes commentary by Landis; writers ZAZ; and producer Robert K. Weiss.
On July 4, 2011, Arrow Video in region 2 released a two-disc special edition DVD with the following special features:
On July 2, 2013, Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray in a 1.85:1 aspect widescreen transfer. This version includes the original theatrical trailer, Arrow DVD release filmmaker commentary, and Zucker Bros. interview.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 83%, based on reviews from 35 critics. The site's critical consensus reads: "The now obscure pop culture references and spoofed commercials add to Kentucky Fried Movies anarchic, anything-goes spirit and wit." On Metacritic it has a score of 61% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
At the time, Variety described the film as having "excellent production values and some genuine wit" but also noted that the film was juvenile and tasteless. Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote, "Lots of people will probably like The Kentucky Fried Movie, just as they like Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's hamburgers. But popularity is still no reason for deifying mediocrity." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that the best moments were "one-joke gags; its writers can't sustain their humor for longer pieces. So, what you're left with is a half-dozen decent gags, one overlong karate flick, and a few shots of bare breasts thrown in to titillate teenage boys." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a diverting hit-and-miss satirical anthology." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "As is inevitable in such undertakings there are some sophomoric moments, but on the whole 'Kentucky Fried Movie' is, amazingly enough, almost continually funny in its ribald way."
Writing three decades later in 2008, Ian Nathan of Empire magazine calls the film "occasionally funny"... "in a scattershot and puerile way", and he concludes the film is "smart and satirical, but very dated". J. C. Maçek III of PopMatters wrote, "The Kentucky Fried Movie is, however, profane, experimental, violent, silly, hilarious, and occasionally quite sexually explicit (all of which surely helped its success over the years)."
The film ranks number 87 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies list.
John Landis was recommended to direct National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 based on his work with The Kentucky Fried Movie.
The film also launched the careers of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who subsequently wrote and directed Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its film spin-offs, The Naked Gun films.