Assignment: Venezuela: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:47, 22 May 2024

Revision as of 06:14, 22 May 2024

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==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|access-date=20 June 2019}}</ref> with an [[Arriflex]] camera.<ref>{{cite journal|title=American Cinematographer (1959)|url=https://archive.org/stream/americancinemato40unse/americancinemato40unse_djvu.txt|year=1959|___location=Los Angeles|publisher=The A.S.C. Agency, Inc.|access-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==

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 the 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

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 format gave the producers a chance to "stretch their legs" and keep close to the original running length. He thought that the short itself was dull and lacking in comedic potential, and that keeping the original premise of oil-boom relocation to Venezuela ages the piece significantly, though he observed that "Mike and the 'bots do their best with it" and the running joke made about the width of the lake was funny.<ref name=morgan/>^:158–159

==Analysis==

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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|last1=Tinker Salas|first1=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 examining the ''MST3K'' spoof, [[Television studies|televisionTelevision 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"{{Who?}} 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 journal|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 also notes how public ___domain material 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 Giannini argues that the short's lack of public distribution gave the ''MST3K'' writers more leeway in their commentary.<ref name=giannini/>^:149

==''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 the 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

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 format gave the producers a chance to "stretch their legs" and keep close to the original running length. He thought that the short itself was dull and lacking in comedic potential, and that keeping the original premise of oil-boom relocation to Venezuela ages the piece significantly, though he observed that "Mike and the 'bots do their best with it" and the running joke made about the width of the lake was funny.<ref name=morgan/>^:158–159

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 journal|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 althoughAlthough the writers did not directly address the [[colonialism]] present in the film., Theaccording to Giannini, 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==