LIFE STINKS
US, 1991, 93 minutes, Colour.
Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren, Jeffrey Tambor.
Directed by Mel Brooks.
Life Stinks was written and directed by Mel Brooks who is the star. Brooks has had a long career in cinema and television, especially with his capacity for parody. Here he has some parody, especially of such films as Sullivan's Travels and Preston Sturges' and Frank Capra's comedies of the past. However, at the end of the '80s, with the western world in recession, he veers towards more serious themes with sentiment and hopeful and optimistic endings.
Brooks, getting older, plays a wealthy tycoon who makes a bet that he can survive in East Los Angeles for a month. He meets bag lady, Lesley Ann Warren, as well as many drifters. He survives - but begins to understand something of their way of life. When he is betrayed by his rival, he goes berserk - but eventually gets the kind of revenge that is presented in so many American films, taking the part of the little people and moving against the wealthy developers.
The film is not hilarious like many of Brooks' films. However, there are some good jokes - but the overall tone is that of humour, sentiment, social criticism - and a hope for little people in the '90s.
1.The movies of Mel Brooks, expectations of comedy? His skill at farce and parody? Introduction of serious themes?
2.The world of Los Angeles, the world of the rich, East Los Angeles and the people in the street? The musical score, the opening march - and its being used throughout the film? The use of Easy To Love?
3.The '90s, the title, recession, wealth and poverty, hopes and dreams - echoes of Frank Capra-style movies?
4.Mel Brooks as Bolt, the big car, marching with his henchmen into the office, his ruthless listening to plans for destruction of buildings and harm for the poor? Crasswell and his manoeuvres, the bet, the lawyers - and their double-crossing Bolt? The contract? Not having any money, credit cards, his toupee removed, the signal on his leg?
5.Crasswell, his being a local boy, his ambitions, meanness, intruding into meetings, the contract and double-dealing, buying the lawyers? Closing the mission? Singing while it rained?
6.Bolt on the street - how real, how comic? The effect? The squalor, Sailor and the handkerchief, the pipes and the rats? Wanting to get into the hotel but not having the money? Not eating - and trying to steal food? The garbage tins? His shoes being robbed? His being hungry, sleeping, people urinating on him? Getting dirty? Yet meeting people and their helping him?
7.Molly, her place, her story, her depression, the robbing of the shoes, her place being set on fire? The revenge with the hot soup? Taking Bolt to the mission, eating, the friends? Helping, sharing, falling in love with him - and the Easy to Love dance routine? Going to his mansion with him, supporting him, the marriage?
8.Sailor and company, handkerchiefs, eating, living on the street, exposure and dying? His black friend? The range of vagrants, life on the street? At the mission?
9.The bet, the vice-versa theme, the arrogant wealthy man learning? The effect, his survival?
10.His return, Crasswell's fickleness, the party, wanting to take his art and treasures, his being prevented? His anger? His fighting with the man who thought he was John Paul Getty? Arrested, taken to hospital? His return, the confrontation with Crasswell with the opening of the estate? The parody of the battle of the earthmovers? Media interviews?
11.The finale with the wedding, the church (and the echoes of his watching the wedding)? The cinema optimism of the ending? The feelgood attitude, even though life stinks?
