Galaxy Quest

Dean Parisot (dir)

Science Fiction/Comedy

Big Cast Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub, Sam Rockwell

Comedy

Comedy comes in many subdivision:

Sophisticated comedy; slapstick or physical comedy. screwball comedy, farce and so on.

Comedy is very culturally controlled and what is funny in one culture may not be funny in another. It is also relevant to time. What is funny in one time, may not be funny in another.

Humor is also very personal and what strikes one person as funny may not strike another person that way.

Humor serves many functions and part of this is relieving tension, but it also can be used as a way of approaching topics which are hard to discucc in other ways. Mel Jacobs, however, argues that mythology is the repository of repressed tension. So you can see that there are many ways to approach humor and comedy

Science Fiction Science fiction is also divided into two categories SCIENCE science fiction and science fiction FICTION - the first of which stress the scientific principles which frequently motivate the story, while the second is more interested in the story line and doesn't worry too much about scientific accuracy or theory. Science fiction tends to focus on technology and the other worldy. Generally scence fiction is seen as related to horror films although in horror films the repressed is generally personal rather than cultural. Horror tends to deal often with sexual repression whereas science fiction tends to deal with cultral repression (e.g. fear of foreigners, communists etc.) None the less the two are related (see Nosferatu where there is a certain xenophobia tied to a kind of sexual repression.

Science fiction tends threaten the world rather than some indicuals, It operates on a grander scale than horror does. Science fiction monsters are not unlike horror monsters except in a sense for their subtexts.

Horror and comedy often appear as mixed genres. Horror and science fiction also mix fairly easily so one might assume that science fiction and comedy wold also mix, but they are not that common as films.

In science fiction, it is important to get the characters to be real since the issues are rather dramatic. There are complexities about writing scripts that are not character driven (see 2001 A Space Odyssey for example). DO you really care about Poole and Bowman?

Mysteries sometimes have a similar problem when the writter becomes sufficiently involved in the deatils and the script stops being character driven.

Most scripts require a trajectory for he main character at least. The trajectory deals with the path the character takes from the start of the story to the end. In this film what is the trajectory? How character driven is the story?

What is the premise of the film?

AFTER THE FILM

Is the film character driven? Who is the main character? Whose character undergoes the greatest trajectory? Although comedic in large member, the films gains some strength from serious moments where you feel something for the characters involved. In which scenes do you feel sympathy for the main character?

(a) The scebe in the Rest Room when . Taggert hears the men talking about him and that everyone is goofing on him.
(b) the scene when Taggert admits he is a fake.
What scenes indicate his change?

(a) when he calls the rest of the cast forward for a bow

(b) when he salutes Brandon and his friends at the convention
When else in the story do you see someone doing something meaningful for another person, even though they don't want to do it? When Dr. Lazarus says the hated line, "By Grabthar's hammer..." to Quillig when he is dying. Is the film about the recognition that people funcion as part of groups and that it is "Oh its all about you" as Dr. Lazarus says.

Scenes of emoptional impact often follow those which are somewhat comedic

Scenes at the convention with Dr. Lazarus signing photos for people who keep saing "By Grabthar's hammer..." Loredo and Madison laughing about Taggert, followed by the revelation to Taggart that he is a has been and the brunt of jokes.
The scenes of the "pig lizard being "digitized" and turniong up inside out and exploding.

This an old technique (back to the Greeks at least) in which scenes are juxtaposed to intensify an audience reaction.

The story concerns the development of leadership qualities and perhaps even more broadly, humanistic qualities of concern for others and the recognition of what is important to other people and doing that even when it is something you don't want to do.

. The film also has a reflexive component. What does it say about people who watch movies and TV? How are the fans depicted? What do you make of the thermians who believe everything they see on TV as historical? Since they have constructed the TV as reality what does that sya about things?