Parody as Film Genre: Never Give a Saga an Even Break (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)
Wes D. Gehring
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN: 0313261865
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Parody is the least appreciated of all film comedy genres and receives little serious attention, even among film fans. This study elevates parody to mainstream significance. A historical overview places the genre in context, and a number of basic parody components, which better define the genre and celebrate its value, are examined. Parody is differentiated from satire, and the two parody types, traditional and reaffirmation, are explained. Chapters study the most spoofed genre in American parody history, the Western; pantheon members of American Film Comedy such as The Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Mae West, and Laurel and Hardy; pivotal parody artists, Bob Hope and Woody Allen; Mel Brooks, whose name is often synonymous with parody; and finally, parody in the 1990s. Films discussed include Destry Rides Again (1939), The Road to Utopia (1945), My Favorite Brunette (1947), The Paleface (1948), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) and Scream (1996).
This examination of parody will appeal to scholars and students of American film and film comedy, as well as those interested in the specific comedians discussed and the Western genre. Gehring's work will also find a place in American pop culture studies and sociological studies of the period from the 1920s to the 1990s. The book is carefully documented and includes a selected bibliography and filmography.
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161. 36. Maurice Yacowar, Method in Madness: The Comic Art of Mel Brooks (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), p. 104. 37. Paul, Laughing Screaming, p. 136. 38. Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946–Present (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), pp. 808–10. 39. Ibid., p. 21. 40. Kitses, Horizons West, pp. 88–137. 41. Ibid, p. 96. 42. Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929–1968 (New York: E. P. Dutton 1968), p. 125. 43.
spoof of the acclaimed 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. The latter film chronicles the difficult, tumultuous Apocalypse Now production through the eyes of the director’s wife, Eleanor Coppola. So much went wrong during the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s picture, from bad weather and Martin Sheen’s heart attack, to an unprepared Brando and substance abuse by cast and crew, that Hearts of Darkness plays like a dark comedy. And it is precisely that edge that Hearts of
then-controversial, see Chapter 4) conclusion to Blazing Saddles has the parody becoming so broad that it quite literally breaks out of the film. It first spills over into a musical being shot on another set, then comically invades the Warner Brothers lot and Hollywood proper. A < previous page page_15 next page > < previous page page_16 next page > Page 16 smaller but just as exquisite Brooks example occurs in his Hitchcock parody, High Anxiety, when the famed director’s fondness for the
the 1960s. Based upon the huge commercial success (the top-grossing comedy in screen history to that point) of the sexual satire What’s New, Pussycat (1965, which Allen wrote and starred in), this stand-up comedian was able to make a parody transition to the big screen. The following year, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) appeared, Allen’s comic redubbing of a 1964 Japanese secret agent film. It was an outrageous < previous page page_19 next page > < previous page page_20 next page > Page 20
spoofing a then-new, more vul- < previous page page_100 next page > < previous page page_101 next page > Page 101 nerable private eye. Indeed, The New York Times review of Brunette included an observation—‘‘As for clarity, what would it want with such as that?’’35—that could apply to many legitimate examples of film noir. An additional point with regard to Brunette is the mistaken period connection drawn between it and Hope’s earlier My Favorite Blonde (1942), where the comic is not in