Comedies = Laughter

   Did you ever notice there is different kinds of comedies? Well, there are. In my film studies we had watched four great examples of different kinds of comedies. We started with the earlier comedies and worked our way up to present time. We had a lot of laughs, and a fun time looking at what kind of comedies these movies are and what makes them that type. Our first movie was The General, which was hilarious in even though it was filmed in the 20's. Next we viewed the one and only Some Like it Hot. Also in the comedy count down was Raising Arizona and Airplane. 

    The General, a silent film, which was filmed in 1926, starred Buster Keaton as the lead role and was directed by Buster Keaton. The film took place in 1866 during the civil war, which the protagonist, Johnnie Gray, is an engineer of a train called the General, which supplies goods for the
southerners. Johnnie loves Annabelle Lee, who is caught up in a plot to take the General for the Union, she is captured and Johnnie chases his love and his train down into enemy territories. Johnnie takes both his train and his love on a high speed adventure back to the south with the northern trains on their tail, but Johnnie eventually gets the south's help and tells them of the upcoming attack. Johnnie is a hero and awarded by becoming enlisted as a lieutenant for the south, and along with getting his girl.







    The General is a slapstick or physical comedy. A comedy is considered this genre if the humor is coming from the exaggerated movements and the comical face gestures, which most black and white films are slapstick since there is only music for sound. Buster Keaton shows amazing talent as an actor, for it takes a lot of talent in order to make someone laugh with out saying a word. They have always said an action is worth a thousand words and this movie is a prime example of that.

Buster Keaton will make you and your friends laugh, for his physical comedy is one of the greatest. In one scene of the film he is kissed by Annabelle Lee and he leaves her house walking backwards, smiling, and waving good-bye, and as hilariously expected he walks right off the porch. Another part I laughed at a lot was when he was chasing down his steam engine and a cart from the other train is in front of his train blocking his view. He tries ditching it but each time he pushes it onto a separate track it comes back in front of him again. This comedy is a classic that has lasted over time giving laughs to everyone who watches it, so in all respect I would say that four out of five comedians approve of this one.







   Some Like it Hot is a 1959 screwball comedy, where two men, Joe and Jerry, dress up like women to get into an all-female-band in order to escape the mob, who is after them. Joe and Jerry played with a regular band and were running low on money when the speakeasy they worked in was busted. They heard of a
group looking for the two instruments that they knew how to play except they heard that it was a girl only band. Out of luck they go to a car garage and accidentally stumble upon a shoot up between two gangs. The gang, noticing Joe and Jerry had witnessed the shoot up, pursued the two trying to kill them, but Joe and Jerry decided that their only free ride away was to dress as women to escape to Florida with this band. The trick works and Joe falls in love with a woman in the band named Sugar, but Jerry attracts the heart of an older billionaire named Osgood. Through their escapades the mob catches up and Osgood is their chance of final freedom. Jerry and Joe reveal that they are guys and they become accepted for who they are.








   Joe, Tony Curtis, and Jerry, Jack Lemmon, are some incredible actors still mentioned in the comedy world today. This was categorized as a screwball comedy because cross dressing was not a normal thing back then, and today people still look at cross dressers being a little weird but humorous in a way. This movie was really hilarious, for people even based other movies off of it such as White Chicks. I found particular scenes very funny such as the tango scene, where Jerry is on a date with Osgood, Jerry lets Osgood lead him around as a man should to a girl, but in another shot it shows Jerry with a serious and disgusted look to his face leading Osgood and throwing him around as if Osgood was the more feminine dancer.
The scene that had made this movie so funny for me though is the ending scene. Joe had just revealed himself being a guy to Sugar, Marilyn Monroe, so Jerry figures he should try and persuade Osgood that he was not a girl he should be interested in. Jerry makes up excuses like he smokes, he is not a natural blonde, and he can not have children, but Osgood dismisses these excuses with an "Oh well" or "We can adopt some". Jerry tells his truth, that he is not a girl but a man, and Osgood just smiles and says "Well, nobody's perfect.". Some Like it Hot is a brilliant comedy. It has inspired so much and is still laughed at and watched today, and this is why I give it the performance rating of three and a half out of five.







     The film, Airplane, directed by David Zucker, is about an airplane's crew and passengers headed to Chicago. The passengers started to become ill and die for some odd reason. The doctor on board, Dr

Ruckman, discovers that it was the fish and who ever ate the fish would become ill like the passengers. All of the pilots end up dying and the responsibility passes to the one man experienced with driving a plane, the protagonist, Ted Striker. Ted boarded the plane because he was chasing after his wife, a flight attendant, who had just recently left him. He use to drive planes in a war, but stopped after he had an incident while landing. Ted safely lands the plane with the advice of his old captain, Captain Kramer.  They safely survive the landing and Ted gets back together with his wife, Elaine Dickinson.




    Airplane, the Citizen Kane of comedies, is one of the best comedies of all time, and one of the funniest I have seen.  Airplane, was made in 1980 and was a spoof comedy that casts comedians like Leslie Nielsen, and infers puny scenes of other movies like Jaws in the opening scene.  All together with it's ridiculous sarcasm and hilarious scenes make it one of the greatest films of all time. Some scenes that had shown great comedy like when Ted, Robert Hays, says "Surely you can't be serious." and the doctor replies "I am, and don't call me Shirley." simple comedy like this makes everyone laugh and airplane is one of the movie filled

with it. Another part that was really exaggerated but funny was how much Ted was sweating when he was landing the plane. Some other mentioned jokes in this comedy were perverted, and some racial, but in a way that is completely unoffensive. This is a classic that still tops the Scary Movie, and Epic Movie franchise. I will rate this movie a four and a half out of five on the laughter scale.







     Raising Arizona, created in 1987, is a film staring Nicholas Cage as Hi/Herbert, who is a repeating convict. He does not stay long in jail because he never arms his guns and never wants to hurt anyone. The officer taking his mug shots, Edwina or Ed, played by Holly Hunter, catches Hi's eyes and Hi promises to come clean if he marries her, which he does. After awhile trying for a child , they find out that Ed has the incapability to bare children.

 One day in the news paper they see that the Arizona family, a rich furniture dealer family, has five babies, and the couple come up with a devious plan to steal a child so they can raise it. When they carry out the plan and return to their house they fall in love with the baby as their own child. Hi's friends from prison suddenly escape and take refuge at Hi's place. Ed does not approve of them, but Hi feels sympathy for them and let's them stay. As soon as his friends realize the reward for the child they take the child, Hi and Ed chase in pursuit but so does this baby bounty hunter that just wants the child for ransom. Through the hilarious comedy Hi and Ed realize there mistake and eventually return the child to the Arizona, but they confess in taking them and they decline the reward money that would have been given to them. They feel like a tighter family now that they passed through that experience, and Hi dreams of a future with him and Ed as a couple watching their own children grow up as they became a happy elderly couple.

 





   Raising Arizona is not only a comedy for me but a touching story too. Although it is a screwball comedy it had such a great plot and story that I was instantly caught up in it, for I am a fan of Nicholas Cage's older films like this one. One of the funniest moments in this film is actually something that is a type of black comedy joke. It is when the rough riding motorcyclist is riding down the road and takes no pity on the small animals, for he throws a grenade at a little bunny on the side of the road, and yet the explosion is very exaggerated. I thought this was funny because it was very random and unnecessary but funny. This is the

picture perfect family, and a criminal that doesn't want to hurt anyone is funny to see in action in local nobody rest stops. It touched me because honestly I only looked at the cons to being a father, but once I saw this movie it showed me the pros to it. How Hi was so happy that he broke down in tears and how he was so ecstatic that he went over the edge to welcome his son home and capture the moment gave me like the feeling of, wow, I want to get this proud feeling sometime. I would honestly suggest this movie to anyone, and I personally think this is a movie that someone could watch more than once. This movie was absolutely my favorite, so over all I would give this movie a five out of five on the development of the movie.