Space Mutiny
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| Space Mutiny | |
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| Directed by | David Winters Neal Sundstrom (co-director) |
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| Produced by | David Winters |
| Written by | Maria Danté Ian Yule (Uncredited) |
| 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 (United States) January 20, 1990 (Japan) |
| Running time | 93 mins. |
| Country | South Africa |
| Language | English |
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
| “ | Quite possibly the worst science fiction/space adventure film made in English... Even the horrendously bad Shape Of Things To Come (1979) can't aspire to such depths of total putrescence. I speak of the notorious Made-In-South Africa Space Mutiny --Eccentric Cinema[1][2] |
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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[3]
The director of Space Mutiny has stated on his website that he was called away from set due to a death in the family before filming began, and delegated directing duties to the assistant director. Contractually he was apparently unable to get an Allen Smithee credit.[4]. Some commentators began to compile rather large lists of continuity errors. 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 particleboard 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, while 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.[5] 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.
[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
- ^ "MST3K: Space Mutiny *Eccentric Cinema, {Winner EW Best of Web 2007}". http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/space_mutiny.htm.
- ^ "Entertainment Weekly Best of the web 2007". http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20165619_20165621_20167518,00.html.
- ^ "Trivia: Noted on Mystery Science Theater 3000". MST3kinfo.com. http://www.mst3kinfo.com/daddyo/di_820.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
- ^ "Davidwinters site". 2008-10-08. http://www.winters.net.
- ^ "“Goofs for Space Mutiny (1988)”". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096149/goofs. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
[edit] External links
- Space Mutiny at the Internet Movie Database
- Space Mutiny at Allmovie
- Space Mutiny at Rotten Tomatoes
- "Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt" on Space Mutiny
- MST3K Space Mutiny episode at Google Video
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