My Top Ten Favorite Political/History Comedies (in no particular order) with favorite quotes
Blue colored links will give you more information about the movie.
Red colored links will give you word definitions or additional information.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: Director Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War masterpiece that is on every “best movies of all time” list I’ve ever seen. U.S. Air Force General Jack D. Ripper (get it?) goes completely and utterly mad and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R in this 1964 black comedy. He insists that the communists are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people. U.S. president Merkin Muffley meets with his advisers in “The War Room”, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. (that would be “Russia” today) is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a “Doomsday Machine” which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. It is a classic but I tend to doubt that this film has the impact on today’s students that in did during the Cold War. After all, no one today would walk out of the theater with the fear of knowing that the world could end in a nuclear fireball at any moment. Watch it anyway! See how close you were to never being born.
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room.”
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: This is also on many “best’s” lists. It’s Monty Python at the height of their creativity and inventiveness (along with “Life of Brian”) With inspired lunacy, the Pythons’ skewer the Legend of King Arthur. With killer rabbits, a sorcerer named Tim, insult hurtling “French people”, a cartoon monster and “the old man from scene 24″ in tow, the legend will never look the same! The sheer silliness is modern-day slapstick. I’m one of those who can recite this movie, “chapter and verse.” The Black Knight scene stands as one of film history’s funniest! The opening credits alone, rate more laughs than much of what passes for “comedy” these days.
”She turned me into a Newt…I got better.”
Duck Soup: If you want to see how comedies used to be made, check out this flick. It’s the Marx Brothers at their flat-out best. It was made in 1933, the year Hitler came to power, and the movie is a clear reflection of the nervousness and uncertainly everyone felt as dictatorships were taking hold worldwide. Marx Brothers movies were typified by the brothers irreverence and contempt for authority, pretense and good manners. Their best films are downright anarchic. This movie parodies two neighboring countries in Europe on the verge of hostilities. It’s up to Groucho, as president of Freedonia, to keep the peace. At the end of the movie, everyone in the courtroom scene breaks into dancing and singing “All God’s Chillun’ Got Guns.” It is an unforgettable satire of the upcoming arms race of the 1930’s.
“I’ll see my lawyer about this as soon as he graduates from law school.”
Life of Brian: The Pythons turn their satire on events surrounding the life of Jesus. Suffice to say that when the film was released in Britain in 1979, 39 local authorities banned the film outright or gave it an “X” rating. Some countries had it banned. The president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America declared, “Never have we come across such a foul, disgusting, blasphemous film before.” The Lutheran Council claimed that the film was a “crude and rude mockery, colossal bad taste, profane parody. A disgraceful assault on religious sensitivity.” Not to be outdone, the Catholic film monitoring office rated Life of Brian a “C” for “condemned” and therefore, it was a sin to see the film. See it and judge for yourself.
“All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Love and Death: Woody Allen’s romp through Imperial Russia. Wearing his omnipresent signature hornrim glasses, he’s instantly out of time and place. The movie centers around Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. This hilarious movie has nonstop gags, puns and Woody’s trademark humor on life, love and death. As Boris, he is paired with Diane Keaton as they plot to assassinate Napoleon and save the Russian people from being forced to eat “…rich food and those heavy sauces.” He’s captured by the French who condemn him to death. Thanks to a good lawyer, he gets leniency. Instead of being executed at 5 a.m., it’s postponed until 6a.m. Not to worry, an angel promises divine intervention at the last moment. Will Woody be saved?
“Imagine your loved ones conquered by Napoleon and forced to live under French rule. Do you want them to eat that rich food and those heavy sauces?”
The Great Dictator: Charlie Chaplin’s unforgettable and controversial 1940 slam at Nazi Germany, Hitler and totalitarianism in general. He plays a Jewish barber and a veteran of the First World War. He watches the increasing persecution of his people and the march towards global conflict. The barber is also the spitting image of Andenoid Hynkel, dictator of his country, Tomania. One day, he’s mistaken for Hynkel and gets a chance to address the people of Tomania. The barber drops his character, becomes himself, and delivers an impassioned plea for peace, tolerance and humanity. The noted film critic, Roger Ebert wrote: “The film itself is filled with sad, pathetic little jokes”; this is Chaplin’s most serious, most tragic, most human work.”
“This is a story of a period between two World Wars — an interim in which insanity cut loose. Liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat.”
In The Loop: Released in 2009, it has been called one of the best political satires in years. This British comedy makes fun of the American and British political systems. The scathing, dizzyingly, well-crafted and unrelieved foul-mouthed dialogue skewers both. It’s about political insiders on both sides of the Atlantic working together to prevent, or as it turns out, encourage war in the Middle East. The movie demonstrates how “the law of unintended consequences” can propel events, regardless of peoples intentions. British accents can be difficult to discern. Watch it with subtitles so you don’t miss all of the bon mots.
“‘Climbing the mountain of conflict’? You sound like a Nazi Julie Andrews!”
Religulous: Bill Maher’s (host of HBO’S “Realtime”) lacerating documentary on contemporary religion and its hold on the faithful. The film’s perspective is from his viewpoint as an atheist. However, in an interview, he demurred: I don’t say in the movie that I’m an atheist. I don’t like that term, because I think it mirrors the certitude of religion. I say I don’t know. And if you don’t know—and you don’t—just man up and say you don’t know. Don’t turn to silly stories and ancient myths. That should be good enough for people. When these myths were created, when the Bible was written, man didn’t know what an atom or a germ was, or where the sun went at night, or why the women got pregnant. [Laughs.] They needed stories to answer the questions. But it’s the 21st century now…
“Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking – it’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable it, and elevate it, are our intellectual slaveholders – keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.”
Wag the Dog: The title is a play on the concept of the “tail wagging the dog” which means an item of minor importance dominates a larger situation. This is a Clinton Era political satire of a president embroiled in a sex scandal. He tries to save his presidency by distracting the nation with a made-for-TV war he pretends to start in far off Albania. Why Albania? “Why not?” is the answer. The president can then end the war heroically and therefore, get re-elected. Cynical? Oh, a tad. This film depicts the ongoing marriage of politics and media and its tawdry and symbiotic relationship. Particularly fascinating is the fact that the film came out just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in 1996. A few months later, our president orders military strikes on two Balkan countries (where, Albania is located.) three days after admitting, for the first time, an inappropriate relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. Wagging the dog indeed, with a bit of “life imitating art” thrown in for good measure!
“What difference does it make if it’s true? If it’s a story and it breaks, they’re gonna run with it.”
Bananas: This movie is silliness defined. Once again, Woody Allen find himself immersed in events that are wildly out of control. This time he plays a products tester who falls in love with a girl who’s a political activist interested in foreign affairs. He tries to impress her by going to a country in Latin America, San Marcos, to assess the political instability there. Naturally, he ends up becoming the country’s president and comes to the U.S. as its leader to raise money. The quote below is part of his fund-raising effort which lands him in court where he cross-examines himself. This movie is a compendium of endless sight gags, from a coffin equipped with stereo headphones (“It should sell well in California.”) to rabbis soliciting donations during a firefight.
”Although the United States is a very rich country, and San Marcos is a very poor one, there are a great many things we have to offer your country in return for aid. For instance, there… there are locusts. We have more locusts. There are locusts of all races and creeds. These, these locusts, incidentally, are available at popular prices. And so, by the way, are most of the women of San Marcos.”
Historical Dramas I Highly Recommend (Again, in no particular order)
Nicholas and Alexandra: Historical Drama. Hollywood couldn’t have made up a more improbable story. The tragic events surrounding Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. It is an inside look into the private lives of Nicholas II , his wife Alexandra, their daughters, and the painful secret which bound the Imperial Couple to the mystical Rasputin, and the eventual execution of the entire family. A sweeping epic made in the 1970’s. Based on the book of the same name by Robert Massie which I read in my 12th grade Russian History class.
Saving Private Ryan: Intense violence/drama. Saving Private Ryan is set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 25 minutes, which depict the Omaha beachhead assault. It follows Captain John H. Miller and several men as they search for a paratrooper who is the last surviving brother of three fallen servicemen. It can be a difficult movie to watch as the gore of battle is shown without restraint.
Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties): Comedy/drama The story follows the life of its hero, Pasqualino, as he and another soldier have deserted the Italian Army somewhere in Germany. They are captured and sent to a concentration camp where Pasqualino tries to seduce the large and unattractive female commandant in order to save his own life. It comically depicts the bumbling, hapless Pasqualino as he botches a murder, gets caught and chooses the army over prision. There are even comedic moments amidst the nightmare of life in a German prision camp, although you won’t confuse this with “Hogan’s Heroes.”
Enemy at The Gates: Drama. Based on true events, this takes place during the WW II Battle of Stalingrad. Two snipers, a Russian, and a German, are locked in a “cat and mouse” battle of wills and marksmanship, while the Russian is boosted to the status of hero by a political official. A sweeping Hollywood epic depicting some of the ugliest, close-quarters combat experienced during the Second World War. Here, the Russians and Germans would engage in hand to hand combat over control of a single room in a factory or apartment building. Talk about high-cost housing! Don’t miss Bob Hoskins as the callous, demanding, Nikita Khrushchev, the future “barrel of laughs” leader of the Soviet Union. He gives one Soviet officer an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Downfall: Historic Drama. German, with English subtitles. The final days of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker during the Second World War are recounted in this story based on the memoirs of Traudl Junge one of his personal secretaries. Meticulously detailed accounting of the the last days of the Nazis in Berlin although depicted with the usual “poetic license”, i.e. fictionalization. See Heinrich Himmler debate whether or not to greet General Eisenhower with an American or Nazi salute. Delusional? Oh, a tad. Particularly haunting is the drugging and poisoning of Josef Goebbel’s (Hitler’s propaganda minister) six young children by their own parents. Remember this, the next time you complain about your parents!
Apocalypse Now: Drama. Set in Vietnam, 1969. Burnt out Special Forces officer Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with top-secret orders to find and kill renegade Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the jungle. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly overtaken by the jungle’s mesmerizing powers and battles the insanity that surrounds him. The script is based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. This movie defines America’s involvement in Vietnam; it goes on forever! At times, the movie has an hallucinatory feel.
Noirs et Blancs en Couleur (“Black and White in Color”) Comedy/drama. French colonists in Africa, several months behind in the news, find themselves at war with their German neighbors. Deciding that they must do their proper duty and fight the Germans, they promptly conscript the local native population to shoot the Africans who are likewise pressed into duty by the Germans. Best Foreign Film of 1976. This movie depicts the utter ignorance and disdain colonialists had towards Africans. They didn’t even realize that the locals were speaking a discernable language, which they assumed was merely babble. Meanwhile, Africans are shooting at each other for no particular reason.
Frost/Nixon: Historical Drama. A recreation of the legendary, live broadcast inteviews between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to salvage, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make. This historic encounter changed both their lives forever. Based on the Broadway play of the same name.
A Face in the Crowd: Drama. Legendary director, Elia Kazan’s story of the rise of a raucous hobo named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local media rabble-rouser, then onto fame and fortune as a TV superstar and political king-maker in New York City. This movie was generations ahead of its time. It presaged the era of “sound-bite” politics and the marriage of TV, Madison Avenue, and American politics. A fascinating glimpse at media manipulation of the masses when America was, oh, so innocent. Andy Griffith’s first and best role!
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Drama. Frank Capra’s masterpiece and enduring civics lesson. This is the story of naive and idealistic Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers (The Boy Scouts of America wouldn’t lend their name), who is appointed to Congress on a lark by the governor of his state. In Washington, he takes on “politics as usual” going up against a political boss who first tries to corrupt Smith and then later attempts to destroy him through a scandal. An early peek into how sausage is made, er, I mean how the legislative process operates. The ending speech by Smith to Congress is uplifting in its oratory and truth as well as depressing, because nothing’s changed in the 62 years since the movie was made.
The Longest Day: Docudrama. The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view. Made in 1962 this movie doesn’t have the dated feel of early Hollywood depictions of major wars with the usual clichés. Overall, it’s quite accurate despite the John Wayne heroics of John Wayne. It’s always refreshing to see Germans actually speaking German instead of English with a clipped British accent.
Mini-Series
Band of Brothers: Docudrama. The story of “E” (Easy) Company, of the 101st Airborne Division from their initial training in 1942 to the end of World War II. They were the “tip of the spear” leading the way in many key battles on the Western Front beginning with D-Day. They also liberated a concentration camp and were the first to enter Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgarten. A fascinating tale of comradeship that is, in the end, a tale of ordinary men who did extraordinary things. This ten-part mini-series based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose, stands in the pantheon of the best World War II recreations. Each episode begins with a brief monologue from one of the real life men depicted in the series. Produced by Saving Private Ryan’s, Steven Spielberg, it has the same feel and look except “BOB” doesn’t have the contrivance of a Hollywood movie.
John Adams: Docudrama: Based on David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of 2002, this seven part miniseries depicts the extraordinary life and times of one of America’s least understood and most underestimated, Founding Fathers, the second President of the United States, John Adams. His life is very well documented as he kept diaries, published many essays and assiduously wrote letters to his wife when they were apart . See it for the remarkable realism of dialogue, sets and costumes.
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