|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
history of the world part | It's Good to Be Mel Brooks When this film first appeared more than 20 years ago, it temporarily threatened to replace world history courses in schools, colleges, and universities. Of course, that didn't happen. Probably just as well, given the fact that screenwriter, producer, and director Mel Brooks never wrote, produced, and directed Part II and its eagerly-awaited portrayals of "Jews in Space" and "Hitler on Ice." There are historians' homes in which Brooks is still not welcome. In any event, what we have in Part I is a combination of five extended sketches: The Dawn of Man, The Stone Age, The Spanish Inquisition, The Bible, and The Future. Inevitably there are some gaps. Brooks appears in several different roles while (in fact) portraying himself: Moses, Comicus, Torquemada, and King Lou. Other members of the Brooks Ensemble Company include Madeline Kahn (Empress Nympho), Cloris Leachman (Madame de Farge), Harvey Korman (Count de Monet), Ron Carey (Swiftus), Andreas Voutsinas (Béarnaise), and Shecky Green (Marcus Vindictus). Brooks has assembled a cast of thousands. The production values are remarkably good. However, as in other Brooks films such as Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety, the quality of the humor varies from Brilliant Brooks' best films, those most effectively developed, are The Producers and Young Frankenstein, the latter being a remarkably respectful version of several earlier films. All comics are thieves. The best comics steal from the best sources. I thought about that when I saw this film again recently, wondering if Brooks' History of the World -- Part I was in any way influenced by The Story of Mankind (1957), a film based on Henrik Willem Van Loon's bestseller. For purposes of parody, The Story of Mankind would be an excellent target of opportunity. Those among its diverse cast of thousan History of the World--Part I I am a HUGE Mel Brooks fan, and my Mel Brooks shrine would not be complete without this DVD. I had never seen it before, but I had read about it. To tell you the truth, Mel has had funnier films. Includes most of Mel's commonly used actors, such as Harvey Korman as Claude de Monet, Madeline Kahn as the Emperess, Dom DeLuise as Emperor Nero, and Cloris Leachman as an enraged French citizen. It starts out with "The Prehistoric Man", in which the cavemen invent weapons and music. Then in "The Old Testament", Moses (just one of Mel's many characters in this movie) is given three slates of five commandments each. He accidentally drops one slate, and quickly covers up the accident by saying there were only ten to begin with. Then, there is "The Roman Empire". In my opinion the funniest stuff happens in this part of the movie. Mel is Comicus, a stand-up philosopher, along with his agent Swiftus Lazarus (Ron Carey, last seen as Brophy in "High Anxiety"). They find this virgin named Miriam and a happy-footed Ethiopia native named Josephus (Gregory Hines), and must escape after Comicus insults the emperor for being overweight in the middle of his comedy routine. Then there is "The Spanish Inquisition" and "The French Revolution", both uninteresting and containing very few effective jokes. All in all, Mel could've done better, although some jokes had me laughing for minutes. I leave you with the most repetitive and funny quote from this movie: "It's good to be the King!" written by David Laing, not Julia Laing One of Mel Brook's finest movies, in this one, he sets out to parody history, from the Stone Age, to the French Revolution. The first time period is the Stone Age, where we see the first homosapien and homosexual marriage, and discover how music was invented. Next, in a very short bit, we see Moses coming down from a mountain with the 15 commandments, until he drops one slab, and it becomes the 10 commandments. The next era is the Roman Empire, where after Philatipis[or something like that] gets a gig to do comedy for Caescar, he offends, the emporer, so him and his new found friend must fight each other to the death, but instead stop fighting and try to escape from Rome. The 4th era is by far the funniest, and the most offensive, The Spanish Inquisition. So in a musical extravaganza, we see how the Catholics tried to convert the Jews to become Catholics, and in the last part, we behold the French Revolution, and one of the greatest lines in this movie. So, see this hilarious movie, but if you are easily offended, then do not see this. The only thing that aggravates me was that Brooks had a part 2 planned out, but it was never released. At the end of the movie, we get a preview of the unreleased History of The World part 2. Buy History Of The World Part at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on History Of The World Part Search with the Priority Search Engine on History Of The World Part This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
