As I said in my first review, the Oeuvre project was just something that I started with a friend to keep in touch, as well as keeping our critical minds sharp, and to give us a chance to explore and revisit films we might never have watched otherwise.
For the past month and a half or so, I've been watching and reviewing the films of Mel Brooks. I had heard of almost all of his work but I had never seen most of them and exploring unknown decades of his career was intriguing.
Its always interesting to watch a director change over time. Whether they evolve or stagnate. As long as I've known about Mel Brooks, I've known him as a comic legend. The common man equivalent to Woody Allen. There was even a debate over which of these New York Jewish comedians was "better" on 'Siskel and Ebert.' (http://siskelandebert.org/video/8R52X9UUUHXO/Sneak-Previews--Mel-Brooks-or-Woody-Allen-1980)
Is that reputation justified? Somewhat. Do I think he's worthy of his iconic status? Sort of. After watching all of his films, I can definitively say, he's more visual than Allen. In fact, his visual flair may be Brooks' greatest asset. He's not a auteur but he has an eye for the sight gag and his passion for meta humor must have been revolutionary. He had a talent for surrounding himself with and reusing talented performers such as Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Marty Feldman, and Dom DeLuise. These casting favorites, along with a long career as a parodist gave Brooks a brand he would live by for the rest of his career. I don't think he integrated himself as a star of his own films as successfully as Allen, in fact I think it was often a detriment to his material. Perhaps his films would have been stronger with someone else in front of the camera. And unfortunately, that self-imposed label as a parodist would haunt him. I firmly believe that the only reason 'Life Stinks' is treated with such vehement disregard is because it is such a radical departure for him.
When I think of Mel Brooks at his best, I think of self-referential comedy, broad slapstick, gross-out jokes, social commentary, and a love of the absurd. Of all his films, I think 'Blazing Saddles' is the one that best encapsulates his career. It deftly blends satire of the Western genre with an undercurrent of racisms and general prejudice. Its climax is the most self-aware Mel Brooks has ever gotten without tripping over himself, and the screenplay sparkles with line after line of quotable material.
Its hard to watch his career from beginning to end without thinking about his influence but also about how time seemed to pass him by. While he was making 'High Anxiety', the Zucker Brothers were about to hit it big with the absurdist parody 'Airplane!' A year after he retired with 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It', Wes Craven released one of my favorite horror/self-aware comedies, 'Scream' and only a few years after that, Keenen Wayans released 'Scary Movie' which itself felt like a Brooks style parody of Scream. We reached a whirlpool of parody circling parody, a snake eating its own tale. I can't help but think of Brooks as one of the grandfathers of that style of comedy.
Brooks had a legendary rise to stardom as a comedic filmmaker with The Producers, winning best original screenplay for his first film. How many can claim that? Diablo Cody is the only name that comes to mind. Though his star dwindled and faded away with flops towards the end, its clear how numerous films of his wind up on multiple Greatest Comedies of All Time lists.
For good or ill, hilarious or mind-numbingly terrible, his films were consistently his. And that's one of the greatest compliments I can pay any director.
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