Thursday, January 28, 2010
Can comedies be great movies?
The film we just watched, the General, is considered a good movie, for its plot, cinematography etc. However, can it, or any other comedy movie, ever be considered truly great? (as in on par with The Godfather, Citizen Kane and others). Because they are inherently non-serious, can comedies be considered in league with those others? Or do they just have a short shelf-life, where movies like The Hangover are funny now, they will probably be considered unimportant in the future. What do you think? Do you have any examples of comedies that can be considered great?
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I think comedies such as The General are worthy of being considered a great movie much like more serious movies like The Godfather, etc. Its witty plot, fine acting, likeable character, and the fact that it's filled with jokes that anyone can relate to, make it memorable. Clearly there are some movies, as you said, that seem to burn quickly, like The Hangover and Superbad, however, I'm not discrediting either of them. Not only do some comedies stand out, but as we also saw, The General was full of action and excitement that truly captures the attention of the viewer. The General is surely in league with other movies that have been deemed "great" throughout the history of film and has successfully withstood the test of time to prove it. I mentioned we were watched The General to many people and quite a few recognized it and immediately and gave it the praise it deserves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryan. A comedy can be a great movie. Comedies can often address serious issues from an indirect vantage point that sneaks up on us unaware. Satirical movies are often serious stuff even when we are laughing so hard we cannot stop crying. Let me give your just two examples. "Dr. Strangelove -- or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb" is perhaps the best primer on Cold War politics and ideology. Of course, the characters are taken to an extreme, but the show the logic of nuclear deterence taken to an extreme. An Italian movie "Mafioso" is a comeduy about a man who returns to visit family in Sicily and has to return a favor to an old family friend (a favor he cannot refuse, if you know what I mean). All hilarious, it also show the dark underbelly of Sicily's love affair with mafia.
ReplyDeleteWhen separating comedy and serious films into two separate genres (as opposed to funny films with serious underlying messages like Dr. Ialacci wrote about), I don’t think comedy status can single-handedly determine whether or not a film can be considered great. It definitely affects our perception in a way that makes it harder for the movie to be generally seen as great, but it is not a cut-and-dry indicator. Movies with a profound message have an advantage because we can take the movie as a whole more seriously, and comedies are often seen as what they convey – a joke. However, some comedies are considered classics, and can be classified as great with a mindset that does not incorporate a prejudice against them. For example, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and “Ghostbusters” are comedies, yet most everyone is familiar with them and they are referenced all the time in popular culture. They are great, to some maybe not in a narrow sense of the word – the sense that connotes real heroics and drama and invokes true emotion – but they are great in the broader sense that they are well put together, successfully create humor (often in an innovative way), and turned out to be popular. Both comedies and serious films require good directing, acting, editing, effects, etc to give off the intended effect, and in this way both kinds can be judged in the same manner. The two types of films serve different purposes, but can both be considered great.
ReplyDeleteI think a comedy can be a great movie but I do not think that the comedies today are great films. The comedy films today focus more on the witty jokes and dialogue than the actual plot, and by doing so it makes it a funny movie but not a great movie. Many comedies today are just remakes of old ones, like you talked about the Hangover in the original post and that is just a remake of Dude Where's My Car but updated jokes and plot line. For a movie to be both a comedy and a great movie it would have to be a very well done film that focused on the plot and on making sure the audience laugh and usually in todays films directors decide to lean towards one or the other and not taking on the task to try to do both. Almost all of Adam Sandler's movies focus more on the dialogue and jokes than the plot whereas Clint Eastwood movie's focus more on the plot and less on the witty dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI think that comedies will always be an important genre, especially when it comes to mixtures of comedy and drama. Some of the more important and memorable films in history have been comedies. I think that the Coen brothers make exemplary dark comedies and dramas, as evidenced in films like "Fargo." You'd think that a movie where several people are murdered, one via woodchipper, would never be funny, but this film will prove you wrong. There are countless other examples of the dark comedy or the "dramedy" which are all incredibly memorable, like "Annie Hall," considered by many to be the greatest Romantic Comedy (NOT similar to today's "RomComs") of all time. Basically, I'm saying that comedies, though not necessarily serious, are most certainly memorable and significant experiences... A lot of my favorite films are comedies, and in many cases I find them much more memorable than the dramas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a side note to Evan:
ReplyDeleteComparing "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "The Hangover" is just unfair... One relates to aliens and has a mediocre script, and the other is implausible yet theoretically possible and has a brilliant (i suppose) script... haha. Though I do see what you mean in that the majority of today's comedies tend to be script-based, and many of them are mediocre.
Going off of what John said, some of the best films are those with dark comedy. I don't know id anyone has ever seen this but You Kill Me is one of my favorite movies. It's about an alcoholic hit man that works for the mafia in Buffalo being sent to San Francisco for rehab. The films plot line seems a bit ridiculous but the main character is perfectly played by Ben Kingsley. He remains dry and almost emotionless through out the movie and delivers some of the best one liners I've ever heard. The movie stood out to me not only because it was a comedy, but also because it was interesting. I think the most memorable comedies are the dry comedies because it requires the film have a decent plot line and story. Dry comedies differ from today's conventional comedies because the story goes beyond what lies on the surface in a way. Additionally, the characters and story line are more relatable to the viewer. Even though Kingsley's character was an alcoholic hit man from Buffalo, you could still relate to his feelings. Comedies are memorable if it is a relatable story.
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