Bear Media, Field Guide Media
Jack Rebney, Ben Steinbauer, Keith Gordon, Nick Prueher
The angriest man in the world! Jack Rebney was hired by the Winnebago company to shoot a sales video at the end of the 80’s. They kept the outtakes of the shoot, and they ended up on a “blooper” reel that was orginally shown to the Winnebago executives. This was back in the VHS days and the tape was duplicated till the video got very weak. Then someone posted it on You Tube, and Jack Rebney became one of the most well know phenomenon’s of viral videos, along with the Star Wars Kid and the dancing baby. The video is hilarious. He got mad and cursed a blue streak on and on and on. He truly came off as an insane idiot.
Well, Ben Steinbauer got hooked on the video and watched it over and over and over. Then he wondered whatever happened to Jack Rebney, and how this new found fame suited him. He set off on a quest to find him and find out what ever happened to “The Angriest Man in the World”.
He found out it wasn’t easy. Winnebago wasn’t in contact and was not interested at all. Then Ben even hired a private detective to track him down. He agreed to be interviewed. Jack was living on top of a mountain in California and was living like a hermit. Apparently the fame had not sat so well with him.
This is an interesting documentary, but I was really waiting to see this film, and I found myself disappointed. First, it was mostly about Ben Steinbauer, not Jack Rebney. And it left a lot of the questions unanswered. A lot of it was pretty boring and very self indulgent on the film maker’s part. It was very self serving more than anything.
So it was and interesting subject, and it was very interesting to see the man today 30 years later. Also on the special features is the entire video (without the outtakes) and it’s a pretty well done video. Hopefully it helped the dealers sell a few RV’s. 🙂
But it could have been better. If you’re interested in the real Jack Rebney (and you have seen the you tube video), go ahead and invest the time to see it. Otherwise, you’ll probably be bored.
(It very funny to see how much Jack Rebney has inserted himself into popular culture, and how often his sayings have been copied and reused in modern work)
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - Winnebago Man (2009) {NR},