Mel Brooks (Directed) Film By Film Thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by RayS, May 19, 2020.

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  1. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Spaceballs ... The (Making Of) Documentary

    This film is the source of Mel’s quote that his highest home video sales come from “Spaceballs” and “Men in Tights”, not “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein”.

     
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  2. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    I really like some of the character names in Spaceballs including Barf, Dark Helmet, and Yogurt.
     
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  3. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Happy 94th birthday to Mel Brooks!
     
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  4. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I just remembered that years ago I was suggesting to a co-worker that he watch ' Young Frankenstein ' because he said he liked comedies.
    I loaned him my DVD. He returned it the next day saying he didn't watch black and white movies because they looked "old". As a gesture of thanks for my effort though he loaned me his DVD of ' Dude , Where's My Car ? '
    I'll leave it up to you to determine whether or not I watched it.
     
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  5. GLENN

    GLENN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kingsport,TN, USA
    Must be related to that temp at my old job who I loaned XTC's Oranges and Lemons to. He said he didn't think the songwriting was that good (I think it's pretty brilliant myself) He said it was no Bob Marley. Talk about an Apples and Oranges (and Lemons) comparison.
     
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  6. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    What a totally vague and unrelated comment.
    I gave up suggesting music and movies to co-workers.
     
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  7. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I basically do the same, mainly because my music tastes have usually been out of the mainstream. In High School I was a fan of pop and country music fan while most of the other students at my school were into rock. Now, my tastes tend to go all over the place with my main guide being whether I like the song or not, regardless of the source. As an example, one of my favorite songs is "Best Day Ever" by Spongebob Squarepants [Tom Kenny], which sound to me like a Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys song.
     
  8. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
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  9. rmath84

    rmath84 Forum Resident

    While your co-worker is clearly an idiot you are showing dangerous symptoms of the same disease. A lot of these stoner comedies are pretty funny in their Mel Brooks way of throwing everything at the wall and see what works. I like Mel Brooks movies and I like "Dude , Where's My Car". I'm looking forward to the next Bill and Ted movie.
     
  10. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Coming to IFC on Friday, November 20 will be Blazing Saddles.
     
  11. arley

    arley Forum Resident

    Wonder if it will be uncut? It was recently on Sundance and the n-word was bleeped continually. People will argue forever as to whether that should be in any broadcast these allegedly more enlightened days. Brooks himself has said (I'm paraphrasing) he was using racist language to show how stupid racism is. Similar to Randy Newman's Rednecks--when he was on Austin City Limits, the audience was calling out requests, and somebody called out 'Rednecks'. Newman simply said, "I don't think I can play Rednecks anymore. Do you?"
     
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  12. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    It's going to be uncut on IFC.
     
  13. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Probably try to watch the Blu-Ray one afternoon soon!
     
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  14. mike s in nyc

    mike s in nyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    new york, NY
    coming in very late to this thread... the producers is one of my favorite films, one of the funniest things ever, and of course blazing saddles and young frankenstein are really wonderful as well. After that, it was still good for a few years but ever-diminishing returns for me.. with the jokes being 'pushed' too hard, somehow, and less and less inventive and less and less funny till that sad last one 'dracula' (which i saw in a movie theater at the time). The trajectory of his films is a little like (tho not exactly) the Marx bros- the early paramount marx bros films are mostly great, the mid period 'popular hits' night at the opera and day at the races are iconic tho lacking the total magic of, say, monkey buisness or duck soup, and those last stretch of films are ok if you never saw the earlier ones, but if you did, just sad reminders that they used to be so much better.

    back in the early 70's there was a popular comparison between mel brooks and woody allen's films, i think... (and gene wilder was in both, tho in only one allen film) ..while woody's last decade or two has not been as great as say the 80's, , his work was for years endlessly inventive and he grew and grew as a filmmaker for a long time. Mel's best, for me, was still the first 'the producers', followed closely by blazing saddles and young frankenstein. That being said, there's almost nothing funnier or more perfect then those three mel films.

    And as a party guest, talk show guest, etc- mel is endlessly hilarious, charming, and a total delight. if i wanted to teach a course in great film, i'd pick woody, tho if i wanted to have a funny dinner guest, it'd be mel.

    if you havent seen it, go search for the various clips of him telling his 'cary grant story' (which he told many times)-- so funny! (and also his 'what if i tried to sing 'dancing in the dark' bit on carson, just to name another one at random.
     
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  15. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    Not even at the lengthy instructions on that door to the toilet on the space station? :p
     
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  16. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
  17. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    The 2005 film version of The Producers is also available to watch on Peacock for free.
     
  18. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    "He raises boids. Filthy, disgusting, lice-ridden boids."

    It's the truth. The later films show that Mel was generally no better than his collaborators.

    Young Frankenstein was brilliant because of Gene Wilder, Blazing Saddles was brilliant because of Richard Pryor.
    Left to his own devices, Mel tended towards schtick, using every joke he could come up with, whether it made sense or not. He needed a moderating influence, and I think they tended to find the heart, the feelings the film could convey aside from laughs. Young Frankenstein explored why a man would want to create life, and concluded it was because he wanted to be a mother.

    "This is a good boy! This is a mother's angel!"

    Richard Pryor had the experience of being a black man in America (and of course being one of the funniest people who ever lived) and he brought that to Blazing Saddles.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2021
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  19. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
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