2012 Movie Challenge #3: Duck Soup
Duck Soup isn't some masterpiece of film art, but I always put it on my top-whatever lists because I love the Marx Brothers and this is my favorite of their movies. It was their high-water mark, I think; their very early Paramount movies had too much of an old-fashioned Broadway vibe, whereas the MGM films tried too hard to make sense and have plots and stuff. Duck Soup is special because it's basically insanity from beginning to end. It all centers around the embattled nation of Freedonia (home of the brave and free) and its ambassadors and spies and whatnot, but who cares? Certainly not the Marx Brothers.
Lots of the jokes are corny, and some of them are borderline offensive, but there is also stuff that is just so damn funny you can hardly believe it.
Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, your excellency! We've been expecting you! As chairwoman of the reception committee, I extend the good wishes of every man, woman and child of Freedonia.
Rufus T. Firefly: Never mind that stuff, take a card.
Mrs. Teasdale: Card? What do I do with the card?
Rufus T. Firefly: Keep it, I've got fifty-one left.
What's so hilarious about it all is that the Marx Brothers are forces of pure anarchy but no one else in the movie seems to notice. All the other citizens of Freedonia (home of the brave and free) are trying their damndest to perpetrate espionage and arrange formal parties, and they only barely comprehend that four escaped mental patients are wrecking up the place. The absurdity only escalates as the film goes on, until by the end the movie itself seems to have slipped a gear and gone insane.
It's also worth mentioning that if you've only seen the later Marx Brothers movies, you're probably more familiar with the gentle and sweet version of Harpo's character. In the early movies Harpo is crazy—walleyed, batshit crazy. Like, light-a-stick-of-dynamite-and-throw-it-at-stuff crazy.
Anyway, what else can I say? It's funny. Go watch it. And remember—it's all about the anarchy.
Netflixxable? Yes for DVD and streaming.
Lots of the jokes are corny, and some of them are borderline offensive, but there is also stuff that is just so damn funny you can hardly believe it.
Rufus T. Firefly: Never mind that stuff, take a card.
Mrs. Teasdale: Card? What do I do with the card?
Rufus T. Firefly: Keep it, I've got fifty-one left.
What's so hilarious about it all is that the Marx Brothers are forces of pure anarchy but no one else in the movie seems to notice. All the other citizens of Freedonia (home of the brave and free) are trying their damndest to perpetrate espionage and arrange formal parties, and they only barely comprehend that four escaped mental patients are wrecking up the place. The absurdity only escalates as the film goes on, until by the end the movie itself seems to have slipped a gear and gone insane.
Anyway, what else can I say? It's funny. Go watch it. And remember—it's all about the anarchy.
Netflixxable? Yes for DVD and streaming.
Labels: Movies
posted by Joe Gola at 7:45 PM
2 Comments:
Dude. Quit your day job. Seriously. I could read your movie reviews all day long. It helps that we have similar taste, but you're reviews get me excited to watch movies I've never heard of, which is what it's all about.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks! If that's not encouragement I don't know what is.
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