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| Starring a Mexican Beaded Lizard as "Gila" |
The Giant Gila Monster was the very last episode of MST3K I saw as “The Mystery Science Theater Hour” waaaay back in 1997 after I first discovered the show. A week after tuning in for the next episode, the Olympic Park Bombing happened, and MST disappeared from showings at 3 am on ABC Channel 8. Thankfully , by that time Rhino had started releasing episodes on VHS, allowing me to see new episodes like Cave Dwellers and finish seeing episodes I’ve missed like half of Pod People. But for a final episode, Gila was a damn good way to go. I’m glad I no longer have to stay up until 3 am to catch MST3K, but man, that hunt, that wait, sure made it feel more worthwhile and fun. And after rewatching it for this review, making it maybe the ten millionth time I’ve seen this one, it still makes me laugh, and I’m still discovering obscure references. And I will the ten million and first time I see this one again.
Gila is a gritty, intimate, McMurtry-like examination of a small Texas town and the unique, engaging characters that inhabit it, their struggle to escape poverty, and the pursuit of their passions and hopes. There’s local tow truck drive and hot rodder Chase, who is busy making a living for his mom and kid sister, helping her get leg braces, and trying to keep his French girlfriend in the country, while also struggling to accomplish his dream of being a singer. Then there’s the Sheriff, the lone authority in miles of nowhere, trying to keep rebellious teens in check while they strain against the limits of their one-horse town, and is also harassed by local oil magnate Mr. Wheeler, who is constantly threatening the Sheriff’s job if he doesn’t find his missing son and his son’s girlfriend. Then there’s poor, sad Old Man Harris, who spends his days drinking and riding around in his jalopy Model A, trying to stave off death and the pain of loneliness one more day in playing chicken with trains and working his way down to the bottom of a bottle. It’s also about a regular sized Gila Monster put on sets with toy cars and twigs and sticks arranged like trees to make it look giant. In fact, it’s mainly about that, and I was just being pretentious about the other stuff, nevermind.
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| It's also a lot of people standing around wondering what happened. |
Actually, a lot of what I said is true of the plot, minus the deeper, high-lit implications of it. The movie is mostly Chase, the Sheriff, and the people of the small town cluelessly going from missing person account and parking their hot rods near a wrecked car and back to the garage, intercut between scenes of Gila eating people and wrecking cars, in as much as a shot of a normal sized lizard intercut with a shot of a screaming extra can be considered “eating.” The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, this ain’t.. It’s also not mysterious to us, since we know it’s Gila doing the eatin’s, so we get characters running around not figuring out what we already know. It’s largely a whole lotta nothing. But oh, what wonderful nothing it is. The characters are dopey and clueless, there’s frequent monster attacks to keep it from getting boring, the occasional song number to liven (and annoy) things up, more subplot than actual plot, and a lizard on a set with toys for special effects.
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| The Thomas the Tank Engine episode you never saw. |
And
boy, do Joel and the Bots enjoy every moment of it. This is one of those ones
where their joy at riffing the movie just seeps off the screen. They’re in great
spirits, and we get a variety of my favorite moods of MST during the flick
They’re annoyed Chase’s songs, bemused by the Sheriff’s bumbling, laugh at Old
Man Harris’ drinking, and they even give Gila a slobbering, disbelieving
personality to comment on the film. They make running gags out of the old
jalopy music from The Munsters, car sputtering noises, and more. There’s jokes from
the goofy like when someone says hi to the Sheriff, and Crow says, "Wish I were!", to the biting like, when the Sheriff and Oil Tycoon come
to the barn dance, Joel says, “We’re from the committee to keep Rock n Roll
white!” And of course there’s a Jurassic Park reference, which still warms my
heart to this day.
They
carry their love for riffing the movie into the host segments as well. They
make fun of teen dances and malt shops, form a Gila-themed rock band, and in my
personal favorite, Tom doing a pretentious film show talking about the various
blocking techniques used in the movie. And by “various”, as Crow interrupts,
“the director just had them put their legs up on everything!”
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| Tom behaving rationally, as always. |
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| Knees on luggage... |
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| On slightly high ground... |
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| On tables...anything works! |
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| Such sweet music. |
Then
there’s crow, in a letter at the end written by a child, being named “Art”.
Apparently this is a reference to the episode Jungle Goddess, but it keeps
going here, to where Pearl calls him “Art” a number of times later on in the
show.
Let’s
see, did I miss anything? Dopey, likeable movie that’s still bad and just
painful enough? Bad special effects? Joyous riffing and attitude throughout?
Memorable skits and introduction of long running gags? Well, the episode didn’t
get me out of school or work, so there’s that. Otherwise, it does about
everything an episode of MST3K can do, and does it expertly. As perfect as the
show gets, and an all time favorite!
Oh,
wait, they don’t make a Godzilla reference at any point. There, that’s
something wrong.
As the Gila Monster dies: "Aw, they killed off the only likeable character!"-Crow
Random Asides:
-There's a fantastic interview with star Don Sullivan on the Rhino DVD collection. He reminisces on his history of acting, how he got into the business, and how much he enjoyed the MST version of Giant Gila. “MST added just a note to The Giant Gila that took it to an area where, my sense of humor, plus the songs that are in it, became my favorite.” It's incredibly heartwarming!
-I hate
the DVD set doesn’t have the MST Hour bumpers, but my old VHS does!
-I
love Tom checking out his butt . "Gentlemen, can’t a robot admire his own backports
without being thought of as astray?"
-I
actually believed Frank at the beginning that Dr F was dead when I first saw
this. Moments like this make me love Dr F and Frank’s relationship. There's
some of that in Bobo and Pearl, and King anad Max, but Dr. F and Frank have it
the best!
-I really love the Mads' Ren Fair punching bags.
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| "Bite me, Frodo!" |
-There are a few differences in the regular version and the MST Hour version. A few line reads are different (Tom's "Hey, I drank urine! Ew!" is much funnier in the MST Hour cut), and Chase's boss at the tow truck service is all but out in the MST Hour cut, save for his fiery death. There's also some stuff involving the Sheriff and Old Man Harris that's been cut that I really enjoy.
-If the movie was mainly Chase, the Sheriff, and Old Man Harris investigating monster attacks, I'd full on love this movie!
-20 minutes in:
Checkov's TNT
-“Let’s
get something cool and slippery from the stupid jerk!”
-Crow and Tom ruining Joel's closet malt shop, and him complaining about it, is some great meta-commentary on how they do things on the ship.
- 58 minutes:
Richard speck haircut joke: deep cut and DARK!
-Sometimes, MST slightly colorizes black and white movies to make them pop more against the silhouettes. This is one of the better examples: it's very sharp, maybe slightly blue, and hardly noticeable.
-Trace, in the monster guide for this episode, called the giant gila ‘a decent effect, competent enough actor’ and ‘aka republican senator from Oregon’
-I
really hope the kids who wrote the adorable letters to Joel and the Bots are still watching this years
later!
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