Galaxy Quest

This was written at the time of the film's release in theaters and a cursory glance at it a couple weeks ago (in between regularly scheduled programs) revealed just as much enjoyment and admiration as the first time I watched it. "Never give up. Never surrender."

Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) Up until J.J. Abrams' re-boot, this 1999 release was probably the best "Star Trek" film that Paramount Studios never made.

 

Unfortunately, it wasn't "Star Trek" but a spoof of the phenomenon that Paramount inherited from the originating production house Desilu (and apparently didn't know what to do with—at the the time of Galaxy Quest's release, they were in between producing the Next Generation movies Insurrection and Nemesis, which effectively killed the series). 

 

Still, this film is an affectionate send-up with a fine cast doing good comedic...and dramatic...work, and manages to pull off something of a miracle, making one one embrace the cliches of the original while at the same time making delicious fun of them. And given the ubiquity of "Star Trek", fans still recognized the show, backwards, forwards and behind-the-scenes, even when it was in the disguise of another Intellectual Property.

At a sci-fi convention, the cast of a long-cancelled television series "Galaxy Quest" is going through the motions of meeting their fans, even though the show has been off the air for years, and the actors are having a difficult time finding other work due to "type-casting." They squabble, each remembering personal quirks and on-set peccadilloes, either jostling for the limelight or just "doing the gig," and by happenstance, find themselves portraying their characters in a real outer-space adventure, persuaded by desperately seeking aliens who have caught transmissions of the show as it zipped through space at light-speed, and not only liked what they saw...they bought it hook, line, and beridium sphere.

It's a fun conceit, combining the background stories of actors with the characters they're playing put into a situation where their attributes as actors inform their actions in a real-life approximation of the roles they play. It stands to reason that the traits they embody to play the roles would come to the fore when reality sets in—it implies, of course, that they could do all this without "handlers," make-up assistants, or even (ya know...) decent writers and directors. It's fun to imagine.  

And the writers of the film have the "Star Trek" types down: the blow-hard lead actor (Tim Allen) who looks after himself until the chips are down; the second-in-command alien character—a fan-favorite—portrayed by an actor (Alan Rickman) who aspires to more prestigious roles and makes efforts to distance himself from his most popular one—until the role's inherent dignity and importance occurs to him; the actress (Sigourney Weaver, paralleling both Lt. Uhura and her "Ripley" character in Alien) trying to rise above the inherent sexism of her role, opening "hailing frequencies"; and the "also-ran's" (Tony Shalhoub and Sam Rockwell) who are stuck in their careers, forever typecast and unable to move on, bitterly watching their co-stars take better advantage.

There's also a tip of the hat to the faithful fans who start out as convention geeks, then play a pivotal role in the survival of the crew and their mission—and they don't even have to do it with a write-in campaign to the network.

Fiction becomes fact becomes fiction becomes fact; Galaxy Quest is an inter-dimensional trek on a Universe that's folded in on itself, through all the frontiers influenced by TOS and its progeny that explored new frontiers on a journey that seems on-going. It's also one of the best examples of a rare film genre that usually comes off as lame, childish, or patronizing—the science fiction comedy.

Don't Make a Scene: The Blair Witch Project

The Story: I'm not a big fan of horror movies. But, they are useful.

Because they're so manipulative, and conducive to "showing off," first-time directors like to make them. Also, for a subject that is "unreal" it's a challenge for first-time directors to create the realness, the verisimilitude. It's a good "first lesson" when starting out. Can you make the audience suspend belief that it's a movie, and then can you make them suspend belief to be "into" it.

Plus, horror films are good "concept" films. Because people have "fight or flight" reflexes that are basic equipment in our alligator brains, there's a lot of material that can freak us out, and a good director will find a way to do that. It's just that we're hip to their tricks. We've seen it all before. There's nothing new under the projector light.

Until somebody comes along and does something different...like the makers of The Blair Witch Project.

It was just the sketch of an idea, really. Hire three actors. Say that they're playing "themselves" as amateur filmmakers making a documentary about a scary urban legend. Give 'em cameras. And leave 'em in the woods. Then, surprise them every day with some new plot-point they didn't know about.

Then, in your viral marketing campaign for the film, say that the film is "found footage" from the three...who have, themselves, never been found.

It worked like gang-busters, earning what is the largest recorded profit from expenditure for a movie to date.

"Blair Witch" has the best thing going for it: the camera work sucks. And, as has been well-demonstrated before, the stuff you don't see is far scarier than the stuff you do see. And "Blair Witch" suggests the hell out of everything without being tangible about anything. All we know is that the filmmakers are scared and don't know what's going on, as we cut from different cameras' points of view, while scrambling in the dark.

It's amazing that it works so well. And it's amazing that no one had done it before.

It's been done since to lesser effect. We live. We learn.

Oh, and it shouldn't surprise you that some people believe it's real.

Now, that's really scary!

 

The Set-Up: "In October of 1994, three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams) disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. 

A year later their footage was found."

It was supposed to be a 3-day shoot. This is the night of Day 8.

 

Action.

 

Heather: I just want to apologize to Mike’s mom and Josh’s mom and my mom and I’m sorry to everyone. I was very naive. 

(Looks away from camera scared) 

Heather: I was very naive and very stupid and I shouldn’t have put other people in danger for something that was all about me and my selfish motives. 

Heather: I’m so sorry for everything that has happened because in spite of what Mike says now it is my fault. Because it was my project and I insisted...I insisted on everything. 

Heather: I insisted we weren’t lost. I insisted we keep going. 

Heather: I insisted we walk south. 

Heather: Everything had to be my way and this is where we’ve ended up. And it’s all because of me we're here now...

Heather: ...hungry and cold and hunted. 

Heather: I love you mom and dad. I am so sorry. It was never my intention to hurt any one and I hope that’s clear. 

(Begins to hyperventilate as mucus streams from her nostrils) 

Heather: (whispers) What is that? (sobs)

Heather: I am so scared. What was that? I’m scared to close my eyes and I’m scared to open them. 

Heather: I’m going to die out here. 

Every night we just wait for them to come. (Breaks down and sobs)

The Blair Witch Project

 

Words by Heather Donahue, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

 

Pictures by Neal Fredericks and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez

 

The Blair Witch Project is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Artisan Home Entertainment.

Ride With the Devil

What to post on July 4th? I've done versions of Yankee Doodle Dandy almost to death. There isn't a Capra film that feels appropriate. 

But a Western...I've got a couple that I want to spend a bit more time on—both dealing with the "Native Question" (not sure why there was ever a question to begin with). But, looking at some "ready-to-go" things I'd done in previous years, this one jumped out at me. A Western at a critical juncture in the Nation's History (and there's never really been a time that wasn't) when we were in danger of blowing up the results of "The Democratic Experiment" due to the same issues that destroyed past dynasties, autocracies, kingdoms, and dictatorships...even home-owner associations—the power of greed and the greed of power. You can say all people will be equal, but inevitably somebody's going to be more equal than others. And character plays a big part in how that works itself out (if you're paying attention).

 

Also it's a complicated story, in the way that American history—outside of the beginners' text-books—can be complicated, that tests preconceptions and prejudices. As a democracy should.

So, here is that most American of genres, the Western, directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee, which actually seems apropos, telling the story of a nation of immigrants. It's a great movie that nobody went to see. As I said, it was "wrongfully overlooked" but also, I think, vastly underappreciated.

 

Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee, 1999) 

 

"On the Western frontier of Missouri, the American Civil War was fought not by armies, but by neighbors. Informal gangs of local Southern bushwhackers fought a bloody and desperate guerrilla war against the occupying Union army and pro-Union Jayhawkers. Allegiance to either side was dangerous. But it was more dangerous still to find oneself caught in the middle ..."

 

The story of Quantrille's Raiders and the Missouri Irregulars were a sorry part of the Civil War story, but its tales of guerilla raids between two groups, the "bushwhackers" and the "jayhawkers," criss-crossing the Kansas-Missouri border, it's history with Quantrille, Bloody Bill Anderson and Jesse James and the murderous raid on Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 have been explored, somewhat tangentially, as the first battles in the Outlaw West.

Director Ang Lee may seem an odd choice for a Western of this nature, but such was the case when he directed Sense and Sensibility. Versatile, facile, and able to make universally accepted films across genres, there seems little Lee cannot succed at whether period romance (Sense and Sensibility), spy-noir (Lust/Caution), martial arts flick (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), even cross-blending sci-fi/horror and superhero movies (Hulk).

Ride with the Devil, with a screenplay by James Schamus (now head of Focus Features) was not a box-office success when it opened, perhaps as it was an unconventional western with controversial elements: four young people, Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), George Clyde (Simon Baker), and Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright) all find themselves fighting as Confederate guerillas during the Civil War as "bushwhackers," not so much as they believe in the Southern cause—Holt is a freed slave—but because of issues with loyalty, friendship and attacks on their families. Soon, they're conducting murderous assaults on established Union positions with deadly accuracy, which Lee stages with a brutal efficiency: quick cuts, fast pace and attention to the damage a round bullet can inflict.

Housed for the winter in a make-shift shelter, they are looked after by Southern sympathizers, with particular interest paid by a war-widow named Sue Lee (Jewel), who begins an affair with Chiles and offers support and food during the harsh winter. It's a nicely paced gritty portrayal of life led as an outlier, and the elements are mixed as to keep one guessing about what will happen next.

The revelation here is Tobey McGuire, heretofore usually playing callow youths (which is why he was picked to play Peter "Spiderman" Parker), here he's got a versatile range of situations, starting out as a disillusioned follower, then his own man of a kind, backed by a steely gaze that turns durn creepy at times, and an "on-the-edge-of-cracking" voice that lolls over dialogue. Nice work, and Lee makes the most of him, using the boyish qualities of McGuire for moments of humor, terror and combinations of both.

Wrongfully overlooked.

Don't Make a Scene: The Insider

The Story: Michael Mann's intense and convoluted film about the "whistle-blower" incident on Big Tobacco, The Insider, is very intricate in detail and goes "into the weeds" on legalities and corporate politics. But, despite this, it still can be considered a "suspense" picture...even a "film noir" given its depiction of a system designed to crush the human spirit. One can also call it a "paranoid thriller" akin to the films made in the 1970's to Alan J. Pakula like Klute, The Parallax View, and All the President's Men.

 

But, its lack of "action" might make fans of the suspense film genre grouse about it being a "snoozer." In fact, by the time today's featured scene occurs, the adrenaline-deprived might be nodding off.

This wakes them up.

It's a deposition—a bunch of people in a industrially-lighted room asking questions and answering questions (if they can). Not the most exciting of settings, but then actor Bruce McGill steps up to the plate. And hits an actorly home run. I remember exactly the audience's reaction when I saw this—in a theater—and it was only something slightly less than a popcorn-flying-through-the-air shock. You saw necks snap alert, and heard a smattering of "woh's." People were impressed. And a little intimidated.

Director Mann plans it all with shots centering on relationships. Russell Crowe's Wigand is caught between bodies, even out-of-focus ones while on the stand. The Tobacco Lawyers (they're not named, but include actors Wings Hauser and Gary Sandy) are in a walled clump. Close-ups of McGill have the opposing lawyers in the background, and at times he's his own wall separating Wigand from the tobacconists. And it's almost a laugh of a release when after his explosion, McGill's voice turns soothing: "Answer the question, doctor..."

 

I've seen McGill in other things and it's always a treat. He's one of those character actors who can do anything and resists typing, mercurial and chameleon-like. Check things out that he's in. He doesn't disappoint.

 

Oh. And we must note, the passing of fellow cast-member Philip Baker Hall—who played "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt (better than Hewitt did!)—and another one of those great character actors who rarely achieved starring roles, but still managed to attract eyes when he appeared on the screen.

 

The Set-Up: "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), while doing research for another story comes across Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), who eventually informs him that while working as a research chemist for the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, that it was apparent that companies were working to make their products more addictive and that when the CEO's of Big Tobacco had earlier testified before Congress they had committed perjury by swearing that cigarettes were not addictive. Bergman pursues the story, and it is only when Wigand begins receiving death threats that he tapes an interview with "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer). It is suggested that Wigand be deposed as part of a Mississippi lawsuit against the tobacco industry to protect him from intimidation from Brown and Williamson and their confidentiality agreement.

 

Action.

 

EXT. THE COURTHOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY  

Some of the Tobacco Lawyers, their jackets off, still hanging across Canty Street by their cars. 

And now they see the police lights turning, coming around a corner, moving towards the courthouse.

The caravan stops. 

First, Scruggs gets out. 

A moment, then Jeffrey appears. 

And the Reporters pounce on Jeffrey, cameras flashing...

Mississippi Police leading him through the crowd... 

Moore appears at courtroom door (already there). And as he's whisked away into the courtroom. 

INT. THE COURTROOM, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY 

The tobacco lawyers become dead quiet.

Cell phones are hung up.

Newspapers are put away. 

Jackets are donned. 

This is now very serious business. 

Motley meets Jeffrey, all eyes on him. 

MOTLEY Okay, Jeff, I'm going to sit you down at that table over there. I'm going to start as fast as possible. I don't want to give them a chance to get another restraining order, okay? Let's go. 

MICHAEL MOORE Good luck, Doc. 

Motley calmly motions Wigand to take a chair. 

He settles in.

STENOGRAPHER Please stand. 

STENOGRAPHER Raise your right hand... Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 

WIGAND I do. 

STENOGRAPHER You may be seated. 

MOTLEY You understand, Dr. Wigand, you are under oath. 

MOTLEY This is a sworn deposition. 

MOTLEY There's no judge. It's not a trial. (understatement of the century) 

MOTLEY Will you state your name for the record.

WIGAND (after a beat) Jeffrey S. Wigand. 

He spells it for them... 

EXT. THE COURTHOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY 

Lowell, waiting with the other journalists... 

PHOTOGRAPHER Got any idea what's going on in there? 

LOWELL No, I don't have a clue. 

INT. THE COURTROOM, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY 

Motley still conducting the inquiry...And the tobacco lawyers, like a pack of dogs, waiting to pounce... 

WIGAND That is correct. 

MOTLEY In other words, it acts as a drug? 

TOBACCO LAWYER Object to the form of the question! 

MOTLEY It acts as a drug on the body? 

TOBACCO LAWYER Object to the form! 

MOTLEY It acts as a... 

TOBACCO LAWYER Ob-

TOBACCO LAWYER -ject! 

MOTLEY There an echo in here? 

MOTLEY Your objection's been recorded. She typed it into her little machine over there. 

MOTLEY It's on the record. 

MOTLEY So now I'll proceed with my deposition of my witness. 

MOTLEY Does it act as a drug? 

TOBACCO LAWYER (shouts) Dr. Wigand. 

TOBACCO LAWYER I am instructing you... 

TOBACCO LAWYER (to Wigand) ...not to answer that question 

TOBACCO LAWYER ...in accordance to the terms of the contractual obligations...

TOBACCO LAWYER ...undertaken by you not to disclose any...

TOBACCO LAWYER ...information about your work at the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company. 

TOBACCO LAWYER And in accordance with the force and effect of the temporary restraining order... 

TOBACCO LAWYER ...that has been entered against you to by the court...

TOBACCO LAWYER ...in the State of Kentucky! 

TOBACCO LAWYER That means you don't talk! 

TOBACCO LAWYER (beat) Mr. Motley, we have rights, here... 

MOTLEY (explodes) Oh, you got rights... 

MOTLEY ...and lefts! 

MOTLEY Ups and downs and middles! 

MOTLEY So what?! 

MOTLEY You don't get to instruct anything... 

MOTLEY ...around here! 

MOTLEY This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina nor Kentucky. 

MOTLEY This is the sovereign State of Mississippi's proceeding. 

MOTLEY Wipe that smirk off your face! 

MOTLEY Dr. Wigand's deposition will be part of this record. 

MOTLEY And I'm going to take my witness' testimony! 

MOTLEY Whether the hell you like it or not! 

MOTLEY (to Wigand) Answer the question, Dr...

WIGAND (slams it home) Yes. It...

WIGAND ...produces a physiological response, which meets the definition of a drug! 

WIGAND Nicotine is associated with impact, with satisfaction. It has a pharmacological effect that crosses the blood-brain barrier intact... 

MOTLEY Thank you, Doctor. 

MOTLEY Thank you.

The Insider

 

Words by Eric Roth and Michael Mann

 

Pictures by Dante Spinotti and Michael Mann

 

The Insider is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Touchstone Home Video.