Assignment: Venezuela: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|1956 American oil industry propaganda film}}

{{good article}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Assignment: Venezuela

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| editing =

| distributor =

| released = {{film date|1956}}

| runtime = 24 minutes

| language =

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| gross =

}}

'''''Assignment: Venezuela''''' is a 1956 American short [[propagandasponsored film]]. It is a fictional [[Travel documentary|travelogue]] designed to promote working in the [[History of the Venezuelan oil industry|oil industry in Venezuela]]. It was produced by Sound Masters, Inc. for the [[Creole Petroleum Corporation]] (part of the [[Standard Oil Company of New Jersey]]) and directed by John H. "Jack" Tobin.<ref name=businessscreen>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/business1957screenmav18rich/business1957screenmav18rich_djvu.txt|title=Business screen magazine 1957|year=1957|website=Archive.org|accessdate=20 June 2019}}</ref> Itand is part of the [[Prelinger Archives]] and, available in the [[public ___domain]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/Assignme1956|website=Archives|title=Assignment: Venezuela (1956)|accessdate=16 June 2019}}</ref> It was made into a ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' spoof in the 1990s.

==Synopsis==

[[File:Assignme1956.webm|thumb|The complete 1956 film]]

Jim is a middle-level oil engineer who is being relocated to [[Lake Maracaibo]], [[Venezuela]], with his family;: wife Ann and two sons. He initially tries to use a Spanish [[Phrase book|pocket phrase book]] unsuccessfully, but is quickly greeted at [[La Chinita International Airport|Grano de Oro Airport]] by a company rep.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weirdovideo.com/2019/03/13/assignment-venezuela-1956/|title=Assignment: Venezuela – 1956|website=Weirdo Video|accessdatedate=17 June 2017 |access-date=16 June 2019}}</ref> Jim is taken on a tour of [[Maracaibo]], [[Caracas]], and [[Lagunillas Municipality, Zulia|Lagunillas]] to familiarize him with the new country,; shownVenezuela asis positive;depicted in a positive fashion. In Maracaibo, heJim drives across the waterfront in an imported American car, and in Caracas he explores the newly- built [[University City of Caracas]], studyingand studies Spanish at [[Central University of Venezuela]]intensively.<ref name=blackmore/>^:97–98 He writes letters to Ann telling her how great Venezuela is before his family joins him a few weeks later, all having learnt Spanish alreadybeforehand.<ref name=morgan>{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Chris|title=The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Twelve Classic Episodes and the Movies They Lampoon|publisher=McFarland|year=2015|ISBNisbn=9781476618838}}</ref>^:158

==Production==

''Assignment: Venezuela'' was produced by Sound Masters, Inc. for the [[Creole Petroleum Corporation]] (part of the [[Standard Oil Company of New Jersey]]) and directed by John H. "Jack" Tobin.<ref name=businessscreen>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/business1957screenmav18rich/business1957screenmav18rich_djvu.txt|title=Business Screen Magazine 1957|year=1957|___location=Chicago|publisher=Business Screen Magazine|access-date=20 June 2019|volume=18|oclc=1037378813}}</ref> It was filmed on [[Kodachrome]] [[16mm film]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ebay.ca/itm/16mm-Assignment-Venezuela-Kodachrome-1950s-800/202641896486?hash=item2f2e65f426:g:-G8AAOSwivlcjvnA|title="16mm Assignment Venezuela Kodachrome 1950's 800'"|website=eBay|accessdateaccess-date=20 June 2019}}</ref> with an [[Arriflex]] camera.<ref>{{cite webjournal|title=American Cinematographer (1959)|url=https://archive.org/stream/americancinemato40unse/americancinemato40unse_djvu.txt|titleyear=American Cinematographer (1959)|website___location=Archive.orgLos Angeles|yearpublisher=1959The A.S.C. Agency, Inc.|accessdateaccess-date=20 June 2019|volume=40}}</ref> The film is in color and 24 minutes in length, and is part of the [[Prelinger Archives]]. It is available in the [[public ___domain]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/Assignme1956|website=Prelinger Archives|title=Assignment: Venezuela (1956)|access-date=16 June 2019|date=16 July 2002}}</ref>

==''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' version==

==Analysis==

In the 1990s, the satire television series ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' (''MST3K'') began producing content for a [[CD-ROM]] that included two [[short film]]s: ''MST3K—Assignment: Venezuela'' and a [[lost films|lost film]].<ref name=morgan/>^:158 Initially screened at ConventioCon 2, the spoof was temporarily lost during a period of upheaval at ''MST3K'' during its production, when it was moving TV channels from [[Comedy Central]] to [[Sci Fi Channel]], and when CD-ROM sponsors Voyager began failing financially. It was later released on the [[List of Mystery Science Theater 3000 home video releases|home videos]] "Assignment Venezuela and Other Shorts" in 2001 and "The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 7" in 2005. Like many ''MST3K spoofs'' spoofs, it is a film from the 1950s, which were easier to acquire rights to; Giannini also notes how this generally benefits the spoofs as it provides prime materialrights to mock quaint 1950s American ideals in line with more contemporary social and political issues, which she believes ''Assignment: Venezuela'' shows very clearly.<ref name=giannini/>^:149"morgan" It also lacks the internal structure and scheduled framing narrative of many other ''MST3K'' shorts.<ref name=giannini/>^{:150158–159}

[[File:Jim visits Plaza Cubierta in Assignment Venezuela.png|thumb|Still frame of "Jim" visiting the [[Modernism|Modernist]] [[University City of Caracas|Plaza Cubierta]] at [[Central University of Venezuela]]]]

The film was produced in the context of the [[Marcos Pérez Jiménez]] [[History of Venezuela (1948–1958)|military dictatorship]], with scholar Lisa Blackmore describing the propaganda and national image of that time having distinct dual purposes: for Venezuelans, the Venezuelan leaders wanted to show an independent [[anti-capitalist]] nation, and for [[United States|Americans]] involved in the oil trade they wanted to present an attractive, modern, [[Western nation]]. Blackmore writes that "this mission to confirm Venezuela's development on this basis of its embrace of the [[American way of life]] transpires clearly" in the film.<ref name=blackmore>{{cite book|last=Blackmore|first=Lisa|title=Spectacular Modernity: Dictatorship, Space, and Visuality in Venezuela, 1948–1958|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=2017|ISBN=9780822982364}}</ref>^:97

Chris Morgan, author of ''The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Twelve Classic Episodes and the Movies They Lampoon'', writes in the book that the ''MST3K'' version of the film is long for an ''MST3K'' short, noting that the intended CD-ROM format gave the producers a chance to "stretch their legs" and keep close to the original running length. He criticizesthought that the ''MST3K'' short asitself unfunnywas evendull thoughand there were more jokes than usuallacking in it andcomedic cheaply producedpotential, and notes that keeping the original premise of oil-boom relocation to Venezuela ages the piece significantly., Hethough didhe thinkobserved that "Mike and the 'bots do their best with it" and the running joke made about the width of the lake was funny, though.<ref name=morgan/>^:158–159

Scholar [[Miguel Tinker Salas]] wrote that the film was part of a practice intended to make the American employees more sympathetic to the Venezuelan locals upon arrival, and to not be too brash; he also believes it was unsuccessful in this aim. He states this is because it was only shown to employees of petroleum corporations, not their families, and was paired with extensive classes in [[Venezuelan culture]] that generally perturbed the employees — enough for stories of expatriates calling the practice "indoctrination" to arise. Tinker also suggests that anything learnt from the lessons and film were quickly forgotten, with American oil workers still retaining their opinion of cultural dominance.<ref name=tinker>{{cite book|last=Tinker Salas|first=Miguel|last2=Joseph|first2=Gilbert M.|last3=Rosenberg|first3=Emily S.|title=The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_R5JkihMrXAC&pg=PA148|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2009|ISBN=9780822392231}}</ref>^:147–148

In an article examining some ''MST3K'' shorts, Erin Giannini selects the version of ''Assignment: Venezuela'' as a good example of where ''MST3K'' makes good film selections to spoof with suitable commentary, and as showing how this practice appears in their shorts as well as feature films.<ref name="giannini">{{cite articlejournal |last=Giannini |first=Erin |year=2014 |editor2=Barba, Shelley E. |title="People were whiter back then": Film Placement and In-Theater Commentary as Sociopolitical Dialogue|editor1=Weiner, Robert G.|editor2=Barba, Shelley E.|journal=In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing |publisher=McFarland|year=2014 |pages=146–154 |ISBNisbn=9780786485727 |editor1=Weiner, Robert G.}}</ref>^:147 Giannini arguesalso thatnotes thehow short'spublic lack___domain ofmaterial publicgenerally distribution gavebenefits the ''MST3K''spoofs writersas moreit leewayprovides inprime theirmaterial commentary,<refto name=giannini/>^:149mock althoughquaint the1950s writersAmerican did not directly address the [[colonialism]] presentideals in theline film.with Themore commentarycontemporary doessocial showand an awareness ofpolitical itissues, however,which includingshe interjectionsbelieves calling''Assignment: theVenezuela'' protagonistshows "whitevery devil" and a sarcastic reference to the United States asclearly.<ref name="the best country evergiannini". Other/>^:149 reactionsIt arealso more critical oflacks the oilinternal industry,structure dubbingand thescheduled placementframing patternnarrative of offshoremany oilother wells''MST3K'' ashorts.<ref name="giannini"[[pentacle|pentacle to/>^:150 Satan]]"Giannini andargues spoofingthat the over-exuberantshort's joylack atof Venezuelanpublic oildistribution successgave bythe saying''MST3K'' thatwriters "oilmore isleeway ain lovingtheir god"commentary.<ref name="giannini" />^:150149

In examining the ''MST3K'' spoof, Erin Giannini argues the original film "shares features with [[Social guidance film|mental hygiene films]] such as ''[[A Date with Your Family]]'' as well as the overt propagandizing of ''[[Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)|Invasion USA]]''", writing that ''Assignment: Venezuela'' "attempts to sanitize" many of the racial and environmental issues relating to US-Venezuelan oil ventures. She notes that "some" treat the film as an accurate historical record of 1950s Venezuela.<ref name=giannini/>^:150

Although the ''MST3K'' writers did not directly address the [[colonialism]] present in the film, according to Giannini, the commentary does show an awareness of it, including interjections calling the protagonist "white devil" and a sarcastic reference to the United States as "the best country ever". Other reactions are more critical of the oil industry, dubbing the placement pattern of offshore oil wells a "[[pentacle|pentacle to Satan]]" and spoofing the over-exuberant joy at Venezuelan oil success by saying that "oil is a loving god".<ref name="giannini" />^:150

==''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' version==

In the 1990s, the satire television series ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' (''MST3K'') began producing content for a [[CD-ROM]] that included two [[short film]]s: ''MST3K—Assignment: Venezuela'' and a [[lost films|lost film]].<ref name=morgan/>^:158 Initially screened at ConventioCon 2, the spoof was temporarily lost during a period of upheaval at ''MST3K'' during its production, when it was moving TV channels from [[Comedy Central]] to [[Sci Fi Channel]], and when CD-ROM sponsors Voyager began failing financially. It was later released on the [[List of Mystery Science Theater 3000 home video releases|home videos]] "Assignment Venezuela and Other Shorts" in 2001 and "The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 7" in 2005. Like many ''MST3K spoofs'', it is a film from the 1950s, which were easier to acquire rights to; Giannini also notes how this generally benefits the spoofs as it provides prime material to mock quaint 1950s American ideals in line with more contemporary social and political issues, which she believes ''Assignment: Venezuela'' shows very clearly.<ref name=giannini/>^:149 It also lacks the internal structure and scheduled framing narrative of many other ''MST3K'' shorts.<ref name=giannini/>^:150

==Analysis==

[[File:Jim visits Plaza Cubierta in Assignment Venezuela.png|thumb|Still frame of "Jim" visiting the [[Modernism|Modernist]] [[University City of Caracas|Plaza Cubierta]] at [[Central University of Venezuela]]]]

The film was produced in the context of the [[Marcos Pérez Jiménez]] [[History of Venezuela (1948–1958)|Marcos Pérez Jiménez military dictatorship]], with scholar Lisa Blackmore describing the propaganda and national image of that time as having distinct dual purposes: for Venezuelans, the Venezuelan leaders wanted to show an independent [[anti-capitalist]] nation, and for [[United States|Americans]] involved in the oil trade they wanted to present an attractive, modern, [[Western nation]]. Blackmore writes that "this mission to confirm Venezuela's development on this basis of its embrace of the [[American way of life]] transpires clearly" in the film.<ref name=blackmore>{{cite book|last=Blackmore|first=Lisa|title=Spectacular Modernity: Dictatorship, Space, and Visuality in Venezuela, 1948–1958|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=2017|ISBNisbn=9780822982364}}</ref>^:97

Scholar [[Miguel Tinker Salas]] wrote that the film was part of a practice intended to make the American employees more sympathetic to the Venezuelan locals upon arrival, and to not be too brash; he also believes it was unsuccessful in this aim. He states this is because it was only shown to employees of petroleum corporations, not their families, and was paired with extensive classes in [[Venezuelan culture]] that generally perturbed the employees — enough for stories of expatriates calling the practice "indoctrination" to arise. Tinker also suggests that anything learnt from the lessons and film were quickly forgotten, with American oil workers still retaining their opinion of cultural dominance.<ref name=tinker>{{cite book|lastlast1=Tinker Salas|firstfirst1=Miguel|last2=Joseph|first2=Gilbert M.|last3=Rosenberg|first3=Emily S.|title=The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_R5JkihMrXAC&pg=PA148|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2009|ISBNisbn=9780822392231}}</ref>^:147–148

Chris Morgan writes that the ''MST3K'' version of the film is long for an ''MST3K'' short, noting that the intended format gave the producers a chance to "stretch their legs" and keep close to the original running length. He criticizes the ''MST3K'' short as unfunny even though there were more jokes than usual in it and cheaply produced, and notes that keeping the original premise of oil-boom relocation to Venezuela ages the piece significantly. He did think that the running joke made about the width of the lake was funny, though.<ref name=morgan/>^:158–159

In[[Television examiningstudies|Television the ''MST3K'' spoof,scholar]] Erin Giannini argues the original film "shares features with [[Social guidance film|mental hygiene films]] such as ''[[A Date with Your Family]]'' as well as the overt propagandizing of ''[[Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)|Invasion USA]]''", writing that ''Assignment: Venezuela'' "attempts to sanitize" many of the racial and environmental issues relating to US-Venezuelan oil ventures. She notes that "some" treat the film as an accurate historical record of 1950s Venezuela.<ref name=giannini/>^:150

In an article examining some ''MST3K'' shorts, Giannini selects the version of ''Assignment: Venezuela'' as a good example of where ''MST3K'' makes good film selections to spoof with suitable commentary, and as showing how this practice appears in their shorts as well as feature films.<ref name=giannini>{{cite article|last=Giannini|first=Erin|title="People were whiter back then": Film Placement and In-Theater Commentary as Sociopolitical Dialogue|editor1=Weiner, Robert G.|editor2=Barba, Shelley E.|journal=In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing|publisher=McFarland|year=2014|pages=146–154|ISBN=9780786485727}}</ref>^:147 Giannini argues that the short's lack of public distribution gave the ''MST3K'' writers more leeway in their commentary,<ref name=giannini/>^:149 although the writers did not directly address the [[colonialism]] present in the film. The commentary does show an awareness of it, however, including interjections calling the protagonist "white devil" and a sarcastic reference to the United States as "the best country ever". Other reactions are more critical of the oil industry, dubbing the placement pattern of offshore oil wells a "[[pentacle|pentacle to Satan]]" and spoofing the over-exuberant joy at Venezuelan oil success by saying that "oil is a loving god".<ref name=giannini/>^:150

==See also==

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==External links==

*''[https://archive.org/details/Assignme1956 Assignment: Venezuela]'' at the [[Internet Archive]]

*{{imdb-IMDb title|0297747}}

*''[http://www.club-mst3k.com/episodes/707-assignment-venezuela-the-lost-short MST3K—Assignment: Venezuela]'' on [[MST3K]]

*''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358952/ Assignment: Venezuela and Other Shorts]'' on [[IMDb]]

[[Category:1950s documentary films]]

[[Category:1956 films]]

[[Category:American1956 short documentary films]]

[[Category:American propaganda films about Venezuela]]

[[Category:American short documentary films]]

[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]

[[Category:Documentary films about Venezuela]]

[[Category:Films about labor relations]]

[[Category:Films about language and translation]]

[[Category:Films set in Venezuela]]

[[Category:Venezuelan1950s cinemaAmerican task force articlesfilms]]