The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Poetry

I just watched this one of the (most) underrated films (imdb rate: 6.6/10; accessed on 24/10/2008): The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings, 2005). There is a hilarious scene where the protagonists Arthur and Ford are captured by the Vogons and forced to listen to the Vogon leader Jeltz to read his awful poem. Afterwards, Arthur utters a thoughtful comment on it. Though this answer fails to prevent the Vogons from saying "resistance is useless" or throwing them out of the spaceship, I found that this comment rather applicable and viable to all humane circumstances in poetry. So recite it if you wanna save your life.;P Here is the excerpt from their dialogues:

Guide: "Vogon poetry is widely accepted as the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master, Grunthos the Flatulent, of his poem Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty, four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off."

The absolute worst poetry was by Paula Millstone Jennings of Sussex. Luckily, it was destroyed when the Earth was.]

VS.

Vogon: "Either die in the vacuum of space, or tell me what you thought of my poem."

Arthur: "A...a...actually, I rather liked it."

Vogon: "Hmm?"

Ford (whispered): "Yeah. That's good. Run with it."

Vogon: "Hmmm."

Arthur: "Uh, some of the words I didn't understand, but I found the
imagery quite effective."

Vogon: "Continue."

Arthur: "Well, uh, yes, interesting rhythmic deviced, which seemed to counterpoint the underlying metaphor of the humanity..."

Ford(whispered): "Vogonity!"

Arthur: "Vogonity, sorry, vogonity...of the poet's soul."

Vogon: "So what you're saying is, I write poetry because underneath this mean, callous, heartless exterior, I just want to be loved?"

Ford(whisper): "Yes, yes, yes."

Arthur: "Yes, yeah, yes, please."

Another notable issue in this film for me is the scene at which Slartibartfast (played by Bill Nighy) shows Arthur their factory on a flying 'machine'. It immediately reminds me of the one in Tron (1982), though full-rigged by technology.

in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


in Tron