A Look at the Background of Buckaroo Banzai

Looking at the events that led to the creation of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

[@samm7371]

Funny enough, we do have a version of 'Buckaroo Banzai vs The World Crime League' film, it's just that the script was taken, retooled and polished up into John Carpenters cult classic 'Big Trouble in Little China'

[@tipulsar85]

No matter How many times I hear about the production of this classic, there it is.

[@geo386]

I have no less than 5 copies of the movie on DVD, two tshirts, a movie poster, a fridge magnet, several cosplay identification badges, quite a few pins, a copy of the Marvel comic book adaptation and the topper is a YoYodyne Propulsion Systems coffee mug. To this day the movie remains my favorite of all time. I might attend a Comic-con soon and get a pic with Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller). Buckaroo Banzai was my first real action hero even before they were called that. Peter Weller in an interview once said Buckaroo isn't a superhero and is made better by the people he surrounds himself with. Those hard rockin' Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroos most trusted inner circle. Turning 60 this year reminds me that next year the movie celebrates its fortieth anniversary. I even have my eye on an Oscillation Overthruster. Update: I actually now have a screen accurate Oscillation Overthruster

[@PolarRed]

Without any doubt, my favourite pick me up film of all time. Lithgow, Lloyd and Schiavelli's banter never gets old or tired. Great one to cover, thanks.

[@jasonhunter2819]

Brow furrows quizzically at the Versace pronunciation and then the card about not giving a damn about the pronunciation pops up, ah damn that made me laugh. Well played, well played. Love hearing all the background details on the oddball movies like this, it has always been such a bizarre 'throw everything at the wall' sort of movie to me so the extra details really fill it out!

[@Sgt_Glory]

There was a hilarious commercial on the radio a few years back where I live that deliberately mispronounced a bunch of high fashion labels. I still get a chuckle thinking of it today: "Johnny Ver-sase, Ives Street Low-rent... And even Gookie!"

[@jacobwebb2623]

This was one of my most favorite movie of all-time. It had so many elements which came together to create something LEGEND!

[@erikbjelke4411]

I absolutely love this movie. All through my childhood, I kept catching snippets of it when a local channel would run it as weekend filler, and I just loved it, and kept wanting to see the whole thing from beginning to end (which rarely happened). When I try o explain to people, I say something along the lines of "It's absolutely ridiculous movie that takes its absolute ridiculousness absolutely seriously." It's kind of like Flash Gordon in that regard. But it makes it so damn much fun to watch. Another great thing is how it's so unclear what it's supposed to be. Kevin Smith calls it "a true art film," in that it doesn't care what you bring to the table, it brings itself and says "here I am, figure me out." Is it a straight science fiction adventure, or a parody? Is it playing the tropes straight or making fun of them? Is Buckaroo Banzai a perfect polymath hero or a deconstruction of one? Is it Star Wars or Airplane? There's a great video talking about the film, specifically the watermelon scene, and relating it to modern Cinematic Universe films, and notes that, today, Buckaroo Banzai comes across as a parody of a genre that wouldn't exist for two more decades. He calls the watermelon scene a "True Believers moment," TV Tropers would call it a Mythology Gag, a moment that would make sense to and reward the fans of the source material. . . if there was any source material for there to be fans of. Part of the fun is that it shows just how WEIRD the average franchise film would look if there was no franchise to go with it. There's another video, where the Kevin Smith quote about it being an art film comes from. Kevin Smith hosted a screening of the film for some fans, there was an interview and Q&A with Peter Weller and John Lithgow. In that video, one of the fans I think explained the movie best: he trotted out the quote that "only a thousand people ever saw The Velvet Underground play, but every one of those people started a band," and related it to the fandom of Buckaroo Banzai. It doesn't have an enormous fan following, but the people who are huge fans of this film tend to be creative types, inspired in part by this film to perform their own creative experiments. Buckaroo Banzai is nerd art. Link to the "Watermelon as Mythology Gag" video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3_Fe5Vng6p6i80

[@johnoneil9188]

This is a film I have heard about on many occasions but never actually got to watch it so far. It sounds amazing but it strangely does not really appear in lists of classic movies. Maybe the in depth review will shine more light.

[@Flap999]

I am 72 years old come November and this movie is in my top five favorites. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I mean this movie has everything and just recently my 13-year-old grandson sat down and watched it with me and thoroughly enjoyed it. Each character is so well flushed out it’s amazing. Love this movie. Big fan of Peter Weller’s work from buckaroo banzai to RoboCop to Screamers. I hope I live long enough to see the sequel.

[@lindax911]

I saw this movie at the theatre when it came out. I was amazed at how fast the time when while watching it. I've been waiting for _World Crime League_ ever since!

[@gregorywiederecht]

I remember I stumbled onto this film one day after school on and now defunct channel called MoviePlex. They used to play all sorts of weird films, plus occasionally anime that more mainstream networks wouldn't touch.

[@stillhammered3060]

I was lucky enough to randomly walk into this movie as a kid with my best friend. Turned into one of my favorite movies ever. Had a few custom easter eggs made for my jeep just in case i ever come across another die hard fan, lol.

[@kiplingslastcat]

If a movie ever deserved a remake... yet is impossible to do... this brilliant classic is it.

[@RedSiegfried]

Just no.

[@markjaycox8811]

Buckaroo Chapter 2 is with MJ-12, aka James of Twelve Monkeys as they venture to find the door on our Dome that leads to the Moon's surface outside.

[@kevinkeeney9418]

I've been looking forward to this one. I remember this movie getting a lot of coverage in Starlog, then quickly vanishing.

[@RedSiegfried]

I'm really glad you took a look at the background of the advantures.

[@MrRobot1984]

Peter Weller did a semi recent interview admitting he still has no idea what the plot of Buckaroo Banzai was

[@coreyhiggins3475]

Saying Versace the way you did friend was a choice. But great breakdown!❤

[@lynngreen7978]

Coincidentally, I am currently watching the final two-part arc of Enterprise.

[@IloveOtherPplsMsry]

>I don't care enough about fashion to look up the pronunciation Very based Chuck

[@Emlizardo]

Ellen Barkin's comment about BB's script being "as if Terry Southern had written Star Wars" is brilliant!

[@samwill7259]

When SFdebris has to release a background video you know this one's gonna be GOOD

[@MercuryKnight5]

Anybody who played Battletech back in the day knows Team Banzai lived on as an elite team of mercenaries for House Davion, with Dr. B. Banzai becoming lead researcher at the New Avalon Institute of Technology.

[@ceylonmooney]

vincent schiavelli...FAST TIMES AT RIDGMONT HIGH! i bet a lot more people knew him from that movie than from ghost haha. i very much enjoyed the video.

[@jacobwebb2623]

Seriously this movie is nothing short of AMAZING!

[@Rhubba]

The script draws inspiration from two literary sources: The main one is Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, especially the original pulp novels from the 20s and 30s. Like Doc Savage, Buckaroo Banzai is a polymath adventure hero who has a team of experts and specialists to help him. The other literary source is Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying Of Lot 39", which is a similarly bizarre novel that features a shady corporation called YoyoDyne. Where Rauch got the idea to call all the aliens "John" is anyone's guess...oh, and it's pronounced "John Bigbooty"

[@bobbyshaddoe3004]

Alright!! Thank you Chuck!!

[@wdcain1]

I love the tone: Absurdism taken perfectly serious. It's right up there with the Adam West Batman show and Warren Ellis' Nextwave.

[@KairuHakubi]

oooh playlist mode, this is appreciated .. huh.. I wonder if Space Dandy was in any way inspired by the initial 'Buckaroo Bandy' ... that silhouette with the guitar and sword certainly gave me those vibes.

[@snoo333]

It is a fun movie. thanks for the background info. I hope they don't remake it any time soon. Hollywood currently incapable of doing remakes or reboots right.

[@Zeithri]

Heard often about. Never seen. Perhaps it's finally time.

[@MrSaywutnow]

I couldn't help but chuckle at Chuck's use of what I call the "Showgirls pronunciation" of Versace.

[@Datan0de]

When I heard "Lepers from Saturn" I thought "How ridiculous! Thank goodness they went with something normal like Lectroids from Planet 10!"

[@tbone9912]

And the actor that played the President in BB was the same guy who played the evil Nazi interrogator in Raiders of the Lost Ark who got his hand burned with the medallion and then melted at the end of the movie.

[@BobDunlock]

Cool, I saw the movie years ago and didn't really get it, but I dig all of the background stuff. Have you ever reviewed Six-String Samurai?

[@carlrood4457]

His pronunciation of Versace brought back memories of Showgirls.

[@eldersprig]

New Wave Doc Savage

[@Kenshiro3rd]

Laugh-a while you can monkey boy!

[@dupersuper1938]

No mention of the Doc Savage similarities?

[@ko-danfleetcommander5937]

You do Johnathan Banks a disservice. You make it sound as if he was an unknown until Breaking Band but he was already very well known thanks to the massive hit show, Wiseguy, which came out in 1987.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

I love this movie. Of all the movies I enjoyed in the 80s, this move 80s the most.

[@j.chrismcgaugh5124]

EPIC MOVIE.

[@carlrood4457]

To me he's Mr. Vargas from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

[@henryortega9203]

This should be an animated series ala Venture Brothers…

[@KingSidJames]

Peter Wellers voice is smoother than a cashmere codpiece.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

"Ver-sah-chee" I yell back at the screen followed by a card "I don't care enough about fashion to look up pronunciation." Silly me, that is all he does is describe media, who needs it to be pronounced correctly. He doesn't have 3 second to do that. I kid, I kid.

[@sfdebris]

"Chuck, you are wasting your life. Also, why are you not wasting more of your life?" :-)

[@MultiMal3]

"BigbooTAY! TAY! TAY!" *is shot*

[@o0alessandro0o]

@@sfdebris Chuck, I bet you 100 bucks that, at some point, one of your videos made a dying person laugh (for values of "dying" equal to or greater than "diagnosed with an incurable disease"). You are one of the people on this planet who are paid in full. (Well, not to the IRS, but there's no pleasing those guys.)

[@christophera5055]

If ever a film needed to be adapted for Netflix or Amazon …this is it!!!!

[@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812]

Both channels would ruin it.

[@Didymus20X6]

"DARTMOUTH! HE'S GETTING AWAY!" "Hold on! I'LL Handle This!" *HAAAWWWK! PTHOOO! "OW! POINTY!"

[@msh6865]

I don't know who or how but, Buckaroo Banzai needs a resurrection in some form.

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

This really sound like a "star wars" that failed at the box office.

[@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812]

Try watching it first before you judge it

[@Jalu3]

Easter eggs to this movie were hidden in TNG

[@blackasp001]

Yoyodyne Propulsion were the manufacturers of warp engines for Starfleet

[@erikbjelke4411]

Heck, back in the TOS films. The dedication plaque for the Excelsior has the ship's motto as "No matter where you go, there you are." Yes, it didn't originate from this film, but that's where they got it from.

[@o0alessandro0o]

13:44 Well, don't worry, you fluffed up long before Johnny Vursays: Schiavelli is also an Italian name, and it's not pronounced anything like Shia LaBeouf. Hint: Schi is pronounced "ski". The rest was fine though.

[@jakethet3206]

Ver-sah-chee. You really should care about every pronunciation. I get it, fashion is stupid. However, mispronouncing the name of one of the most famous designers that of all time [he was a PERSON] only accomplished the undermining of your authority as a documentarian I know it’s not a perfect analog, but journalism, which your videos are related to in that they are informational, have a concept known as Gross Factual Errors (GFE), which is misspellings or mispronouncing really basic things, which undermines the authority of the reportage. This concept applies to you because you are making documentaries, and your disclaimer doesn’t alleviate the problem, and in fact is a declaration by you that you’re OK with not doing all the research if the subject doesn’t interest you. I mean, yeah, this isn’t life or death, but I figure maybe you’d rather not undermine your own authority in such an obvious and easily prevented way. After all, how much extra time does it take to type into Google “how to pronounce Versace?” If you ask me, that’s time well spent. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@dupersuper1938]

Yes...respect his authoratah!

[@jakethet3206]

@@dupersuper1938 Ha. Ha. 😐

[@o0alessandro0o]

Ver-sah-chay. So, you know.

[@jakethet3206]

@@o0alessandro0o No.

[@007ElSenor]

Big deal.