Sullivan's Travels

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Sullivan's Travels!

Original image located here. Accessed 27th August 2021

I will admit I have watched a lot of classic (as in pre-New Hollywood/1968) movies in recent months. But this is because that a lot of movies made recently are very much dour and socially conscious - one only needs to take a glance at the last lot of Academy Award nominees for Best Picture to see what i mean. Therefore, it should come to no surprise that i would come across this: A 1941 movie telling the story >of a filmmaker who wants to eschew making comedies in favor of making a socially conscious movie.

The march of time should be against this movie but it isn't. It is still funny, with witty dialogue, crazy situations and providing a solid case that slapstick can still work in 2021. Also impressive is how this movie switches gears and tackles a variety of movie genres throughout.
However it is of particular fascination that we have a character that wants to be serious but has to contend with a world that is working against him - I have seen this done many times before but here it works a treat.
I've never been sold on the narrative of: 'protagonist tries something new, only to fail and go back to old life' (and that's putting it lightly) but here it works. So it's a funny thing: A movie that came out eighty years ago, and has no doubt been replicated many times since, still has some bite that put's it progeny to shame. How about that....