Versus The Producers
10 May
Movies are interesting. They provide us with an escape from reality in a nicely wound little story, if you’re lucky. What’s almost more fascinating than the stories that they choose to tell is how they tell it. Watching a 2005 movie right after a 1968 classic was fascinating in that aspect. So, tonight we pit The Producers against The Producers!
The Movie Night
The Old Cover
The movie night itself was an impromptu dinner and flick session. I think the hilarious part of the entire situation was our concepts of what we were about to watch. David didn’t realize that my version was a musical. I didn’t realize that his version was a regular movie. No musical need apply.
We were both coming from very different perspectives. We had a movie we loved and wanted to share it with the other, but didn’t bother to check expectations or differences in the movies before hand.
The Old Film Style
Scheme... What Scheme?
Films older than the early 80s show their age in peculiar ways. The actual film technology doesn’t seem to be that different, at least not to the eye. It’s the techniques that really show through.
For starters, the camera doesn’t move as much. In many cases, it’s stationary. You certainly don’t get the dramatic zooms when there’s tension. If the camera does move, it seems obvious. People talk only to the camera in most cases. Their lips aren’t obscured or faces masked. They’re quite clearly facing the camera. I can’t tell whether this is a throwback to stage plays or simply the style at the time.
The pacing is also much slower. There’s generally less action, more sets, more minor characters who you know odd details about, and more smoking. Smoking and drinking are prolific in anything pre-80s, it seems. It’s less common, depending on the rating of the film, but it’s less common in general.
The acting itself is very different, too. Things are understated quite frequently, though I’m not sure the best side-by-side comparison is a film and a musical. The interactions are what really get me. Beyond the slow pacing, beyond the dated sets, you’re dealing with an odd dynamic between the actors. They don’t seem to quite get into it in the same way actors nowadays do. Lines that interrupt another actor are the most obvious example of this. The lines don’t seem to be true interruptions. The actor who is interrupted politely stops at the appropriate point. It’s strange.
The New Musical
Your Scheme!
Musicals seem to have changed over the years. If you look at Singing in the Rain and compare it with the Moulin Rouge, you’re going to get very, very different experiences. It’s not so stark a contrast as old horror films to new horror films, but the disparity is there.
The musical numbers themselves are huge. The characters are overacted, which leads to some wonderful scenes. The choreography is painstakingly planned. The sets are frequently ridiculous. All of these things boil down to what we seem to have dubbed the ‘new musical’. Films in this category include the already mentioned Moulin Rogue, Across the Universe, and naturally The Producers.
The character interaction between Leo and Max really just does it for me in this movie. The whole thing was well cast (if you ask me). David mentioned some issue with Matthew Broderick’s acting. He said that he appeared to flip back and forth between super neurotic and just himself. I don’t see it, but I can see how he would see it.
Beyond that, the songs are wonderful. I think it managed to keep a Broadway feel to the whole movie, though I’m not exactly the best judge of what constitutes a Broadway play.
The Verdict
The Girl is New(ish)
David walked away still loving the old one but enjoying the new. I walked away still loving the new one but having enjoyed the old. Neither of our minds were changed as far as which was ‘best’, but we did find something interesting in the one the other presented.
Old films will be forever loved by those who saw them growing up. Newer films will find themselves in that selfsame category if given a few decades. The best part is being able to enjoy them both.
Watching you two on Twitter about this made me feel old and young
Not knowing that the Producers was a movie first stunned me for a moment.
Both movies hold up rather well on their own, though I found that the movie-musical dragged on a little in different places. What impressed me the most was how Mel Brooks, who directs both movies, updated his OWN style to the 90s/2000s! This is the same author/director, but the movies are entirely different. Not to mention different from the musical stage production itself.
Both are good for different reasons, if only being one the few movies in which I don’t want to knife Will Ferrel.
I generally prefer to stab Will Farrel, too. I actually didn’t hate him in this, and that was a huge point, too.
They did drag in different places, which was strange. Where they hung was interesting, though the old one was more obvious to me than the new one. I’ve seen the new one too frequently.
Now, that is interesting about him updating his own style. I hadn’t thought of it like that. That almost makes me want to find more films of that nature… a re-envisioning of what one had created in their youth.
This is a very interesting post.
I often think about the differences between contemporary directors and older ones. It seems that film direction (or maybe its cinematography?) has become more sophisticated. But then there are examples like Stanley Kubrick where it seems very modern.
Thanks.
You’re always going to find people who are way before their time. Every genre seems to have different evolutionary periods it goes through. It’s quite fun to watch.
Kubrick is strange.
That was a fun comparison, very analytical. I think it’s particularly funny that you mentioned the faux “interruptions” which are so common in stage acting (and, well, bad acting haha). I know that both versions were initially stage productions, but I assume Lane & Broderick had more “serious” direction than was likely given to Mostel & Wilder by Brooks himself, whose works have always had a fun “facade” feel to them. For my part, give me the old one any day
Oh, and if you like this sort of schlock, don’t miss To Be Or Not To Be, another great Mel Brooks classic.
Thanks!
They are really common. Sometimes the overacting and politeness of what I can only describe as “waiting for the interruption” is quite hilarious. Most of the time, it sort of acts like a record skip for me. I’m still loving the experience as a whole but I’m not as locked into it as I was before that little blip.
I wonder what Mel Brooks would have done if he had directed this one, as well. The writing gives us interesting insights, but to be the director the second time around, too? That would have been epic.
I’ll give that a poke, down the line. I’m not sure if I’ve heard of “To Be Or Not To Be”.
Just remember, this whole deal has been a Mel Brooks thing from the get go. But alot of what went into the newer version was because of what happened in the original movie. I don’t know if you saw the Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes where Larry David played in the Musical. That too is very funny, and Mel Brooks stared in that as well (with his late wife)…
And that brings us to another great movie you should consider for your list… “The Graduate” Starring Dustin Hoffman.
Well written VS review. Loved it! Keep up your awesomeness!!!
-Judd