Critical Essay on a Film or Television Show: Although applicants are not expected to have a sophisticated knowledge of media criticism, they are expected to be able to make reasoned written arguments in support of a thesis. For this reason, applicants should choose to explicate a film or television show that they find to be particularly meaningful and interesting. Emphasis in this essay should be on the relationship between form and content in the film or television show being analyzed. A minimum of three print sources should be cited in the essay.
Rather than writing about a film with plentiful research and just regurgitate the information outright I tried to find a film with almost none. The American Astronaut is one of my absolute favorite films and has gone relatively unnoticed, so it had little research and analysis on it. The largest source for this was the live commentary on the dvd and a few articles with little or no relevance. I don’t like to explicate films I admire because I always think it ruins them. I did it once with The Way of the Gun and it totally killed it for me. Luckily this film was able to avoid this tragic effect as I still watch it today.
I’ve been debating on whether or not to post this online because I don’t want to sound stupid, wrong, or a pretentious asshole. But right now I don’t care and who knows, maybe someone will find this helpful. I ended up getting into the program but I think that it was just a good stroke of luck. However, below is the essay I submitted for you to peruse and critique for yourself. Enjoy!
The American Astronaut
What makes The American Astronaut such a fascinating film is that it can be wholly enjoyed on multiple levels. On the surface, it can be seen as very simplistic, childish, and random. However, it reveals surprising depth upon recognizing the theme. Michael Walker identifies theme as, “… the subjective storyline behind all the action, dialogue, and exposition, unfolding onscreen.” (Walker 23) The theme of father-child relationships develops behind all we see in The American Astronaut, demonstrating McAbee’s talent for visual storytelling. In The American Astronaut we will see the visuals develop the father-child relationships, and the characters reflect Professor Hess’ final summation at the end of the film that, “children seldom live up to their parents expectations” (Sisto) due to their childish actions.
Cory McAbee utilizes cinematography to develop the theme of the various father-child relationships. The first development takes place in the scene where Eddie trades his daughter, the girl clone, to Curtis in exchange for the freedom to continue following his dream of being a musician. The two adults are set off-screen while the girl is displayed in the center of the frame as Curtis and Eddie’s shadows project onto the wall. During the exchange in the bar Eddie is far more excited to perform at the dance contest than he feels remorse from abandoning his progeny. The second example is when Samuel Curtis arrives on Jupiter. Mr. Vilensky exchanges The Boy (who actually saw a woman’s breast) for wanton lust and greed. Instead of orphaning to fulfill a youthful dream, Vilensky orphans for increased wealth and a sex life. The compositions of the two scenes echo one another. Curtis, off screen to the right, will take a child, placed in the center of the screen between the two guardians. The guardian off-screen to the left is more concerned with their own personal gain rather than their child’s well being. Placing the child in the center of the frame turns the adolescent into an object rather than a person. The parent is set off-screen due to their lack of connection with the child. This leaves the child isolated within the frame. Samuel, placed on the right is the deciding factor of the child’s fate. This is because Americans read images from left to right. We leave the parent on the left, and end with the parent on the right.
Visually, the American Astronaut is a gritty, tough as nails science fiction, western. However, to showcase the final summation Hess imparts at the end of the film, McAbee’s characters wear thin visages over a pre-teen adolescent mentality. Their tough guy ruse is shattered by their actions in the first location Samuel Curtis visits – the Ceres Crossroads. We first see the characters undermine our traditional expectations in the bathroom scene. While Samuel Curtis is using the bathroom, two goons enter in after him. Following what we know of the traditional western genre, we assume these men are here to rough Curtis up and rob him. However, once in the bathroom they plug in a record player, terrorize him with a song and dance routine that crescendos with the thugs taking a Polaroid of him on the toilet, and leave him with his pants around his ankles in the dark. This scene sets the tone of the film and the characters we are introduced to in it. The characters seldom live up to their initial presentation, and in fact are polar opposites of what we expect from them. We see this to be especially true with the beguiling narrator Professor Hess. Initially Hess seems well spoken and appears to be the most mature character of the cast. However, he reveals himself to be the most childish, and the worst person to be our guide in The American Astronautuniverse. We see the depths of his childishness in his song and dance number on Jupiter. In this scene he begins on stage in the spotlight, then proceeds to prance alone in the ashes of the former populace singing a childish song.
The only characters that match their appearance with their actions are Samuel Curtis and the Boy. Curtis maintains a tough demeanor and navigates the universe like a pro. He is the archetypal western hero Bernard Dick describes in his text, Anatomy of Film: “The western hero is a loner, often fiercely independent. If he is to develop as a person, he must assume a sense of responsibility…” (Dick 124) Samuel Curtis fits this characterization perfectly; not only does he look the part, he acts it as well. He travels the universe alone, changing his personality when he assumes responsibility of the Boy. We see this to be true when he saves him from death at the hands of Professor Hess. Curtis saves the Boy and Bodysuit, then takes him to Earth to raise him. Rather than develop their relationship off screen, McAbee chooses to develop it on-screen to denote their connection. He does this with a montage of still photographs and music. The montage mixes the past and present, as well as the tone of their future relationship masterfully. The past in its presentation of still photographs representing a nostalgic time of memories, the present, as their relationship grows before us during their voyage to Venus, and finally the future, as the montage foreshadows their relationship at the end of the film.
At the end of the film we see the beginnings of a failed father-child relationship contrast with a successful one. If Curtis and the Boy are the successful pair, than Hess and Bodysuit are their antitheses. Where the Boy will learn and fully mature from his father figure, Bodysuit will learn nothing and join the ranks of immature citizens littering The American Astronaut universe. We find evidence of this stunted development from the work of Joseph Campbell, “…the fixating idolatry of that pedagogical nonthing is itself the fault that keeps… the potentially adult spirit from a better balanced, more realistic view of the father, and therewith of the world.” (Campbell 107)
Works Cited
1. Walker, Michael. Power Screenwriting: The 12 Stages of Development. Los Angeles,
CA: Lone Eagle Publishing Company, LLC, 2002. 23. Print
2. Sisto, Rocco, Perf. The American Astronaut. Dir. Cory McAbee.”
Perf. Sisto, Rocco. BNS Productions: 2001, Film.
3. Dick, Bernard. Anatomy of Film. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2005. 124. Print.
4. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008. 107. Print. (Campbell 107)
There are tons of oil refineries scattered around Torrance and Carson. This one is planted ominously right next to the 405 and I drive by it at least once a week, usually at night. The first time I passed it I was taken back and terrified. I remember thinking about how ominous that thing was, and how audacious the ties must have been to decide it was a fantastic idea to put an American flag over their giant, polluting, complex. (It reminds me of the second level of Sonic 2) I'm pretty sure that Dr. Robotnik lives in here and he swivels his mustache while he and Dr. Light chuckle about some sort of evil surprise attack on the greater Los Angeles region. Nobody would suspect an attack on the South Bay, everyone here is too busy hiring crosswalk guards at every major intersection and driving around their Lexus SUV's to even notice such a plot brewing right there in their backyard. Jesus Christ!? Sometimes productions excrement permeates over this giant fortress so thick it looks like the skin of the earth in the Matrix, but with more lights. I'm not too sure where I'm going with this so I'll just stop here and cut my losses. For all I know Dr. Robotnik saw me snap this and has drones scouring the internet for any kind of lead!
GRAFFIN’
1/ A young kid is in his room sitting at a drawing table working really hard on a piece of paper. All around his desk are his influences hung up all over the wall. (Public Enemy [Chuck D mainly], RUN DMC, Kind of Blue from John Coltrane [for class], John Lee Hooker [for Outlaw], Tags of fellow artists, etc…) The table is tagged on so the only clear spot is his chair and his back.
SOUND FX: scribble, skratch, scribble. (something like that)
2/ The kid stops and looks over the piece inspecting it to make sure that it’s just right.
3/ He looks over to see what time it is. The time is 9:33
4/ He gets up and goes over to his closet
5/ Slumped over at the bottom of the closet and digging around in the darkness we hear the kid scrounge around through cans of spray paint looking for the right colors, he takes one out to see if it’s the color that he’s looking for.
KID: hmm.
SOUND FX: clank, ping, skrrt.
6/ From inside the closet now, the kid starts to load up his backpack with all the materials he will need for the night, pain, a handkerchief, etc…
7/ Laying on his bed he gets mentally prepared for the night while he stares at the clock. The time is 9:47…
8/ The time slips by to reach 11:53…
9/ 12:35…
10/ 1:29… He is slipping out his window now and is about to make his way down the fire escape with the picture on his desk rolled up and hanging out an open spot in the back pack.
11/ Walking down the street he passes teenagers sitting on a stoop smoking weed and drinking 40’s. One of the teens puts his hand out and the kid gives it a tap.
Teen 1: Whatddup cuz?
Teen 2: No rest for the mini man on a mission.
Teen 3: Right on, man can’t wait to see it.
12/ Walking into the transition area between residential projects and the more connected metropolitan area we see in the some small store front windows bums asleep in the curb, some of them passed out drunk. From this point on we see an exponential increase in official product advertisement (Pepsi and things like that). [Like the advertising the street people should build on each other, some start in the foreground and move off to background positions and forms in the background should move up to the foreground positions as they appear in the script.]
13/ Down an alley we see crack heads lighting up up. A crack head is walking past him going in the opposite direction scratching at the imaginary bugs. A prostitute is standing on the corner.
CRACKIE: nuh nuh nuh man. MAHN! RRGG!!
HOOKER: Mmm honey, you want a taste. I’ll give you a good price.
14/ The kid finally makes his way to a subway entrance. And goes down the stairs.
15/ In the subway system waiting for the train we see the kid standing because bums are littering the benches and a heroin addict is shooting up. A drug dealer is also here and tries to make a sale.
DEALER: Yo man, you lookin’ to get high? I got what you want.
16/ When the train shows up the doors open and some gang bangers leave the care, walking past him they flash their guns and stare him down.
Banger 1: Watch the fuck out bitch.
Banger 2: Wrong neighborhood.
Banger 3: Do somethin’
Banger 4: Pussy ass faggot.
17/ The kid gets on the train and the doors close behind him. The bangers walk up to the heroin addict and start to threaten him more heinously. A few talk to the drug dealer, one is shaking hands.
18/ In a seat the kid is staring out the window. Outside there is the cityscape; some of the sides of the buildings are covered in large pieces.
19/ The kid sits up straight
20/ In the reflection of his eyes we see a blank wall on a rooftop amid all the pieces.
21/ The train lurches to a halt at the next stop and the kid gets up putting his handkerchief on, throws on his hood and gets off.
22/ Down by the ground we see the daunting wall canvas, standing there like a cowboy in a shootout is the kid staring it down.
23/ Over the course of a few panels we hear spraying on the wall out of the frame and see the moon change positions in the sky.
SOUND FX: spshhhh tssst, ssssssst, spppppsssshhhh (whatever it sounds like)
24/ As the night begins to fade off into the morning light we see the kid stand back, covered in paint he pulls the paper that he was working on out and holds it up.
25/ Dropping the paper down he looks at the piece it took him all night to do. In it is a man with a pen, or a guy spraying a can of spray paint on the building and coming from the pen’s ink is a city street with people walking down it. The people on it are the exact opposite of what he have seen on the way over (B-Boys, MC’s, DJ’s, etc… or anything really.), and below it is his tag name, above it is a banner that says, “Just a kid growin’ up” or “The good ‘ol days.”
This is the intro to a 70's cop show i was jazzed about doing when i had some sweet handlebars and some beefed up Montgomery Burn's.
EXT. WAREHOUSE – DAY
Out by the garden area a MEXICAN LANDSCAPER is pushing his cart of tools around. He is happily sweeping things up in the sun. He sweeps a bit and then is taken over by a yawn. Looking over he sees someone by the bay door of the warehouse, he waves, and the person waves back then turns and disappears into the darkness of the warehouse. Immediately the landscaper turns and says into his bin of tools.
LANDSCAPER
Si.
A hand pops out with $10 dollars in it. The landscaper takes it and out jumps INSPECTOR FLINT MAGNUS
FLINT
Gracias amigo. Keep an eye out, if anyone brings up the rear your know what to do.
LANDSCAPER
Si.
FLINT draws his gun out of his shoulder holster then runs up to the bay door. As FLINT runs off the LANDSCAPER pulls a sombrero, a poncho, and a 12-gauge shotgun out of his tool bin, loads up and goes and sets up underneath a tree looking like the stereotypical sleepy Mexican. All the shots for this are action packed and awesome like in Desperado.
INT. WAREHOUSE – DAY
FLINT sneaks in through the rear undetected and takes cover to survey the innards of the warehouse, he sees a large pallet of cocaine and people loading onto it and getting it ready for transport. We also see that VANILLA SWEETS is here himself to insure that everything goes accordingly.
VANILLA
Delicious… Keeps the frosting smooth baby.
VANILLA turns and walks out the double doors, his hair flowing gently in the breeze. His girlfriend, and right hand babe – HONEY CREAM – comes into frame as we dolly back.
HONEY
All right, you heard him; lets move this product out of here!
We hear echoes of the word “Si” call out at various bursts in various tones, however, every one of them authentic. Just before VANILLA gets to the doors FLINT jumps out and makes his presence known.
FLINT
Everybody freeze! Vanilla, you’re coming with me.
Everybody jumps into action. Whipping out guns, knives, and bats.
VANILLA
Eat a dick Magnus.
FLINT shoots and misses. A man runs at Magnus and shitty 70’s ass kicking ensues: Someone comes at MAGNUS with a knife and gets defeated by a roundhouse kick, they fly into the rack and FLINT shoots someone off the top rack, he falls into a bunch of empty boxes. Making his way forward he hits two or three people, dodging bullets and taking shots. Almost at the double doors FLINT is stopped by an overly large menacing looking Mexican, in a tank top, swirling a chain and laughing. He takes a battle position and FLINT looks to him as if he’s serious. FLINT draws his gun and puts him down. We cut as we hear the shot, to seeing the chain fall to the ground and fill a sixth of the frame, the body falls and takes up a third, and the rest is FLINT continuing his manhunt. FLINT flies through the doors and has less than a second before he has to jump out of the way of a speeding car. VANILLA puts his hand out of the passenger side window (cause pimps don’t drive) and flips FLINT off. While speeding away a paper flies off the windshield, it is a parking ticket that flutters over and gets caught in some bushes. We now get a bonus badass shot of FLINT getting up from the ground and doing a badass stand, then holsters his gun, lights up, and goes back inside to attend the coke as police sirens ring up from the distance and inch closer.
EXT. TOWN OF HARMONY – MID DAY
CLETUS DAY IS RIDING AWAY ON HIS HORSE, ON THE WAY OUT OF TOWN HE PASSES SAM, THE SALOON OWNER, WHO IS CHASING HIM ON FOOT, WHO SOON GIVES UP.
SAM
You wont get away with this you thieving son of a bitch!
HE TURNS AND RUNS OVER TO THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE.
INT. DANIEL CASSIDY’S OFFICE – MID DAY
SAM BURSTS INTO DANIEL’S OFFICE.
SAM
He took her! Cletus took Isabelle! He’s headed west toward the Apache lands! You gotta go get her back. She’ll be killed out there!
IN THE MIDDLE OF SAM’S RANTING DANIEL SLOWLY LOOKS UP
DANIEL
Hold yer horses Sam. You know I can’t do nothin’ ‘bout a man that’s left town. I can’t go anywhere I damn well please and hold the law because I got a badge. I protect this town, outside its limits I’m no more entitled to protect than the next man.
SAM
But Cletus kidnapped Isabelle in THIS town.
DANIEL
And he’s gone; you’ll need a Bounty Hunter… all I can do is set a price and put his mug on a poster.
SAM
No bounty hunter in town don’t got the stones, not by the way he took off outta here, shot every man stood in his way, every woman too…
THIS LAST BIT HONES INTO DANIEL. HE KNOWS THAT HE CAN’T SIT AROUND AND DO NOTHING
SAM
…No tellin’ what he’ll do to her… Word is you were fierce gun… after your wife--
DANIEL
You keep that talk down, y’ hear. I don’t want any wives tales getting’ spun in my town. Shoots SAM a mean stare Deputy Wade!
THE DEPUTY COMES IN FROM THE BACK WIPING HIS HANDS. HIS SLEEVES ARE ROLLED UP FROM CLEANING THE JAIL CELL.
DEPUTY
Yeah Sheriff?
DANIEL THROWS HIS BADGE DOWN ON THE TABLE
DANIEL
I’m goin’ to take care of somethin’. If I’m not back by break of mornin’ you put that badge on and do your best. To SAM Next time that man come Rollin’ into town you get the good sense to come and tell me ‘stead uh servin’ him. You know who and what he is. I ain’t gonna do this again.
DANIEL GOES OUTSIDE AND CLIMB’S ON HIS HORSE; HE LOOKS OVER TO THE SALLOON AND SEE’S THE TRAIL OF VIOLENCE OUT THE DOOR LEADING TO A HORROR SCENE INSIDE. HE KICKS THE HORSE A BIT AND RIDES ON OUT OF TOWN. THE DEPUTY AND SAM COME OUTSIDE TO SEE HIM OFF.
EXT. CLETUS’ CAMPFIRE CAMP - DUSK.
DANEIL CASSIDY, the new sheriff in town chases down CLETUS DAY who has taken a prostitute, ISABELLA; he won in a poker match. The new sheriff has come to take her back because she is a person and cannot be won; CLETUS argues the opposite.
DANIEL
You all right ma’am?
ISABELLA is afraid and looks to CLETUS
DANIEL
You’ll be back home safe in a minute ma’am.
CLETUS
She’s already on her way home. Safe and sound.
DANIEL
Homes the other way.
CLETUS
Not anymore.
DANIEL
She ain’t somethin’ a man puts up for a bet… or takes as winnings. I’m here to take the girl home.
CLETUS
S’not winnin’s. What Sam loses on or off the tables ‘is own fault.
DANIEL
Sam didn’t lose a thing. I’m here for the girl, and whether you want her to or not, she’s leaving with me.
CLETUS
Just ‘cause you got a shiny tin badge pinned to your chest don’t make you the law’s right hand, besides, your town ended a few miles back, and out here the law gets settled not with ink on parchment, but by the man who can get his point across quickest. *Drawing his gun and spins the spindle* Now you can go back to your village, or I’ll give you six reasons to prove she’s leaving with me.
DANIEL
You’re right, shiny little star don’t mean a damn thing out here. But kidnapping women’s a law of the land, a law that men live by, and one you’ll die by ‘f you don’t hand the lady over.
CLETUS
Ain’t kidnappin’ cause I didn’t take her anywhere she don’t wan’ to go.
DANIEL
You wanna live like a dog? I’ll put you down like one. Hand the lady over and you can go back to livin’ with the rest of the vermin out here, now
I ain’t gonna ask you again’.
CLETUS
That’s good cause she stays with me. So why don’t you stroll back to town and play sheriff for those crooked railroaders.
DANIEL
Not without the girl.
CLETUS
I’ll be dead before she goes back.
DANIEL
Fine by me.
THE TWO COWBOYS DRAW GUNS AND FIRE ON EACH OTHER
