Duck Soup

My first exposure to this movie was in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (I think it was 'Hannah' anyway). Isaac (Woody) goes to old movies as a way of avoiding desperation. He watches the scene where they hit each other on the head and he realizes the purpose of life. The Marx Brothers may have had no such intentions, but they made films that effected the human condition far more profoundly than they would have ever believed. Yes, this film does inspire joy. It makes fun of humanity and shows its lightest sides. That side is part of us and few films outside of those of the Marx Brothers expose it as such.

Maybe I'm being too serious. I know I am. This is a simple film that is simply funny. It is satirical, but it is slapstick first and foremost. What could be more human than slapstick, though? We are physical beings and we react to physical comedy. I don't mean to be collegiate about this, I'm not really being serious although I do mean what I say. I feel the same could be said of Duck Soup. They're not serious but they do mean what they say.

Satire is often too vindictive, but like the Simpsons this film is light hearted. Laughter is its purpose. Guttural laughter. Not cerebral dissection of actuality to expose the human condition for the comedy it is but a senseless mirth is the starting and end point of Duck Soup. It is absurd and unbelievable. Films today would be well served to recognize that. Too many movies are absurd within believability. I don't mean to say that such films have no place, on the contrary they can be some of the best (Dr. Strangelove). I only mean to say that the end result of believable absurdity is sarcasm, the great plague of modern culture.

The Marx Brothers are not sarcastic, although they are tongue in cheek. Since they lack the sarcasm, they lack the negativity and therefore lack the cruelty that is so prevalent in modern comedy (mush less drama!). Their purely absurd films have lasting universality because they are based in foolishness. Like Monty Python, their films beckon the farcical spirit in us all. It's up to us to let it out and enjoy it. That's harder all the time but is made easier, much easier, by Marx Brothers films, perhaps most notably Duck Soup.