When the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension came out in 1984 I bought into the crazy world that director WD Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch created hook, line, and sinker. The idea of a loosely organized group of right-minded citizens that worked to protect the world against evil was straight from the pulp stories that I read and loved that starred Doc Savage and The Shadow.
And when the movie had a brain surgeon/rock and roll star/particle physicist named Buckaroo Banzai leading such a team… well, you had me at hello.
Like it’s hero, the movie is a lot of things at once. It’s a heroic action-adventure, a science fiction film, a comedy, and a parody. It’s filled with eccentric characters, ludicrous situations and features a reference to Orson Welles infamous War of the Worlds broadcast that served as the cherry on top of the sundae for an Orson fan like me.
I’d try and explain the plot, but there’s little point – this is not a plot-heavy movie, it’s a movie filled with bemusing set pieces and character moments. To this day I still occasionally quote the film to friends if the moment is right (“What’s that watermelon doing there?” “Home is where you wear your hat.” ‘Wherever you go, there you are.”)
It also showcased an amazing entourage of actors, many who went on to much greater things. Besides Peter Weller as Banzai, you had Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Clancey Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedeya, Carl Lumley, Robert Ito… heck, it even has Yakov Smirnoff in a small role! It was as if every cool character actor in the 1980s were brought on board.
When the movie was first released it didn’t do very well, despite the best efforts of the publicity department. They created a fan club months before the film’s release, and membership in the club allowed you to get newsletters and merchandise that told the story about Buckaroo’s world. The club also presented the brilliant idea that the film was actually a fictionalized documentary about the REAL Buckaroo Banzai, who was a real person busily touring with his band and fighting crime – all of the newsletters were framed from that perspective. The fan club continued quite a while until the studio told the publicity department use their copy machines to print the newsletters (seriously).
Why did the movie fail? The answer, I’m afraid, is it was just too quirky for the mass audience. The dialogue, premise, and characters are just too “out there” for the majority of people. It’s also uneven, and maybe TOO quirky for it’s own good. Viewers had to pay attention and expend the effort to “get into” the world Buckaroo and the Hong Kong Cavaliers inhabited was something that most people just didn’t care to do.
But if, like me, you “get it”… it’s great fun.
I was, am, and always will be a Blue Blaze Irregular, and a proud member of Team Banzai.