The American Astronaut

Infobox Film
name = The American Astronaut


caption =
director = Cory McAbee
producer = Bobby Lurie William "Pinetop" Perkins Joshua Taylor
writer = Cory McAbee
starring = Cory McAbee Rocco Sisto Greg Russell Cook Annie Golden
music =
cinematography = W.Mott Hupfel III
editing = Pete Beaudreau
distributor =
released = October 12, 2001
runtime = 94 min.
country = USA
awards =
language =
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:239369
imdb_id = 0243759

"The American Astronaut" is a 2001 space-western/musical, directed by and starring Cory McAbee. The film was released on DVD in Spring of 2005. The band Billy Nayer Show, helmed by McAbee, wrote and performed the film's soundtrack.

Plot

The film is set in a fictitious past, in which space travel is pioneered by roughnecks. The logic of space travel isn't addressed, and most technology was designed for the film to appear as if "it could be repaired with a hammer". Samuel Curtis, an interplanetary trader, is approached by an acquaintance of his, the Blueberry Pirate, with a mission. He is to provide the women of Venus with a new king for mating. In exchange for this new stud, they will relinquish their currently deceased king, whose family is offering an immense reward for his body. Curtis sets off in search for the perfect replacement, the Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast, but is unaware of the fact that his old nemesis, Professor Hess, is hot on his trail.

Cast

*Cory McAbee as Samuel Curtis/Silver Miner
*Rocco Sisto as Professor Hess
*Greg Russell Cook as The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast
*James Ransone as Bodysuit
*Annie Golden as Cloris
*Joshua Taylor as Blueberry Pirate

Production

The entire film was shot on 35mm black & white negative film for an ambiguous budget of "between 1 and 2 million". The unusual use of paintings for special effects shots was mostly for budget reasons. However, the director felt that neither CGI nor miniatures looked convincing. Therefore, they decided to hand paint the special effects shots to create a look unique to the film. Many props and sets were donated or bought with thrift store materials and modified to fit the film's needs. The offline edit was done on an Avid system and the camera negatives were cut to match the video edit and followed a traditional optical post-production. The entire film has overtones of isolation and segregation especially between men and women. That combined with a rather immature form of humor was to create an "adult junior high school" type world.

Reception

Awards and honors

* Cory McAbee won Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival (For original vision)
* W. Mott Hupfel III was nominated for best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards
* Cory McAbee was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival

External links

* [http://www.americanastronaut.com/home.shtml Official Movie Site]
* [http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/dvdreviews/americanastronaut.htm "FilmFreakCentral"'s review]
* [http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue231/screen2.html Review by "Science Fiction Weekly"]
* [http://narrativeless.blogspot.com/2008/08/american-astronaut.html an essay about The American Astronaut]