Space Mutiny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Space Mutiny | |
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| Directed by | David Winters |
| Produced by | David Winters |
| Written by | Maria Dante |
| Starring | Reb Brown Cissy Cameron Cameron Mitchell James Ryan John Phillip Law Graham Clark Billy Second Rufus Swart |
| Music by | Tim James Mark Mancina Steve McClintock |
| Cinematography | Vincent G. Cox Andrew Parke |
| Editing by | Bill Asher Charlotte Konrad Catherine Meyburon |
| Distributed by | Action International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1988 (USA) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Gross revenue | Unknown |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Space Mutiny (also known as Mutiny in Space) is a 1988 South African science-fiction action film about a mutiny aboard the spaceship known as the Southern Sun.
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[edit] Plot
The Southern Sun is a seedship, or a spacefaring vessel that contains large amounts of people, whose mission is to colonize a new world. Its voyage has lasted generations, so many of its inhabitants have been born and will die without ever setting foot on solid ground. This does not please the antagonist, Elijah Kalgan, who conspires with the pirates infesting the nearby Corona Borealis system and the ship’s Chief Engineer MacPhearson. Kalgan hatches a plot to disrupt the Southern Sun’s navigation systems and use the Enforcers, the ship’s police force, to hijack the ship and direct it towards this system. At this point, the inhabitants of the Southern Sun will have no choice but to accept his “generosity.”
Kalgan sabotages a key part of the ship just as an important professor’s shuttle is on a landing trajectory. The loss of guidance control causes the ship to explode. The ship’s pilot, Dave Ryder, is able to escape, but the professor dies in the explosion. This sabotage seals off the flight deck for a number of weeks, which gives Kalgan the opportunity to attempt to wrest control. With the Enforcers in his hand, and with the flight deck out of commission, he holds the entire population of the Southern Sun hostage. Commander Jansen and Captain Devers enlist Ryder’s assistance, aided begrudgingly by Jansen’s daughter Dr. Lea Jansen, to regain control of the ship.
[edit] Production
Space Mutiny stars Reb Brown, Cissy Cameron, Cameron Mitchell and John Phillip Law. The spaceship effects were lifted wholly from the original Battlestar Galactica TV series.[1] The engineering areas of the ship were filmed in an industrial building with un-futuristic brick walls, windows and concrete floors, while the bridge looks remarkably like a vintage-1980s corporate office (non-shag, neutral carpeting; white particle board desks; computers with 16-color ANSI displays, including one with a 5¼ inch floppy disk drive as an ID card reader). Kalgan’s “torture chamber” set features contemporary computer keyboards inexplicably mounted on the walls. The characters tend to wear the silver or white lamé outfits that were common to science fiction/futurist productions of the time, whilst many of the female characters wear spandex leotards.
The film’s notable flaws provided substantial material for later spoofing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (see below). The engineering deck interiors include several shots of windows, which show sky beyond. In one scene, the camera passes by a bridge officer, Lt. Lemont, working at her computer console as an extra despite having been killed in the previous scene.[2] One chase scene involves slow-moving Enforcer vehicles (inspiring the MST3K comment, "Put your helmet on! We'll be reaching speeds of three!"), strongly resembling bowling-alley floor polishers, and the collision of two of these vehicles produces an extraordinary explosion for such small craft. The scene is further undermined by the intense sunlight streaming into the corridor—far more sunlight than one would see on a space ship traveling between the stars.
Mirroring the romantic relationship of Brown and Cameron's characters, the actors themselves were married sometime after the film was finished.
It is noted that the soundtrack sounds remarkably similar to the Depeche Mode song, "Enjoy the Silence", using synthesizers to replicate choir.
[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000
Space Mutiny was lampooned in a November 1997 episode of movie-mocking television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie’s editing flaws, stilted dialog, and poor production lent itself well to the MST3K treatment, and it has proved to be one of the most popular episodes, released as part of the MST3K DVD Collection, Vol. 4 from Rhino Entertainment.[3]
Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo's arsenal of jokes include poking fun at Commander Jansen's resemblance to Santa Claus and God, Captain Devers resemblance to Sting, and to the obvious fact that the actress playing Lea is much older than her character is meant to be (they refer to her as Jansen's "Grandma-daughter") The film's numerous battles feature casualties that fall over railings as they die, so Mike and The Bots often reference them as "railing kills" (Prompting Tom to fill the 'Satellite of Love' with railings). Many of the Enforcers are portrayed as homosexual, and two were compared to The Oak Ridge Boys while another was repeatedly mocked for his Ed Grimley-like hairstyle. They also make up numerous fake bodybuilder names for the muscular hero Ryder, including, among others, Gristle McThornbody, Big McLargeHuge, Buff Drinklots, Bob Johnson (accidentally), Punch Rockgroin, and Roll Fizzlebeef, and make fun of the way he screams. Kalgan's frequent maniacal laughter is also a source of entertainment, as is the lobster-red armor his bodyguard wears.
Two actors featured in the film made appearances in other films that were featured on the show. John Phillip Law, who appeared in this movie as the villain Elijah Kalgan, also starred in Diabolik, which was featured in the series finale. Cameron Mitchell, who played Commander Jansen, also appeared in another MST3K episode, season three's Stranded in Space. He is not the only member of the Mitchell family to be involved in Space Mutiny; his daughter Camille Mitchell provided the voice for Jennara, the lead Bellarian; his son Chip Mitchell played Blake, a mustachioed member of Kalgan’s crew (in an early scene he is shown apologizing because "the information’s so scanty").
Despite comments made during the MST3K episode, in which Servo states that this movie is very good at "tossing Canadians around" and that the movie "reeks of back-bacon", the movie was not made in Canada, but rather in South Africa during the apartheid period. The accents of several characters are due to this. The only black person on screen is one of the bodies 'on ice'.
Some ten minutes of footage were cut from Space Mutiny for its use on MST3K. Much of the edited footage featured space battle scenes taken from the original television series of Battlestar Galactica. The version of the film featured in the episode was, in essence, consistent with the full version; the discontinuities apparent in the episode were all present in the 1988 film.
MST3K viewers found it odd that Mike Nelson and the 'bots did not comment on the reused Battlestar Galactica footage. Best Brains writer Paul Chaplin acknowledged the omission, but did not provide an explanation.[4] Notably, the episode featuring the film Future War included a joke related to Battlestar Galactica, indicating that the writers had some knowledge of the show.
Mike makes a references to Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in protest of the South Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists. At one point in the movie, Ryder fires a laser bazooka at Kalgan, but hits one of his henchmen, setting him on fire. When Kalgan kicks the man out of his way, Mike screams, "Stupid Buddhist monk! The Vietnam War has been over with for hundreds of years."
Mike and the Bots also mock the fact that a character killed on screen blatantly shows up as an extra in later scenes (see above).
[edit] Notable cast
- Reb Brown—Dave Ryder
- John Phillip Law—Flight Commander Elijah Kalgan
- Cameron Mitchell—Commander Alex Jansen
- Cisse Cameron—Dr. Lea Jansen
- James Ryan—Chief Engineer MacPhearson
- Graham Clark—Captain Scott Devers
- Billy Second—Lieutenant Lemont
- Gary D. Sweeney—Ranger
[edit] References
- ^ “Trivia for Space Mutiny (1988)”. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ “Goofs for Space Mutiny (1988)”. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ “The MST3K DVD List”. Satellite News. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ Chaplin, Paul. “Episode 820—Space Mutiny”. The Amazing Colossal Transplanted Sci-Fi Channel Episode Guide. Satellite News. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
