it's good to be the king

Ladies and gentlemen....may i present...

the VERY funny (and underrated)

H I S T O R Y  O F  T H E  W O R L D 

 
a film by Mel Brooks

 

"it's good to be da king..."

I first discovered this little GEM of a flick way back in circa 1996. My BFF Alicia and I were total geeks back then (we're totally cool now...ok maybe not!), and would gorge ourselves on Schwanz ice cream and watch this movie over and over again. For the sad, bleak lot of you who don't know what this film is all about, allow me to explain:

Mel Brooks (who in my humble opinion is one of the most talented and original actors in Hollywood) directed and starred in this movie. It's a parody/documentary of some various important milestones of the human existence, including (but not limited to):

*The French Revolution

 

"you don't PUT out....he don't GET out!"

* the 10 Commandments (originally 15 but he drops one of the tablets. VERY funny scene)

"The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen-- Oy! Ten! Ten commandments for all to obey..."

*  The Spanish Inquisition (which Brooks transformed into a musical)

 

aaaand (also maybe my most favorite part of the flick...)

*the Roman Empire

 

I think the sheer genius of Brook's comedy is that he isn't afraid to be bold. There are many eyebrow-raising scenes throughout the film (for example, Gregory Hines, who plays a slave, deters a persuing group of guards with a giant joint of marijuana that he rolled after coming across a field of the drug), yet (questionable or not) they're innocent enough to still manage to get a good belly laugh out of the audience. I've read a few online articles about this movie, and it kills me that there are such stuffy critics out there. This is in a genre of it's own....there's no way you can characterize it as a "dumb comedy". For one, as a teenager I didn't even understand most of the humor until I was in my late teens/early 20's. For two, it's fricken MEL BROOKS!!  

today's society needs to purge itself of such films like "Dude, Where's My Car" and "Napolean Dynamite" and get back to the classics.  


 

to put it bluntly, add this movie to the top of your queue on Netflix. ASAP.

XOXOXO