The Producers (Movie-Only Edition)
by Mel Brooks
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Lee Meredith, William Hickey, Zero MostelDirector: Mel Brooks
Brand: TCFHE/MGM
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
Published: 2003-09-01
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Producers (Movie-Only Edition)
Movie Review: Vulgar, liberating, hilarious, outrageous, offensive, incredible...
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Producers" remains one of Mel Brooks' best movies. It spawned the now somewhat familiar plot line of a flop becoming a hit to the impresario's doom. But if imitation is the highest form of flattery, this movie should feel pretty good about itself. Numerous reworkings have emerged since its initial release that has made the stunningly original plotline somewhat less shocking some forty years later. But thinking of this movie in the context of its original release (1968 - the Beatles released the "White Album" in the same year) it must have created quite a shock for moviegoers at the time. Older viewers, with World War II still in memory, probably gasped in the same manner as the audience shots during the uplifting musical paen to the defeated fuehrer, "Springtime for Hitler". Truly, the movie's vulgarity remains one of its strongest points. It's so vulgar that anything goes. From Zero Mostel's unforgivable combover to Gene Wilder's hyperactive performance to the "little old ladies" seductively handing out checks to the gaudy and offensive Mostel, the movie never lets up and sinks lower and lower as it goes on. But as it sinks it actually triumphs.
Some of Brooks' best satire sits in this film. The brilliant "Love Power", sung by LSD the hippy, delivers a satirical death blow to 1960s hippy pop. Ulla the Swedish blonde bombshell provides the sex appeal while satirizing ridiculous male expectations of "the ideal woman" (and the typing/champagne scene attains pure brilliance). The exaggerated homosexual theater director and his sidekick introduce a very naughty topic for the 1960s mainstream that probably had typical males wriggling in their theater seats. The ridiculous writer of "Springtime for Hitler" and his homing pigeons who breaks into "Deutschland Über Alles", realizes he's in public, and abruptly diverts to "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy". And having hippies depict the leaders of the Third Reich is just a stroke of brilliance (the "hippy Goebbels" gives the "hippy Hitler" a high-five and says "Man, I just laid the daily propaganda on the people!"). Just when the movie seems to have gone too far, it goes farther ("kill the actors!"; "blow up the theater!"). The opening scene of the musical "Springtime for Hitler" probably remains one of the most outrageous things ever put to film. It still maintains some of its shock even today.
"The Producers" throws morality and decency completely to the wind and one wonders if Brooks' aim was to parody unscrupulous people that he met in "the business". Regardless, Brooks presents a hilarious and exaggerated morality tale on the dangers of greed. A contagion of avarice emanates from Max Bialystock (Mostel) to Leo Bloom (Wilder). Leo catches Max's condition and joins him in a plan that only the worst of human beings would attempt. Their motivation is greed and nothing more. One of the movie's best scenes shows Leo and Max in front of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Max finally convinces Leo to join him and Leo gloriously shouts out "I want everything I've ever seen in the movies!" The fountain comes to life that very second, gaudily punctuating Leo's transformation in a way that words never could. It's one of the most visually funny and brilliantly revealing satirical scenes ever. Scenes this good realize the full potential and uniqueness of film.
Of course everyone knows about the re-make released this year. "The Producers" didn't need a remake, but Brooks scored a surprising hit with it on Broadway. The new version expands the role of Ulla and introduces a love story between her and Bloom. Consequenty, it removes the satirical cardboard cutout that she represents in the original film. Hopefully the new release will awaken a desire to see the original. And maybe someday Hollywood, instead of regurgitating remake after remake, can tap into the liberating and frenetic energy that drove Mel Brooks in 1968 to create this comedy masterpiece.
Summary of The Producers (Movie-Only Edition)
PRODUCERS MAX BIALYSTOCK (MOSTEL) AND LEO BLOOM (WILDER) MAKE MONEY BY PRODUCING A SURE-FIRE FLOP.Similar DVD Movies
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