Vic Morrow's death is a black shroud on the Zone

Vic Morrow's death clouds Twilight Zone: The Movie with dread 

By Jerry Saravia

When I first saw "Twilight Zone: The Movie" on VHS back in 1984, I was floored by it. Being a devoted fan to the Rod Serling series, I enjoyed the heck out of this grisly, cartoonish wild ride of a movie. I am still floored by it, having seen it twice more since, but something gnaws at me. It is the first segment in this sci-fi/horror anthology, the one that fills most people with dread. I am talking about the unfortunate John Landis-directed story that stars the late Vic Morrow.

In the first segment, entitled "Time Out," Vic Morrow plays Bill Connor, a bigoted louse of a man who has been passed over a promotion by a Jewish worker. When speaking out about his depression at a local bar to his friends, Bill spouts racist remarks and slurs without respite until he is interrupted by two black men at a nearby table. Bill leaves the bar and finds himself in WWII Occupied France where he is followed, shot at and attacked by Nazis thinking he is a Jew. Then he finds himself at a KKK rally where he is about to be hung on a tree, then we segue to the Vietnam War and then back to occupied France where he is sent away in a train car to a concentration camp. The original ending was to feature Bill helping two Vietnamese children escape from being killed by bombs - it was to be the character's redemption.

"Time Out" is hardly the most convincing look at racism and it suffers because of its downbeat ending (to be fair, some Serling episodes were downers). The tone of the piece is a little off and there is precious room for irony, mainly because the original ending is not present (for obvious reasons since Morrow and the two Vietnamese kids were killed in a tragic helicopter accident during filming). What really bothers me about this segment (the weakest of the four) is the audacity of the filmmakers to include it in the first place! Some critics at the time took note of it and could not ignore the real-life tragedy - how could you? How can one discuss this segment without mentioning the demise of its key participants? Why couldn't the filmmakers have opted to film some other segment entirely - there are many "Twilight Zone" episodes that could have been remade or perhaps come up with a story from scratch. But by including it, it can't escape its own unintended tragic, despairing dimensions. The whole segment feels vaguely exploitative and in poor taste.

The rest of the "Twilight Zone: The Movie" is terrifically scary and surprisingly tense. Between Spielberg's incandescently warm glow on "Kick the Can" (the only segment that is not horrific), to George Miller's frightening "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" with John Lithgow as a nervous passenger, to "It's a Good Life" with a devilish kid (far more devilish and evil in the original) who can conjure up cartoon worlds straight from his numerous televisions, "Twilight Zone" is a frenzied nightmare that is hard to shake off. That, and there is Dan Aykroyd in an opening prologue with CCR's "Midnight Special" playing that is sure to make your teeth chatter. Enjoy the film for what it is, and just skip that "Time Out." Vic Morrow would have wanted it that way.