I SAW IT ON TAPE - Spaceballs

Welcome to the first entry in a new series where we (predictably) discuss stuff we watched on videotape. Some were rented from the store, some were borrowed from a friend, some were taped off of TV. Some are hidden treasures, some are mainstream classics, some we're not sure if they were real or just a dream. It's a fairly easy concept to grasp so I'll stop explaining it start talking about Spaceballs, The Movie! I'll take any opportunity to tell the story of how once, when I was like 4, I stood alone in the corner of a darkened dining room and recited Young Frankenstein in its entirety: dialogue, sound effects, probably even music cues, I mimicked the entire movie as a one-man monologue as my parents secretly listened along from the next room. It was most likely because of this that they intentionally introduced me to Blazing Saddles, History of the World, and the one I easily 'fell' for the most, High Anxiety. So it's fair to say I was a proper Mel fan by the time my parents rented Spaceballs shortly after its Home Video release in February of 1988. I didn't understand the notion of 'writer/director' at that age so it's not likely my expectations were put anywhere; nor did I really understand the concept of parody, I probably just accepted it as the silly Science Fiction movie that it is without any direct relation to STAR WARS - like I guess all outer space movies must have a gold robot and and talking dog and a big black helmet. But therein lies what I consider to be a sorta kinda flaw in this movie: regardless of how much I actually did adore STAR WARS at the time, without the ability to recognize the satire, I lost about 50% of the punchlines. Having said that, as I got a bit older and actually understood the spoofs, those punchlines still felt weak ("oh, I get it, Yogurt").

Being 5 years old I think I got caught up a bit in the story and the special effects, but I wasn't laughing the way I would with his previous movies -- and one could suggest that maybe the humor was too grownup or over my head, but if you've seen the movie you know that's unlikely if not impossible. Heck I've seen the movie as a grownup, I wasn't missing much; there are a couple funny lines/deliveries, and I genuinely like the scene where Rick Moranis and George Wyner actually watch Spaceballs on video ("What the hell am I lookin' at?!").

I've seen the movie enough to pull out quotes around others who know it and that always gives a warm sense of camaraderie but I don't think I'd ever just sit and watch it again on my own volition. Though I will say, for all its winks and nudges and not-so-subtle lampooning, the Alien sendup is a particularly strong moment, probably due largely to John Hurt's good sportsmanship in not only agreeing to the gag but giving it just as much gusto as he did the first time around. But here's the thing - I actually hadn't seen Alien before I saw this, nor was I even aware of the scene it was spoofing. So, because it was executed with meticulous accuracy (minus the "Hello my baby" bit) I was completely blindsided by this horrific ordeal. Adding insult to injury, both of my parents had fallen asleep on the couch by this point in the movie, so I was left all alone with this shit which, for all intents and purposes, is beat-for-beat the Alien chestburster scene! And I'm 5 years old in a goddamn dark living room basically all by myself! To be fair my parents were big sleepers - they loved to sleep, and we had a strict rule of courtesy that if someone was sleeping you were to be as quiet as possible. But the Xenomorph/Looney Tunes crossover brought me to DEFCON 1 and I mustered the courage to politely nudge my mom and say "It got scary, can I turn it off?" I took her unformed mumble as an affirmative and I pressed 'stop'.

My cousin got big into this movie and he'd play it all the time, and for years I'd excuse myself from the room during the Alien part. However, his copy of the movie was taped from VCR to VCR, and his tape ran out before the end of the film. So I can't say exactly how old I was when I actually saw the end of Spaceballs, but whenever I see those final scenes now it feels like some weird deleted sequence where everything that's happening now is happening now. 

- Paul