A close-up look at the most embarrassing decade in history.


Making great fun of the '70s, this lively sci-fi comedy centers on a trio of time travellers who go into the past in hopes of retrieving the Constitution to celebrate America's 300th birthday. Unfortunately, the travelers end up in 1976 not 1776. The trouble is, they don't realize it.

The Spirit of '76 is a 1990 comedy film that spoofs American culture of the mid-1970s. It stars David Cassidy, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Olivia d'Abo, and the rock groups Redd Kross and Devo. The movie was initially released October 12, 1990. Columbia Pictures released a VHS edition on January 22, 1992, and Warner Home Video released a DVD edition on June 3, 2003.

The Spirit of '76 received mostly positive reviews, though some were mixed. The Denver Post described it as both "idiotic" and "aggressively bright",[1] and a review in the Chicago Sun-Times did not think it was very funny.[5] The Sacramento Bee called it a "cool comedy of the '70s," noting that it was a bit high-paced, but also "extremely likable."[6] An Entertainment Weekly review wrote that: "References to est and disco, along with someone's mint collection of Kiss posters and other memorabilia, get tossed out willy-nilly; the movie's only unifying force is that smirky irony," and gave the film a rating of "C-".[7] Allmovie wrote positively of the film, calling it a: "lively sci-fi comedy" that makes "great fun of the '70s."[2] The film received two stars from the TLA Video and DVD Guide 2004, which described it as: "lightweight with the occasional laugh."[8] Brett Fetzer of Amazon.com wrote that the film was a homage to the '70s, noting: "It would be charitable to assume that the filmmakers put all this together lovingly and didn't want to distract from the warm glow of nostalgia by making anything actually funny.

Release Date: October 12, 1990

Distrib: Columbia Pictures


Boxoffice: $52,310 2014: $103,300