Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mel Brooks and the Nazis

This is topic Mel Brooks and the Nazis in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 04-09-2004, 04:31 PM:

Can anybody offer some insight as to why the films of Mel Brooks so frequently involve Nazis, or similar characters?

Opinions are okay, but I am hoping that Brooks has been interviewed on this subject and that maybe one or more of you will recall his answer.

(I did a Google search and came up with nothing but a whole lot of references to "The Producers.")

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 04-09-2004, 05:41 PM:

I heard him talk about this when he had The Producers on Broadway. Mel is Jewish and he had lots of relatives suffer because of the Holocaust. He believes that the Nazis were the highest form of evil to happen in our lifetimes. He also believes that comedy or more specifically parody has the power to remove fear from things. He doesn't want us to fear people like the Nazis he wants to recognize them for the fools that they were and to deny them any power in the future. Through comedic ridicule comes power over that which we fear.

Posted by Rick Hunter (Member # 1606) on 04-09-2004, 06:59 PM:

I am working on a show with Mr Brooks next Wednesday. If the topic comes up I'll report back.

Regards.
Rick

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 04-10-2004, 03:30 AM:

If "Hitler On Ice" isn't enough to remove fear, I'm not sure what else will!

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 04-10-2004, 10:03 AM:

Was it Jerry Lewis' Which Way to the Front? that included a slow motion scene of he and Hitler running towards each other to embrace? What is the psychoanalysis of THAT?

Between feature movies, documentaries about the war and the holocaust, and of course, Hogan's Heroes, don't we have enough material now to program a 24 hour All-Hitler cable/satellite channel?

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-10-2004, 11:29 AM:

Will the dancing Hitlers please wait in the wings? We are only seeing singing Hitlers.

Mel Brooks showed himself to be the absolute master of irony, in the best Jewish comic tradition, with his Oscar-winning original story and screenplay for The Producers. As Brooks himself put it when asked "How can you laugh about it?" in the interview Ian mentioned, "How can you not laugh about it?"

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 04-10-2004, 05:07 PM:

One of my favorite tv shows was comprised of a leading cast, of which a large part were Jewish and victims of Nazism, themselves:

Hogan's Heroes:

Werner Klemperer's (Klink) father was a world reknown musician who escaped Nazi Occupied Europe and was able to immigrate to the US.

Robert Clary was actually liberated by the Allies. A large portion of his family were murdered at Auchwitz. Robert is now very much involved with the Simon Weisenthal Center in LA.

Our favorite Sgt Shultz (John Banner) was Austrian, and also spent time in a concentration camp during the early years...before a trip was a confirmed death sentence.

Posted by Ron Keillor (Member # 1790) on 04-10-2004, 09:09 PM:

Similarly, one might note his remake, starring himself in the Jack Benny rôle, of Lubitsch's To Be or Not To Be .
He is old enough to have lived during WWII and to have been aware of what was going on. I don't think those events can ever be erased from one's memory. Even the American Civil War can still stir up strong feelings.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 04-11-2004, 08:30 AM:

Hogans Heroes started airing in 1965. I was 8-9 years old. I loved the show from the beginning and watched it during its entire network run. My mom and dad wouldn't watch the show.

I learned in school that the Nazi's were the bad guys. I had the intelligence to know that Hogans Heroes and what went on in the concentration camps were two very different things.

When I went to work in TV, one of our syndicated shows was Hogan. The shows are good, even today. The actors are pros.

Remember all of the war-era Warner Bros. cartoons? Never see any of them on TV anymore.

In 1988, I had an opportunity to see a copy of the film that the military made of what the Allies found when they went into the camps after WWII. Whew. Hard watching. Those poor people.

I'll never agree with what the Nutsies say. Ever.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-11-2004, 09:08 AM:

Though I know Mel Brooks is Jewish and fights against inequality, I never really thought he was specifically into Jewish Anti-Defamation.

What History of the World's "Hitler on Ice" did for Jewish people, Blazing Saddles "Up Yours Ni99er!" did for Blacks.

By taking some issue, such as Jewis or Black persecution, and putting it in such a surrealistically humorous situation we see how silly it is to behave in that way. Hopefully, a few people will realize their behavior isn't so reasonable anymore.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-11-2004, 12:42 PM:

In September of 2000 the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach ran a brand new 35mm print of Blazing Saddles as a part of their 6th annual Widescreen Film Festival. By a show of hands during the festival curator's introduction for the film, about half of the 800 or so people in this 1000 seat theater had not seen 'Saddles' before. (And up until then I had quite forgotten that this title was a 'scope picture--see what 20 some odd years of only a P&S video release of it will do to one's memory. [Smile]

) Given that this title had been available on video for years, I was surprised at the number of first-time viewers.

The curator's introduction was a hoot in itself. He came out on stage and began with, "OK, let's see if we've got the right audience for this. Raise your right hand and repeat after me: 'I...'"

The whole audience responded, "I..."

The curator, "Your name."

The whole audience, without a hitch, "Your name."

The curator, "Yup. We've got the right audience."

It was quite amusing and informative to watch the audience reaction to the screening. The older viewers obviously enjoyed it, writ large once again on the Carpenter's 65' screen. However, many of the younger college-age PC-indoctrinated viewers were visibly uncomfortable with it, unsure whether or not it was OK to laugh, with audible gasps at each oh so casual use of the word "nigger" sprinkled so liberally throughout the dialog. Forgive me, but as a college instructor I derive a certain amount of pleasure from watching students squirm a little. Call me a budding sadist. [evil]

In the end I think the younger ones came away from the screening not too much the worse for wear, though they were visibly shaken by it. [Smile]

I think everyone got some well presented lessons in both film and social history that day. Along with a great demonstration of Film Done Right!

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-11-2004, 01:38 PM:

In that case they should have run Green Pastures as the second film with it [Smile]

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 04-11-2004, 02:50 PM:

Another excellent WWII tv show was an English production that I found by chance and watched regullary when I lived in England:

ALO, ALO! (spelling)

This show took place in WWII France. It was one of those "shit flows downhill" situations. An all English cast that protrayed both the French Resistance and the Nazis.

For the most part, the English actors poked fun at both the French and Germans, while the French characters poked fun at the German characters.

Maybe our English FT friends remember this show...I saw it in 1990 while stationed in England during Desert Storm.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-11-2004, 08:14 PM:

Alo Alo has played on some PBS stations in the USA...including the Republic of Miami [Wink]

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 04-11-2004, 10:50 PM:

Allo, Allo is correct