This week's entry is a bit of an oddity. Not only does it involve two separate scenes that revolve around the same line (one comedic and one surprisingly grounded), it comes from the lighthearted comedy Galaxyquest. For those of you who haven't had the privilege of seeing the film, Galaxyquest is a perfectly balanced satire of Star Trek, a lighthearted action comedy that is a better Star Trek film than most Star Trek films. This film excels at setting up story premises that continue to pay in masterful ways throughout the flick, and the most obvious example is the "Grapthar's Hammer" gag.
The running gag through the film is that Alan Rickman's character (a respected actor who is a thinly veiled reference to Leonard Nemoy's Spock) has grown disgusted with the character he played in the short lived sci-fi series Galaxyquest, going so far as to develop a visceral hatred of his famous tagline "By Grapthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged". His hatred leads to one of the funniest scenes in film history (in my opinion at least), his use of the line to hock the opening of an electronics chain store, seen in the second example of the contained clip. There's so much disdain and bridled rage in his delivery that it's one of the greatest comedic lines in film, and I laugh uncontrollably every... single... time... I see it.
But the real highlight of this running gag isn't meant to be humorous, it's meant to be heartfelt and powerful, and in that regard it's absolutely perfect. The scene comes when Dr. Lazarus's most loyal soldier is mortally wounded, and in this moment he chooses to finally recite his famous line for his dying friend (in the final . Sure, it's an old and oft used gimmick in film, but there's so much more going on in this scene and in this film than just a standard gimmick.
First of all, you have world class actor Alan Rickman delivering what is essentially the most important line in the film. Anyone else could have probably made it work, but Rickman's delivery sets it worlds apart from a normal delivery. Next you have the idea that this guy has not only decided to revisit a line he has come to hate, he has rediscovered the true meaning and power of those words. It's just so simple and well executed that it turns a simple scene into something so much more, and despite it's simplicity this type of setup in a film is almost a lost art and is so rarely used.
In past reviews I have talked about how important it is to set up payoffs in film, and this movie in particular shows how properly doing so can transcend a typical scene into something flat out beautiful, even in a comedy.
