Film Comment: Vegas in Space

Vegas in Space (1991) is one of the weirdest movies you will ever see.

Three outer space soldiers take pills to transform themselves into women in order to go undercover (as showgirls!) to Vegas in Space, the capital city of an all-female planet. They're there trying to find out who stole Queen Veneer's jewels.

All but two of the parts are played by drag queens, two of whom died of AIDS the same year the film was released. There are unrelenting gowns, glitter, wigs, thick pancake makeup, 27 cent sets, and atrocious over-acting. This movie is up your nose with all it's garishness. I suspect that it is not really intended so much as a film but as an in your face "so what do I care what you think?" statement. It drips hostility to societal norms from every sequin.

What the film actually represents is the final level of moral relativism, where each person defines their own "truth." Each person lives as they choose unconstrained by any norms or common moral ground; "being themselves." Man has no higher judge and any moral rules are merely individual preferences. Many see this as ultimate freedom and personal valuation but, in truth, it declares that there is no real value to anything, including human life. Human life can be manipulated and even discarded, The door is open to the development of fascism.