Tap to enlarge
FILM NOTES
Spaceballs arrived from MGM in 1987 as Mel Brooks's parody of the space opera boom that Star Wars had set in motion a decade earlier. Riding on the strength of Brooks's established comic pedigree, the film took aim at the genre's tropes with the broad, referential humor that defined his career, from Blazing Saddles through Young Frankenstein. It never matched its target's box office, but it endured through home video and cable rotation, becoming a cult favorite for successive generations who quote it as readily as the films it mocks. For collectors of studio comedy from this period, it stands as one of the more durable artifacts of 1980s parody cinema.
This cell preserves a piece of 35MM film featuring Barf and Lone Starr, the mismatched pair at the center of the story, Barf the loyal half-man half-dog companion and Lone Starr the mercenary pilot drawn into a larger fight against his will. Their pairing is the emotional backbone of the film's plot, the buddy dynamic beneath the parody. A cell built around these two together speaks to their partnership as a unit rather than any single scene, making it a natural focal point for those assembling a collection centered on the film's core relationships.
