Assignment: Venezuela: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:14, 10 September 2020

Revision as of 21:57, 21 October 2020

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==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|accessdate=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; Venezuela is depicted in a positive fashion. In Maracaibo, Jim drives across the waterfront in an imported American car, and in Caracas he explores the newly built [[University City of Caracas]], and studies Spanish 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 beforehand.<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|accessdate=20 June 2019|volume=18|archive-date=24 November 2008|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|accessdate=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.|archive-date=5 February 2018|accessdate=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)|accessdate=16 June 2019|date=16 July 2002}}</ref>

==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 [[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

In examining the ''MST3K'' spoof, [[Television studies|television 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

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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 articlejournal|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|ISBNisbn=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==