Some Like It Hot
Most of the movies on the list are dramas, not quite the escapism that I often look for in movies. Sure those movies can be challenging, but sometimes I just want to enjoy a good story, told well, and acted with excellence. Some Like It Hot would be one of those movies. Besides having one of the best closing lines ever, it stands the test of time of being a funny comedy even today. Most comedies are so firmly set within a particular time period's sense of humor that to look back on them a generation later usually means the viewer is left scratching his / her head wondering, "that was funny?" I doubt Jackass, while outrageously funny will ever be called a classic comedy. So this begs the question, what makes a comedy classic or universal? My guess is that some of it is in the acting - the entire committment that Jack Lemmon has to selling his character. I suspect that men dressing up as women to avoid death is also somewhat universal. It also strikes me that usually the best comedies are actually set in the midst of intense turmoil. In this movie the guys saw a slew of men killed - if you were pitching that as a film, you would think it was a drama. I wonder if that ability to laugh in the midst of circumstances that would otherwise be wretched is where comedy can get it's real power.
posted by Nate Clarke at
5:37 PM
2 Comments:
It was refreshing to find a comedy among Ebert’s Great Movies. It is kind of like the Oscars- great films are usually intensely serious and often come with subtitles. I didn’t really know what to expect and I was a little surprised to find Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in wigs, dresses and make-up. On the run from a group of mobsters and penniless, they take refuge in an all-girl orchestra traveling to Florida.
I was also surprised by some of the overtly sexual dialogue. It would not seem bold in a movie in 2007, but it does make for some funny scenes in this 1960s film.
Although I enjoyed Curtis and Lemmon’s performances, I found it difficult to enjoy Marilyn Monroe’s role. Tony Curtis character falls for Monroe’s and pretends to be a millionaire to win her heart, while playing the role of a female confidant. I enjoyed the interactions between Curtis and Lemmon and preferred the “romance” of Lemmon’s character. He ends up engaged the real millionaire. In one of the final scenes of the movie Lemmon tells his fiancé that he actually a man- he says he doesn’t care and they sail away. This illustrates the free feeling of the movie. Just sit back and enjoy and let go and laugh.
By
Up too late, at 8:44 PM
I know this last comment has nate's weird picture by it, but its actually mine. Man, posting here can get a little confusing
By
Bethany Clarke, at 8:46 PM
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