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Someone's put together an extremely rough 30-minute long edit of the infamous, mysterious Jerry Lewis Holocaust comedy, including the ending. I think it looks... not terrible? I mean, if it's supposed to be a straight comedy then it's horrible because it's dark and serious and depressing, but it looks to me like it had more Oscar bait-y ambitions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zy-VQLL9I
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# ? Jun 17, 2016 19:57 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 00:10 |
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I will say this, from skimming through it that the lighting in a lot of the interior scenes is very good.
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# ? Jun 17, 2016 23:41 |
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I watched it as soon as I learned it was posted. 30 minute isn't enough to know the tone of the full movie, especially since most of the scenes shown are at the concentration camps.I feel that it's not actually that bad of an idea for a movie, and from a technical/acting standpoint, it's fairly well done. If it's supposed to be a comedy, then yeah, the tone is all wrong, but it works well as a drama.
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 03:31 |
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I can't imagine it was actually meant to be a comedy, unless we're just not seeing any of the scenes that were supposed to be comedic. This feels more like a film Bob Fosse would've made, especially in the original version where the main character is a total lout. I'd actually kind of like to see that.
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 16:44 |
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Magic Hate Ball posted:I can't imagine it was actually meant to be a comedy, unless we're just not seeing any of the scenes that were supposed to be comedic. It absolutely was. If Patton Oswalt ever starts doing readings of the Jerry Lewis version of the script again, go see it. The stuff in the YouTube edit is nowhere near the worst the script has on offer.
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 18:22 |
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precision posted:It absolutely was. If Patton Oswalt ever starts doing readings of the Jerry Lewis version of the script again, go see it. The stuff in the YouTube edit is nowhere near the worst the script has on offer. Haha, that's incredible, all the clips look like such a dour Oscarbait 70s drama.
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 18:36 |
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Interesting, apparently Jerry Lewis donated the film to the Library of Congress under the condition that it not be screened until 2025.
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 18:51 |
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Helmut Doork
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# ? Jun 19, 2016 18:56 |
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precision posted:It absolutely was. If Patton Oswalt ever starts doing readings of the Jerry Lewis version of the script again, go see it. The stuff in the YouTube edit is nowhere near the worst the script has on offer. Oh wow, I'd heard of this film in passing but I never realized it was supposed to be a comedy. I thought it was just like a really lovely version of Life is Beautiful.
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# ? Jun 20, 2016 13:12 |
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Mantis42 posted:Oh wow, I'd heard of this film in passing but I never realized it was supposed to be a comedy. I thought it was just like a really lovely version of Life is Beautiful. If it's meant to be a comedy, then the comedic bits are intended to be at the nazi's expense. From what I've seen there's nothing particularly offensive beyond "aging comedian makes a serious schlock movie about the holocaust with a clown". The basic premise is that a washed-up clown gets sent to the camps after drunkenly deriding the regime and Hitler, gets goaded into cheering up the kids, and is eventually forced to choose between dying or making the kids enter the gas chambers civilly; he does, but feels guilt and decides to enter with them. As a sidenote, it's a nice detail that Helmut has the pink triangle symbol; most modern holocausploitation schlock would just make him jewish or not even bother. Just gonna repeat what I said in the GBS thread: quote:yeah, a jewish comedian made a serious drama about the holocaust from an entertainer's perspective that wasn't very good, so what
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# ? Jun 20, 2016 14:22 |
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precision posted:If Patton Oswalt ever starts doing readings of the Jerry Lewis version of the script again, go see it. I think he's been legally threatened and "cease & desisted-ed" to death about that.
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# ? Jun 20, 2016 15:01 |
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InfiniteZero posted:I think he's been legally threatened and "cease & desisted-ed" to death about that. The only legal threat came ages ago from a Hollywood exec who had optioned the film with Chevy Chase attached; in his second book he tells the story, relating that Bob Odenkirk ad-libbed the line "CHEVY CHASE WAS BORN TO PLAY A CLOWN THAT LEADS CHILDREN INTO A GAS CHAMBER!"
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# ? Jun 20, 2016 16:54 |
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Neurolimal posted:If it's meant to be a comedy, then the comedic bits are intended to be at the nazi's expense. From what I've seen there's nothing particularly offensive beyond "aging comedian makes a serious schlock movie about the holocaust with a clown". I don't think it was supposed to be a comedy. There's a copy of the script online that I read once, and it's like 'washed up clown finds audience/purpose again, decides he can't abandon 'his' kids at the very end'. From the script it wasn't *that* bad of a story. Though I think originally, Lewis was mucking around with demanding script rewrites, Helmut was originally supposed to be a washed-up bitter rear end in a top hat with delusions of his past 'grandeur', instead Lewis demanded he be turned into a more sympathetic character. So instead of 'bad man finds redemption' it's more like 'semi-flawed man skill an okay guy'.
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# ? Jun 22, 2016 15:28 |
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To be fair, the latter makes the "twist" at the end more impactful; a horrible person being miserable for most of the story sets a tone that makes it clear that it's a grim film, while a good guy that insults badman and gets sent to camps where he cheers kids up lends itself to making the gas chamber ultimatum far more shocking. Possibly too shocking, considering the fate of the film.
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# ? Jun 22, 2016 19:23 |
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I think the moment you introduce Nazis and the Holocaust your film has to be grim by definition. Or tasteless, I guess.
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# ? Jun 23, 2016 14:14 |
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Mantis42 posted:I think the moment you introduce Nazis and the Holocaust your film has to be grim by definition. Or tasteless, I guess. I mean, you can also go for bittersweet; it'd be fairly easy to take the story of The Day the Clown Cried in a Schindler's List direction at the end and have him escape from the camp with the kids instead of them all going to the gas chamber, if possibly slightly unbelievable.
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# ? Jun 24, 2016 20:27 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 00:10 |
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This thread reminded me that Jakob the Liar was a thing.
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# ? Jun 30, 2016 12:50 |