Funny Five
First, we have to define what's a comedy, no easy task. Does it have to have a happy ending? Is it about an attirude? Does it have to get big laughs? Does it have to feature comedians?
I would define comedy (though it's a slippery concept) as something that has humor or laughter as part of its essence, and generally has a positive outlook. This doesn't mean it's all knee-slappers, nor must it be all sweetness and light. In fact, misery loves comedy. And the ending can be bittersweet, such as in Annie Hall.
On the other hand, just having funny parts doesn't make something a comedy. There are many laughs in Oscar winners Casablanca, Rocky, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Kramer vs Kramer, Amadeus and Rain Man, and I don't think I'd call them comedies. (Though who knows, maybe I would on a good day.)
So I counted and found quite a few more than five. And I didn't include musical comedies (though comedies with some musical numbers are okay). By my count, there are 14 Best Picture winners I'd characterize as comedies:
2. You Can't Take It With You
3.Going My Way
4. All About Eve
5. Around The World In 80 Days
6. The Apartment
7. Tom Jones (I remember a book of the Greatest Movies, listed by category. Tom Jones was one of the top five comedies of all time. Bad call, but they sure thought it was a comedy.)
8. Annie Hall
9. Terms Of Endearment
10. Driving Miss Daisy
11. Forrest Gump
12. Shakespeare In Love
13. American Beauty
14. Slumdog Millionaire
Some are mixed genres (like romantic comedy), but that doesn't mean they're not comedies. A few are on the edge, but even if you cut those, there's still more than five.
Am I being too inclusive? Or am I missing some? (I'm reminded of the scene in Naked Gun where Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley walk out of a theatre, laughing uproariously. We pull back to see the cinema's playing Platoon.)
*Guess it'll be easier if I list them all:
1928 Sunrise and Wings
1929 The Broadway Melody
1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
1931 Cimarron
1932 Grand Hotel
1933 Cavalcade
1934 It Happened One Night
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 The Great Ziegfeld
1937 The Life of Emile Zola
1938 You Can't Take It With You
1939 Gone with the Wind
1940 Rebecca
1941 How Green Was My Valley
1942 Mrs. Miniver
1943 Casablanca
1944 Going My Way
1945 The Lost Weekend
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 Gentleman's Agreement
1948 Hamlet
1949 All the King's Men
1950 All About Eve
1951 An American in Paris
1952 The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1955 Marty
1956 Around the World in 80 Days
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 Gigi
1959 Ben-Hur
1960 The Apartment
1961 West Side Story
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1963 Tom Jones
1964 My Fair Lady
1965 The Sound of Music
1966 A Man for All Seasons
1967 In the Heat of the Night
1968 Oliver!
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1970 Patton
1971 The French Connection
1972 The Godfather
1973 The Sting
1974 The Godfather Part II
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 Rocky
1977 Annie Hall
1978 The Deer Hunter
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 Ordinary People
1981 Chariots of Fire
1982 Gandhi
1983 Terms of Endearment
1984 Amadeus
1985 Out of Africa
1986 Platoon
1987 The Last Emperor
1988 Rain Man
1989 Driving Miss Daisy
1990 Dances With Wolves
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Unforgiven
1993 Schindler's List
1994 Forrest Gump
1995 Braveheart
1996 The English Patient
1997 Titanic
1998 Shakespeare in Love
1999 American Beauty
2000 Gladiator
2001 A Beautiful Mind
2002 Chicago
2003 The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King
2004 Million Dollar Baby
2005 Crash
2006 The Departed
2007 No Country for Old Men
2008 Slumdog Millionaire
2009 The Hurt Locker
posted by LAGuy @ 12:11 AM
9 Comments:
All sorts of theorists have tried to define what a comedy is and what elements it has to have. In terms of the classical plot, a comedy usually involves an initial confusion put right at the end. Often there is an antagonist causing trouble whose mischief is brought to light. In RomCom, although initially confused about it, the people who should pair up do, for example. Even so, I would agree that, classical plot or not, basically a comedy still has to have laughs (if it doesn't, that's tragic).
Looking over the entire list of Best Picture Oscar winners, I'm surprised, shocked really, that I don't like a good half of them.
I agree with most of your picks, LAGuy. But although they each had some funny scenes, I don't think of either Slumdog Millionaire or American Beauty as comedies. I suppose it's a question of mood and what sticks with me about the movie. How's that for objective criteria?
American Beauty was a comedy? Boy, I'd have got that wrong on a matching test. I remember it as being more along the lines of Audition. (If that's a comedy, I give up.)
American Beauty is a 90 minute farce hiding inside a 2 hour ponderous speculation on life.
Here's a good starting point. Tragedies end in death. Comedies end in marriage.
If you want to make friends and enemies, make a top whatever list. Personally, I think The Sting is a comedy. But let's look at Klein's comment. A comedy writer can be almost completely irresponsible. Facts, reality, 3 billion years of evolution? Eh! Look at sitcoms. From Rob Petrie to Peter Griffin, could these guys have gotten the hot babes they did in reality? In romcoms fat, unemployed, out-of-shape doofuses get the hot babes because they're sweet, funny and they mean well. Darwin would go into hysterics over that one. Most comedy writers are fat, out of shape, unemployed doofuses who are funny, but rarely sweet and never mean well. And hot babes never get beyond "unemployed" on the male resume. Comedy, then, is sexual fantasy and wish fulfilment made possible by deviating from the way things actually work. The antagonist isn't really the wealthy, tightassed fiancee our hero always has to displace. It's reality.
Geez, Wilbaummer. Too much reality there. Our LAGuy doesn't match your description, anyway. And I've definitely lived the sexual fantasy and wish fulfillment that you say isn't possible. Too bad I don't have the chops to give ColumbusGal the Nobel Prize she deserves.
ColumbusGuy
Hollywood is filled with ugly guys dating beautiful women, so maybe that's why it doesn't bother them in movies and TV shows.
Rob and Laura Petrie make a cute couple, but why Marge hasn't left Homer yet is beyond reason.
No PJG, not too inclusive. This host determined there were only five? Well he was wrong. I've always thought of at least The Sting and Cukoo's Nest as comedies. And I agree with a handful of your additions.
Willbaumer, Rob Petrie could have gotten Laura. He was successful and good looking. Perhaps bad casting for a comedy writer.
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