giwake

game developer, I think?

  • they/them

i make games and music, sometimes.

profile picture by @thewaether!!!

moving to https://bsky.app/profile/giwake.bsky.social


ETPC
@ETPC

tonight's movie was Silent Movie (1976)! and despite all the issues i ran into watching this one, i really enjoyed it!

so here's the thing: a lot of the movies i watch are either on streaming services i don't have access to or are just not available except on physical media. this necessitates alternative means of acquiring movies, and for the most part this works out pretty alright! however, every now and then it goes Very Wrong. sadly, Silent Movie was one of these times.

now, the video quality was great! everything was clear there. however, the audio. you don't need me to tell you how critical the audio being synced to the visuals is for any movie, but specifically comedies and specifically comedies that are trying to replicate an era of filmmaking where sound was used sparingly and with great purpose are especially sensitive to audio fuckups causing a series of cascading failures in terms of things just not happening when they should.

my copy of Silent Movie had it's audio track desynced by up to 20 seconds. i cannot adequately explain how strange this was. one of the most famous scenes in the movie, the one with the only spoken dialogue, has the word spoken way before the person who is supposed to say it even has a chance to open his mouth.

usually, this would be awful but there were some scenes where the horrible desync actually accidentally made something strange and wonderful instead. like imagine a completely silent dance scene. a car chase where the only sound is a single drum hit. the music, which sounded pretty great, would have dark dreary pieces scoring moments where everyone is all smiles. it was genuinely incredible. would i love to have watched this movie with a soundtrack that makes any kind of sense? sure! do i regret watching this bizarre musique concrete version of Silent Movie? not really!

part of that is because 90% of the jokes in the movie are almost entirely based around sight gags that don't require any additional sound effects or musical flourishes. a man walking out of an acupuncture clinic with a million giant acupuncture needles still in him is incredibly funny. you don't need sound effects to understand what's funny about Burt Reynolds showering only for him to seemingly grow three more sets of arms that are all washing him. sure, some jokes are ruined like the pinball elevator hospital gag, but the visuals of it are still hilarious. i couldn't stop laughing during the movie and it never stopped being fun.

the cast for this, outside of the main cast Mel Brooks/Dom DeLuise/Marty Feldman, is pretty amazing. however, most of the other cast don't really show up for bits outside of their scenes, which is a bit of a shame. i was hoping for some big huge comedy megascene with Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft and Paul Newman along with our protagonist trio of Mel Funn, Dom Bell and Marty Eggs, but alas. Sid Caesar shows up for multiple scenes and is incredibly funny, while Bernadette Peters as the lustful Vilma Kaplan is less funny but still puts in great work. the sultry dancer causing an AOE blowback is fantastic. still, the meat and potatoes of the movie is Brooks/DeLuise/Feldman getting into wacky hijinks and it's more then worth the price of admission.

silent movie's setup is wonderfully simple: Mel Funn (Brooks) is a recovering alcoholic who used to be a great filmmaker and along with his sidekicks Dom Bell (DeLuise) and Marty Eggs (Feldman), seeks to pitch a brand new movie: the first silent movie in four decades. Funn pitches the script to Big Pictures Studios, a standin for Paramount, of which the boss (Caesar) is under intense pressure to deliver a real blockbuster lest the company get swallowed up by the massive and uncaring Engulf & Devour (a mockery of Gulf & Western, who at the time of the movie's release had recently bought Paramount). Funn's idea is soundly rejected, but after Funn says he can attach big name talent to the production, he is given the greenlight. slapstick hijinks ensue.

is Silent Movie as good as Blazing Saddles or The Producers? probably not. is it still excellent? absolutely. the concept alone carries so much of the movie and the cast are fully in tune with what the production demands of them and give it their all. some jokes have aged a bit, but far more of the jokes still play extremely well in 2023. shoutout to the coke machine that doubles as a mortar. if you are in the mood for a slapstick comedy with a great concept and can find a copy where the sound works, i highly recommend Silent Movie. it's just such a fun time.


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