Assignment: Venezuela: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 19:09, 31 May 2020

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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 thisthe 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 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