Customer Reviews

Silent Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's not as cohesive or funny as YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or THE PRODUCERS, but SILENT MOVIE has plenty to offer. A wild romp that parodies the film business and the all but lost art of creating silent films, SILENT MOVIE stars Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, and Dom Deluise as a trio of film makers who vow to save their studio by making a new silent film with major stars. Many conventions of silent films are spoofed, such as how the right title card can alter the meaning of a scene (the title of this review is from one such card). Several stars (such as Burt Reynolds and Paul Newman) seem to enjoy parodying themselves, and Anne Bancroft's tango with our heroes is a standout. Harold Gould is the epitome of blackhearted villany and Sid Ceaser contributes some of his trademark pantomime as the neurotic studio chief. Best of all is Marty Feldman; with his wirey body, elastic face, and, of course, those eyes, Feldman looks as if he stepped out of 1920's of Mack Sennett into the 1970's of Mel Brooks. He steals many a scene (subtly or otherwise) in SILENT MOVIE.

Silent Movie represents Mel Brooks' successful attempt to lampoon the greed of Hollywood with a comic tribute to the era of silent films when the actors merely had to work on their "faces." Silent Movie runs along at a brisk 87 minutes and the action simply never stops. The plot holds your attention and the color remains quite good after all these years.

Mel Brooks plays Mel Funn, a has-been movie director whose career was ruined by drinking. However, he gets an idea that could breathe new life into his career--he wants to make a silent movie. Mel Funn, together with his buddies Marty Feldman playing Marty Eggs and Dom DeLuise as Dom Bell, must seek out a Hollywood studio that will buy into his idea of a silent movie. The threesome goes to see the chief of Big Picture Studios, played so ably by Sid Caesar. Big Picture Studios is in such trouble that they are a sitting duck for a hostile takeover from the huge conglomerate Engulf and Devour. The studio chief finally decides to let them make the picture at Big Picture Studios after Funn, Eggs and Bell promise him that big name stars will appear in the movie. The studio chief hopes that the star quality of the film will compensate for it being a silent movie; that would make badly needed profits so Big Picture Studios can remain in business as an independent studio and reject hostile takeover bids from Engulf and Devour. Thus the studio chief gives the green light to Funn, Eggs and Bell to cast and direct the silent movie.

This is a Mel Brooks picture, so needless to say there is much slapstick and parodies galore. At one point when Mel Brooks is chasing after Paul Newman as they ride in wheelchairs at a hospital, the wheels clash and the sparks fly just as they did in a racing scene from the movie Ben-Hur. In another spoof about how big all the candy portions are at the movies, there's a scene in the movie theater in which Dom DeLuise eats a Hershey's candy bar as big as he is while a couple purchase popcorn in the "trash can" size as the employee uses a hose to pour gobs and gobs of melted butter onto the popcorn. I'd tell you more but I don't want to ruin it for you. Trust me; it's funny.

Of course, Engulf and Devour are hungry for profits and their greed leads them to want Big Picture Studios at any price, even if it isn't too profitable. Will Funn, Eggs and Bell be able to complete their movie, get their stars into their picture and save Big Picture Studios from ruination or, worse yet, the menacing conglomerate Engulf and Devour? Will Funn be able to handle the stress of it all without turning back to liquor again to ease his pain? And what about the beautiful young lady Engulf and Devour hire to ruin Funn's chances of making his movie so that they can take over Big Picture Studios once and for all? No spoilers here, folks; you'll have to watch the movie to find out!

The cameos by big name stars are delightfully funny and interesting. Funn, Eggs and Bell go after great stars including Liza Minnelli, James Caan, Paul Newman, Anne Bancroft and Burt Reynolds.

People write that this is not Mel Brooks' best movie and maybe they are right. One thing, though--it holds your attention and the gags ARE funny even if many of them do involve slapstick. It's great to see Sid Caesar again and the acting by everyone is very good.

I recommend this film for fans of Mel Brooks; and people who want a light hearted enjoyable comedy will appreciate this movie. The DVD doesn't come with a lot of extras but Silent Movie stands on its own two feet rather well.

I have always LOVED this film. Saw it several times in the theater when I was a kid.

The screen with Paul Newman in the wheelchair chase is as funny today as when the film was first released.

I was so glad when I heard this DVD was coming out & I could finally have the film at home wide screen.

But, but, I am SO DISAPPOINTED.

There are no extras. None, zip, zero. Nothing. What a let down!!

And, I hate when DVD packages come out like this. No page with the DVD chapter search.

It is a shame this was the care given to this package of this film.

So glad to have it wide screen finally, but what a let down of no extras or the chapter page.

I'm a huge fan of Mel Brooks and his hysterically funny comedy movies and Silent Movie is my favorite and while it's nice that it's on DVD why is it only available in the European region 2 PAL format? I need a region 1 DVD format and I don't have a region free DVD player so please someone release a region 1 DVD for Canada and USA.

I'm also one of many who want to own the hilarious comedy Silent Movie on a region 1 Widescreen DVD! This is classic Mel Brooks and I can't believe it isn't on DVD! This movie is so underappreciated and underrated and I'm hoping they will give it the respect it deserves and put it out on a DVD! This movie is hilarious and my favorite Mel Brooks movie!

One of the funniest movies I have ever seen; the cafeteria scene had me rolling on the deck. I liked it so well I've been trying to buy it for the past year and now that I've found it, will do so. Forget about the real world, and enjoy the flick.

This is one of Mel Brooks' best movies and I give it five stars. I enjoyed it very much and the silent part made it even better. I hope many people buy this great film.

Young Frankenstein and The Producers killed me, but some of the laughs in this one are the biggest I've ever experienced watching a Mel Brooks movie. Right up there along with the Black Knight sequence from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the mirror sequence from Duck Soup, I have to put the studio commissary sequence from this one--the three leads approach Liza Minnelli, hoping to persuade her to appear in their silent movie. Trouble is, they sneaked in by donning suits of armor. I saw it again recently for the first time in many years, and I still got a cramp from laughing.

...DeLuise are tooling through Los Angeles in a tiny sports car. They pass a pregnant lady at a bus stop. "That's a very pregnant lady!" Brooks says (on a title card, of course, since this is a silent movie). "Let's give her a lift!" The lady gets into the back of the car, which tilts back onto its rear wheels. Mel drives off with the front wheels in the air.

This is far from being the funniest scene in a very funny movie, but it helps to illustrate my point, which is that Mel Brooks will do anything for a laugh. Anything. He has no shame. He's an anarchist; his movies inhabit a universe in which everything is possible and the outrageous is probable, and Silent Movie, where Brooks has taken a considerably stylistic risk and pulled it off triumphantly, made me laugh a lot. On the Brooks-Laff-O-Meter, I laughed more than in "Young Frankenstein" and about as much as in "Blazing Saddles," although not, I confess, as much as in "The Producers."

"Silent Movie" is not only funny, it's fun. It's clear at almost every moment that the filmmakers had a ball making it. It's set in contemporary Hollywood, where Big Pictures Studio ("If it's a big picture, we've made it") teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and a takeover from the giant Engulf and Devour conglomerate. Enter Mel Funn (Brooks), a once-talented director whose career was cut short by drunkenness, who vows to save the studio by convincing Hollywood's biggest stars to make a silent movie. This is a situation that gives rise to a lot of inside jokes (I wonder whether executives at Gulf and Western, which took over Paramount, will notice any parallels), but the thing about Brooks's inside jokes is that their outsides are funny, too.

The intrepid gang of Mel, Dom, and Marty set out to woo the superstars, materializing in the shower of one (who counts his hands, puzzled, and finds he has eight) and plucking another out of a nightclub audience. (There are several "actual" stars in the movie, but it would be spoiling the fun to name them.) Everything's done amid an encyclopedia of sight gags, old and new, borrowed and with a fly in their soup. There are gags that don't work and stretches of up to a minute, I suppose, when we don't laugh -- but even then we're smiling because of Brooks's manic desire to entertain. There's a story about the days, years ago, when Brooks was a writer for Sid Caesar and Caesar would march into the writers' office, pick up their desks, brandish them and shout "funnier!" I think the lesson rubbed off.

In a movie filled with great scenes, these moments are classics: The battle with the Coke machine. The behavior with the horse on the merry-go-round. The nightclub scene. The dramatic reaction of Engulf and Devour's board of directors to the photo of sexpot Vilma Kaplan. The fly in the soup. The Pong game in the intensive-care unit. The ... but space is limited: Perhaps I should mention, though,that the movie isn't really silent. It's filled with wall-to-wall music, sound effects, explosions, whistles, and crashes and, yes, one word.

Silent Movie is probably Mel Brooks's least appreciated films. A true gem that relies entirely on sight gags, but mention must be made about the soundtrack that is truly integral to the movie's comedic success.