Schickel vs. "Pirates"
"Screen comedy is at its best when it pitches its tent close to the poverty line. The minute the effects budget swells, it starts to crush the life out of comedy, which needs empty spaces to roam and some quality alone with the audiences in order to enlist its complicity in its subversions. It is, I think, a universal truth of movie-making that effects are never funny. They can sometimes wow you, but they can't make you laugh, and [Johnny] Depp cannot stand up to the hubbub they create. No actor can. He can only serve them, which involves him in derring-do that any actor could do about as well as he can. He needs to be involved with us, not with the lunking machinery of the movie." -- Time critic Richard Schickel on...uh-oh, I'm going to get attacked again for running another anti-Pirates item. But I swear I'm running Schickel's piece because it happens to be very well-written.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 7, 2006 at 5:34 PM
comment #1
Adam says ...
I'm looking forward to the movie, but that is a well-written piece, and I think he makes a pretty good argument. So, good on ya for running it.
Posted by Adam at July 7, 2006 5:44 PM
comment #2
Anonymous says ...
Good point, Schickel. The best filmmaker to support this argument is probably Barry Sonnenfeld. Working on huge budgets, he's made some of the worst comedies in movie history. Totally soulless crap!
Posted by Anonymous at July 7, 2006 5:55 PM
comment #3
Markus R. Mueller says ...
FX can be funny. Robin Williams out of focus in "Deconstructing Harry" was hilarious.
Or what about the storm sequence in "Steamboat Bill jr."? Great FX and damn funny.
Posted by Markus R. Mueller at July 7, 2006 5:57 PM
comment #4
Rob says ...
:But I swear I'm running Schickel's piece because it happens to be very well-written.
Just read it. A very elegant demolition job. True as well.
Posted by Rob at July 7, 2006 6:04 PM
comment #5
Spotted Reptile says ...
The only comedy/parody recently where I found the effects both amusing and central to the story was Galaxy Quest.
Schickel has a very good point here. When actors and special effects compete for an audience's focus, instead of working together for it, the actors and the audience inevitably lose.
Posted by Spotted Reptile at July 7, 2006 6:59 PM
comment #6
Greg says ...
I have just one word in response to Schickel's claim that FX and big budget automatically kill the funny - Ghostbusters. 'Nuf said.
Posted by Greg at July 7, 2006 7:22 PM
comment #7
Anonymous says ...
I really enjoy Pixar films. The Incredibles seem very human to me, funny, dramatic , and poignant.
Posted by Anonymous at July 7, 2006 8:13 PM
comment #8
Dixon Steele says ...
Greg, you beat me to it. Who ya gonna call?
The late, great NY Times critic Vincent Canby made the same point when panning Spielberg's 1941.
He was referring to the end of the movie when an entire house goes sliding down a mountain. Not funny.
Then compared it to the classic Laurel & Hardy short The Music Box, when the piano they strenuously lug up a huge flight of outdoor steps (shot in Silver Lake, LA), slips and crashes and smashes down the same steps.
House, not funny. Piano, funny.
On the other hand, I know people who like 1941 and don't get Laurel & Hardy (incl. Woody Allen).
Posted by Dixon Steele at July 7, 2006 8:41 PM
comment #9
delbomber says ...
'Ghostbusters' is one of the TOP-5 COMEDIES OF ALL TIME, yes I said it, in SPITE of its special effects. Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was like to roast in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you.
Posted by delbomber at July 7, 2006 8:52 PM
comment #10
BL says ...
Eh, I hate these kinds of blanket generalizations - I can always think of exceptions.
Anybody ever see the documentary "The Unknown Chaplin"? Chaplin was such a perfectionist he held films up for months, rehired new actors and reshot parts of movies or entire movies, had expensive sets built , destroyed and rebuilt to his exacting standards, shot endless takes...etc. Film production was much cheaper then, but even so, I believe his behavoir was seen as insanely extravogant but worth it because even then people considered him to be a 'genius'.
Harold Lloyd films were also pretty pricy for their time, and had lots of dangerous stunts and fancy production values.
The first more RECENT comedy that comes to my mind that mixed effects and live action to pretty good effect was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". While I'm not a huge fan, I think "Men in Black" was pretty decent (that talking Pug was pretty funny).
"Galexy Quest" and the Pixar films...all good too. I'm tellin ya', without Pixar, the same kind of article as this one could probably be written about computer animation.
Posted by BL at July 7, 2006 9:47 PM
comment #11
Strangelove says ...
I was preparing this huge rant about how Ghostbusters was funny as hell but it was all Murray, Akroyd and that Ramis fellow and the special effects and budget were incidental but more than one person beat me to the punch. Let me just say "Amen" then. Money ain't funny. Can I get a witness?
Posted by Strangelove at July 8, 2006 12:26 AM
comment #12
guy steele says ...
Hmm... FX not funny. Well when used right and it's involved with a funny script and actors then yes FX flicks can be very funny. People above mention Ghostbusters as an example. To me that movie was mostly funny because of the actors and not the FX. Sure the end Stay Puff dude was fun... but really it was the lines that actors spouted that was funny. Men in Black did use FX for funny and it worked most of the time. But for me the one movie that relied on FX for funny and worked was The Mask. Yes Jim Carrey was funny and is a walking breathing FX but the dog and what the Mask was able to do were just about funny in every scene and least we forget Carrey aside and the FX as well the best effect in the movie was the introduction of Cameron Diaz!
Posted by guy steele at July 8, 2006 7:41 AM
comment #13
sandekat says ...
Yes, Jeff, that was very, very well written.....a professorial surgical gutting of Depp's performance and the movie.
I'm sure I should be grateful to him for his wheezy pedantic lecture to poor silly me.
Let me see if I've got this straight:
CGI is very bad and very unfunny, especially if too much money is spent on it.....
He implies that Charlie Chaplin would never have trucked with such a godless technology...hummm, I wonder? ...
anyway.....I suppose I should swallow his hornswoggle, but its just so damned dreary.
I enjoyed this movie. I loved the CGI. I loved the mutated, barnicled crew. I loved Depp's performance and physical comedy. I loved all the supporting performances to one degree or another. I loved the undead monkey getting repeatedly shot.
I commend Verbenski for the hurculean effort this must have been for him to get all this on the screen and still have so many grace notes and little throwaway moments that one barely notices.....
......so it really doesn't matter how many of these so called 'experts' lecture me on why I am wrong to have a wonderful time viewing this movie.....
.....I'm sorry that many critics didn't like this film. But so many of them seem to be attacking straw men; I just can't take most of them seriously.
While I doubt any of them would ever consider a second viewing of the film, it is quite an interesting experience, turning one of their main complaints very much into a positive.
At least you aren't alone on this one, Jeff. As I have learned, you love to believe you are right, Its sort of sweet how you take such comfort from the echo bouncing back.
Posted by sandekat at July 8, 2006 8:47 AM
comment #14
Mathew says ...
I don't know how you can say anything is absolute. I quit reading the article when Schickel headed in that direction. I think the reason that sfx in general are not funny is that they come from a collaboration of technical people and not from a single comedy mind. Also it's rather difficult for an actor to react against something that's not there physically with them on the set. Sometimes it does work as in the Ghostbusters or Men in Black examples. Strangely that whole sequence in Ghostbusters when they're chasing 'Slimer' around the hotel is hilarious still.
But to say that all sfx creations are un-funny is BS. That's like saying all cartoons including Bugs Bunny are not funny. It's a subjective stance.
Posted by Mathew at July 8, 2006 9:15 AM