Dark comedy has always in some form existed in film. In fact, I would venture to say that comedy by it's nature is dark. We only perceive that it isn't when things end up alright in the end. But think about any joke before seeing the end result...it's at someone's expense or because of something going wrong. The old nickelodeons were usually comedy based. A series of unfortunate events would usually befall someone; they fell, they lost something, maybe a case of mistaken identity, or a dog ate their last hot dog leaving them hungry. All the way through the silent era comedy was black. But American sensibilities hated sad endings, and as a result, despite an entire film of misery the hero ends up alright. Virtually every Chaplin film follows that road of tragedy, until at the end he gets the girl and a warm hot dog in his belly.But starting in the 1960's the film business started to change. Filmmakers began getting more freedom, partially from a ratings system giving them allowances but at a price of an R rating. Partially because of the absence of freedom on television, films could explore either sensitive ideas or could be more artistic, wanting to attract viewers that way. As well, the studio system was dieing. Ideas were coming from different sources and the development process drastically changed. In this atmosphere we see the growth of the dark comedy; chief among them....Dr Strangelove. (I'll eventually do a whole review for Dr Strangelove when we get to it on the AFI list.)
With the freedom that movies had, even comedies were free from some of the bounds put on them and they were able to explore the true nature of comedy...dark comedy. Just as Chaplin used the background of the depression for comedy's sake, films in the late sixties and early seventies used the backdrop of the insane world around them. The happy and content 50's were over. Singin' in the Rain could not have been made or accepted in 1969 the same way it was in 1952. (The number of musicals made in the late 60's was about half the number made on average in the 1950's and early 60's. And the ones that were made, were to pull people away from the TV to see a spectacle, and away from the tumultuous times.)
Enter Harold and Maude, which premiered in 1971, a
remarkably landmark comedy. It's not the first black comedy, but it definitely set the tone for the coming years. It never mentions or delves into the social problems of the day. But throughout the film you can feel the subtext and know that the filmmakers were hinting at something larger than a macabre loving boy and a kooky old lady.In Harold we have a privileged 19 year old boy not knowing how to communicate or live in his world. His one main interaction is with his overly involved mother. Harold enacts realistic deaths to hopefully freak his mother out, but she never buys into the presentation. However, they are gruesome to watch as an audience member. The first death is built up while the opening credits roll. He hangs himself just after we see his face for the first time. His mother enters and walks about nonchalant, then tells him when supper is. His next death, though you know at this point it's probably fake, is nonetheless startling to see, and you secretly think he might have actually killed himself this time. But when the mother walks in and sees blood everywhere and Harold all cut up, again she isn't swayed. Obviously he's been doing it a while and she's used to it, but for the first few times it takes some getting used to, even all the way to when he shoots himself, well into the movie.
So Harold delights in death and all things dark. But he finds humor and enjoyment in it, rather than a serial killer or sadistic person. And herein lies the first great metaphor. His favorite pastime, besides pretending to commit suicide, is attending funerals. Harold never actually does anything really sick, he only dabbles in the dark and deathly. It's as if death is so intriguing that it's sparked his curiosity in an unnatural way.
Vietnam was the first war where news was daily broadcasted visually from the front line. No war up to that point had brought war to the home through moving images. Previously, news came from newspapers or radio, if at all. Death was now a familiar thing to every family, whether they liked it or not. Adults had experienced some of it with previous wars and had either let it pass or naturally accepted it, but for the youth this was their whole world and nothing could help them deal with it properly. For them these gruesome images were mixing in with the suburban atmosphere of delight and delicacy, enough to change anyone's perspective on death; "how could I see death on TV and yet go for a bike ride in the park and eat blueberries with mom in the kitchen?" It almost doesn't make sense.
Vietnam was not the same war, these deaths were from a morally ambiguous conflict, which the youth for the most part were not advocates. Harold was darkly intrigued by death. He himself, never had to cope with it, but yet he brings himself to death much like society has done since the Vietnam war in the form of media attention. Think of the graphic nature of films and TV starting from the sixties until today. Violence on television and movies has gotten progressively more accepted and worse. And that all starts with the images of dead soldiers and caskets returning home during Vietnam. America has had a secret affair with death, but in a trivial way. Death is not real, it's something that happens to actors or over and over on video games. Somehow this is the way we accept death and cope with it. Harold never really understands death until it actually happens.
Which leads into the other half of the film; Maude. If Harold looks at death in a fun way, Maude looks at life in a frivolously dark way. She lives life everyday as if it's her last, which it very well could be since she's almost 80. But she does it in such a flippant, nuts to you, suck my balls, kiss my grits, up yours world kind of way. She cherishes everything and nothing at the same time. When Harold gives her a gift, she says it's the best gift she's gotten in a long time, then throws it in the lake. And that's her MO, life is so precious and awesome, but nothing really matters except fun, and you can't let the man keep you down, so do whatevs, because we're all gonna die anyway.
The film partially falls flat on her side of the black comedy. Her comedy in the film consists of stealing cars and messing with cops. It's all silly pranks that's she's playing in a nothin' to lose sort of way. She's trying to be so carefree that she has no rules, but in the process she's just pissing everybody off. Imagine Polly(from Along Came Polly) and Dharma (from Dharma & Greg) as an old lady on speed. Add in that's she may be a clepto and can't properly drive a car and you have Maude. It's this old lady that teaches shy little Harold how to live.
The film has garnered acclaim as one of the best romance comedies ever, but I have to grossly disagree. It's funny and dark that a 19 year and a 79 year old start a relationship, and it's nice that they can help each other, but for reals....a true romance garnering praise? Not in any way. Their romance is dark and icky. It serves only to further the juxtaposition of Harold's outlook on life. The film hints at her being a concentration camp survivor, which sheds light on her behavior. As Harold has only encountered death in a visually casual and ambiguous way(because TV is not an actual experience), she has been put through the bowels of death and come out on the other side physically and emotionally scarred. Death is an actual occurrence, and when it happens over and over the consequences resound. It is life that can be repeated and enjoyed, day after day. This is what she teaches Harold. And it's because she knows death so well, that it is a real thing, that she accepts it, and as well, pushes Harold to live it, when she says after he says he loves her, "That's wonderful. Go and love some more."
So what is Maude trying to tell Harold and his generation; Death will come, but in the meantime...
But with all tha
t, Harold and Maude really isn't a complete black comedy. I think for a comedy to really be a dark comedy it needs a heavy dose of Schadenfreude. That's right, a good helping of old fashioned German humor. The Nazi's employed it in the 30's. But no one was laughing but the Nazi's, and since no one was laughing, they decided to declare war, out of spite.
Schadenfreude shows up in virtually every comedy. Something bad happens to someone in just about every comedy, and it's set up for a dark laugh. But usually, it's covered with some nice and neat resolution so you don't walk out of the theater upset with yourself. Duck Soup, Blazing Saddles, Annie Hall, Airplane, The Producers, Bringing Up Baby, The Odd Couple, all films at the top of AFI's Top 1o0 Comedies, each and every one despite not being a black comedy has some form of schadenfreude, where laughs are generated by the misfortune of the lead or someone the lead is messing with. (I'm looking your way Duck Soup.) What separates these films from dark comedy is the absence of punch lines and gags. Dark comedies rarely have these, or if they do, they center around something macabre. Like a kid pretending to kill himself to scare his mom.
The kings of this form of comedy have to be the Coen brothers. Their dark comedies are so dry and lacking of gags, they're like the Amish wandering in the desert.
Their most recent film A Serious Man employs this technique in it's whole structure. It's one long schadenfreude festival set to the theme of the biblical Job. It follows a Jewish father/husband, Larry, living in the mid-60's in middle America. Slowly his life falls completely apart. His wife wants to leave him, his son is smoking marijuana, his brother is a giant mess, and to top it all off a student of his is blackmailing him. Actually, to top it off his wife wants to remarry a family friend, Sy Ableman, and she kicks him out of the house.
What makes this such a wonderful comedy is that for everything bad that's happening, the Coens style lends you to laugh. The pitiful brother is my favorite part. I laughed every time he said from the bathroom, "Just a minute." No matter what happens to him, Larry keeps his head up. He just keeps getting stepped on and pushed aside. He's a schmuck and no one respects him, but he keeps on going. And for every "big problem," there are so many trivial things that he has to deal with that making any headway into his real problems is impossible. He has to go home to fix the antenna, he's got to help his brother, etc., etc.
I'm not doing the film any justice, but it's because there are so many things to discuss. There's also the Jewish cultural aspect. He visits 3 rabbis who offer no help to his problems. And then there's Sy Ableman, the real "Serious Man," to be compared to constantly. This aspect is actually the saddest because his faith is supposed to help him, but Larry finds no comfort or help from anyone in his faith. The first rabbi gives him trivial advice, the second gives me advice without any meaning, and the third won't even meet with him. He's blocked at every turn. It's as if even Hashim himself is against him.
He gets through it all, but as is the case with most dark comedies, whatever resolution comes is trumped by a bigger tragedy. A sad ending. Even though he gets through it, at the end of the movie he gets a fortuitous call from his doctor.
The film closes, though, on his son, who was having small problems of his own. He settles them, but the last shot of the film is of a looming tornado about to hit the school. It's not until the credits roll and you understand that that was the ending for it to make sense.
The film opens to an old Jewish folk tale being told relating to a curse. It alludes that maybe the couple in the tale are Larry's ancestors who brought a curse to the family. If so, that curse has followed down to Larry, and now the curse has been put onto his son, as minor problems solved a bigger one looms ahead.
The 12 Best Dark Comedies and their endings (From what I've seen)
12. Little Shop of Horrors (the plants could take over the world!)
11. Barton Fink (ambiguity is the darkest ending, is he in hell?)
10. A Serious Man (his son takes up the curse)
9. Adaptation (his brother dies, other people die, and he benefits)
8. Harold and Maude (Maude dies and Harold commits one last fake suicide)
7. Delicatessen (actually a happy ending, but people still get eaten thru it)
6. Disney's Ichabod Crane (Ichabod vanishes)
5. Sunset Blvd. (kind of a noir, but darkly comedic, he dies)
4. Election (Tracy Flick wins!!!!!)
3. Fargo (a lot of people die, for "just a little bit of money")
2. King of Comedy (he becomes famous)
1. Dr Strangelove (the whole world blows up)
Notable exceptions from what I haven't seen:
American Psycho, MASH, Death to Smochy, Heathers, Evil Dead 2, Very Bad Things, Sweeney Todd, Ghost World, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Network
Which leads into the other half of the film; Maude. If Harold looks at death in a fun way, Maude looks at life in a frivolously dark way. She lives life everyday as if it's her last, which it very well could be since she's almost 80. But she does it in such a flippant, nuts to you, suck my balls, kiss my grits, up yours world kind of way. She cherishes everything and nothing at the same time. When Harold gives her a gift, she says it's the best gift she's gotten in a long time, then throws it in the lake. And that's her MO, life is so precious and awesome, but nothing really matters except fun, and you can't let the man keep you down, so do whatevs, because we're all gonna die anyway.
The film partially falls flat on her side of the black comedy. Her comedy in the film consists of stealing cars and messing with cops. It's all silly pranks that's she's playing in a nothin' to lose sort of way. She's trying to be so carefree that she has no rules, but in the process she's just pissing everybody off. Imagine Polly(from Along Came Polly) and Dharma (from Dharma & Greg) as an old lady on speed. Add in that's she may be a clepto and can't properly drive a car and you have Maude. It's this old lady that teaches shy little Harold how to live.
The film has garnered acclaim as one of the best romance comedies ever, but I have to grossly disagree. It's funny and dark that a 19 year and a 79 year old start a relationship, and it's nice that they can help each other, but for reals....a true romance garnering praise? Not in any way. Their romance is dark and icky. It serves only to further the juxtaposition of Harold's outlook on life. The film hints at her being a concentration camp survivor, which sheds light on her behavior. As Harold has only encountered death in a visually casual and ambiguous way(because TV is not an actual experience), she has been put through the bowels of death and come out on the other side physically and emotionally scarred. Death is an actual occurrence, and when it happens over and over the consequences resound. It is life that can be repeated and enjoyed, day after day. This is what she teaches Harold. And it's because she knows death so well, that it is a real thing, that she accepts it, and as well, pushes Harold to live it, when she says after he says he loves her, "That's wonderful. Go and love some more."
So what is Maude trying to tell Harold and his generation; Death will come, but in the meantime...
But with all tha
t, Harold and Maude really isn't a complete black comedy. I think for a comedy to really be a dark comedy it needs a heavy dose of Schadenfreude. That's right, a good helping of old fashioned German humor. The Nazi's employed it in the 30's. But no one was laughing but the Nazi's, and since no one was laughing, they decided to declare war, out of spite.Schadenfreude shows up in virtually every comedy. Something bad happens to someone in just about every comedy, and it's set up for a dark laugh. But usually, it's covered with some nice and neat resolution so you don't walk out of the theater upset with yourself. Duck Soup, Blazing Saddles, Annie Hall, Airplane, The Producers, Bringing Up Baby, The Odd Couple, all films at the top of AFI's Top 1o0 Comedies, each and every one despite not being a black comedy has some form of schadenfreude, where laughs are generated by the misfortune of the lead or someone the lead is messing with. (I'm looking your way Duck Soup.) What separates these films from dark comedy is the absence of punch lines and gags. Dark comedies rarely have these, or if they do, they center around something macabre. Like a kid pretending to kill himself to scare his mom.
The kings of this form of comedy have to be the Coen brothers. Their dark comedies are so dry and lacking of gags, they're like the Amish wandering in the desert.
Their most recent film A Serious Man employs this technique in it's whole structure. It's one long schadenfreude festival set to the theme of the biblical Job. It follows a Jewish father/husband, Larry, living in the mid-60's in middle America. Slowly his life falls completely apart. His wife wants to leave him, his son is smoking marijuana, his brother is a giant mess, and to top it all off a student of his is blackmailing him. Actually, to top it off his wife wants to remarry a family friend, Sy Ableman, and she kicks him out of the house.
What makes this such a wonderful comedy is that for everything bad that's happening, the Coens style lends you to laugh. The pitiful brother is my favorite part. I laughed every time he said from the bathroom, "Just a minute." No matter what happens to him, Larry keeps his head up. He just keeps getting stepped on and pushed aside. He's a schmuck and no one respects him, but he keeps on going. And for every "big problem," there are so many trivial things that he has to deal with that making any headway into his real problems is impossible. He has to go home to fix the antenna, he's got to help his brother, etc., etc.
I'm not doing the film any justice, but it's because there are so many things to discuss. There's also the Jewish cultural aspect. He visits 3 rabbis who offer no help to his problems. And then there's Sy Ableman, the real "Serious Man," to be compared to constantly. This aspect is actually the saddest because his faith is supposed to help him, but Larry finds no comfort or help from anyone in his faith. The first rabbi gives him trivial advice, the second gives me advice without any meaning, and the third won't even meet with him. He's blocked at every turn. It's as if even Hashim himself is against him.
He gets through it all, but as is the case with most dark comedies, whatever resolution comes is trumped by a bigger tragedy. A sad ending. Even though he gets through it, at the end of the movie he gets a fortuitous call from his doctor.
The film closes, though, on his son, who was having small problems of his own. He settles them, but the last shot of the film is of a looming tornado about to hit the school. It's not until the credits roll and you understand that that was the ending for it to make sense.
The film opens to an old Jewish folk tale being told relating to a curse. It alludes that maybe the couple in the tale are Larry's ancestors who brought a curse to the family. If so, that curse has followed down to Larry, and now the curse has been put onto his son, as minor problems solved a bigger one looms ahead.
The 12 Best Dark Comedies and their endings (From what I've seen)
12. Little Shop of Horrors (the plants could take over the world!)
11. Barton Fink (ambiguity is the darkest ending, is he in hell?)
10. A Serious Man (his son takes up the curse)
9. Adaptation (his brother dies, other people die, and he benefits)
8. Harold and Maude (Maude dies and Harold commits one last fake suicide)
7. Delicatessen (actually a happy ending, but people still get eaten thru it)
6. Disney's Ichabod Crane (Ichabod vanishes)
5. Sunset Blvd. (kind of a noir, but darkly comedic, he dies)
4. Election (Tracy Flick wins!!!!!)
3. Fargo (a lot of people die, for "just a little bit of money")
2. King of Comedy (he becomes famous)
1. Dr Strangelove (the whole world blows up)
Notable exceptions from what I haven't seen:
American Psycho, MASH, Death to Smochy, Heathers, Evil Dead 2, Very Bad Things, Sweeney Todd, Ghost World, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Network
Just a minute...
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