moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (11/13/84)
Occasionaly you come across a film at which you have a marvelous time, but
consider to be, generally, a piece of fluff. I know I felt that way when I
saw this yesterday. Since the film itself has been described ad infinitum,
I'll just comment that I went into a packed 2:30 PM matinee on Sunday, and
watched an audience (and myself) laugh ourselves silly.
However, on the way home, I began going over certain sequences in the movie
time and again. Upon entering the apartment, I grabbed Halliwell's FG and a
few other reference manuals; and after several hours of intense research, I
am prepared to state that THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY is definitely *not* a piece
of fluff. In fact (please note: I do not tend to overstate these types of
comparisons), I believe this to be about the best piece of slapstick made in
more than 50 years.
What? This trifle about a bushman in Botswana, a love-muddled guano
collecter (excuse me, with a degree), and easily the most inept bunch of
terrorists in the Upper Basin rates up there with THE GENERAL, CITY LIGHTS,
and THE GOLD RUSH?
Well, yes.
Let me recite something which James Agee, a film critic who has become
trendy despite the fact that he (unusually) actually deserves his accolauds,
used to state that movie comedy had gone downhill steadilly since the
introduction of sound; that slapstick had degenerated into pratfalls and
purely physical humor, without the slightest planning or setup work
involved. Chaplin used to lecture on methods of doing this (see David
Niven's "Bring on the Empty Horses", which is a Hell of a lot of fun
anyway). And I'd tend to agree with him. Look at the Three Stooges (not on
the dreaded weed; Kafka would be a chucklefest on that). Look at IT'S A
MAD MAD .... MAD MAD WORLD. Look at your average Disney walking kiddie
disaster (non-animated post-dead-Walt). People struggling to make people
laugh with a gesture.
Well, maybe the director and the writer of THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY didn't
look at old silent comedies at all. Maybe they just have a remarkable eye
for slapstick comedy; maybe their visual timing, their sense of constructing
laughter on the very POTENTIAL of a pratfall is a natural gift, not the
result of a combination of great talent and great appreciation. Maybe the
sweetness and innocent nature (yes, how long has it been since you've seen an
American comedy with INNOCENT humor (that is funny)?) of THE KID or CITY
LIGHTS had nothing to do with the same gentle comedy here. I hope not,
because I think that the men and women who made this film should have treat
of seeing that, by George, there WERE other people who know how to do this
type of humor -- perhaps they won't feel so isolated. At any rate they all
deserve remarkable credit for their own film; it may not be a "stature"
film, but in it's own good humor and laughter, it overshadows many others.
A round of applause...
-------
Oh, during previews, I noted that apparently all we American middle-class
upwardly mobile types have forgotten about the men in Vietnam who were left
behind and are now MIA. Apparently they are being used by nasty,
inscrutible Oriental men (stock villians brought out from old 1940s movies
and THE GREEN BERETS) for slave labor, and we wimpy four-eyed liberal types,
aided by self-serving bureaucrats and politicians, have completely given up
on them. After being alerted to the problem, I was just about to make a
note about calling up my Congressman to complain about this, when the
self-same trailer mentioned that I needn't worry, as that man of men, that
purveyor of justice, that champion of Law & Order (or L&O, as we call it up
here in Seattle) was gonna go and do something about. Yes, folks, I'm
talking Chuck Norris (please, ladies, no fainting in paroxyms of ecstasy),
in Vietnam, with guns, with helicopters, with his hands and feet (which, of
course, are all he really needs), beating up every blamed Commie in sight.
Well, all I can say is, isn't it just GREAT what's happening in America
today, when an actor born with all the range of expression of a pet rock can
rise to represent all that is macho and violent in the mythos of the USofA?
No place else in the world, boy! (except maybe Italy....)
"He is the Napoleon of Crime, Watson..."