Explosively Funny

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2011)

i really don't know what to say about war movies much. mostly i hate war, mostly. but i'm fascinated by it because i'm fascinated by history and war is often a important part of history. but i'm against war, and i'm not even sure our so called "good" wars, aren't just a bunch of gut reactions by a whole lot of insane and stupid people driven mad with power.
i always thought this movie was pretty funny. much of it is overdone in to overkill, and it eventually doesn't warrant the expense and hullabaloo of it's humungo budget because of it's persistently low brow humour and irreverent silliness. but i have to admit it's pretty damn funny and it actually seems funnier now than it did some thirty something years ago. like the John Landis comedy spectacle, 'The Blues Bros. Movie', they just don't make em quite like this anymore. especially when they totaled a real house in Pacific Pallisades at the end.
i suppose it also helps to like dumb humour on a 'Three Stooges Level'. there is lots of wacko antics here and a basic conviction that basically all people are hopeless idiots and pretty much deserve to be "hoisted by their own petards".
strangely even though this movie doesn't seem to be big on much commentary except that war is funny. a dubious observation if any. but it does have somewhat of a anti-war statement. hey it even features a hilarious Slim Pickens from 'The Dr. Strangelove' comedy. it also makes a good statement that comes from Dan Ackroyd when he states that "it sickens me to see Americans fighting other Americans" when he observes a pointless "zoot suit" riot.
much of the humour is done for goofy laughs mostly. like a the volunteer citizen on top of a ferris wheel doing night watch with a obnoxious, idiot kid with a ventriloquist dummy. or like the housewife who knocks on the window of her kitchen as her nit wit, half blind husband almost shoots a missle launcher at the house.
a lot of the humour can also be kind of scary and unsympathetic with people. i doubt it's strange detachment to war comes from it's screen writer John Milius, who was known for extreme jingoistic right wing values as in his screenplay for 'Red Dawn'. but this film seems strangely hostile to it's protagonist and their feverent patriotism. at times it almost seems too hate them in a scathing way as it sneers at their folly and lunacy. this movie even makes funny light of a rape attempt on the teenage girl by Treat Williams Army officer. it also seems to think old, fashioned southern racism is funny. which it kind of is.
for me personally, the high point of the film was when Gen. Stillwell, who was a real person, ignores the outside events as he sits in a movie theatre happily watching Disney's 'Dumbo', which was released a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 41.
this film does make a staement "about Americans fighting other Americans" that seems even more profound and relevant in these hopelessly partisan times.
mostly played for goofy guffaws, this is a pretty funny film comedy with lots to recommend it it terms of American history and a certain amount of war statement. at least i thought it was pretty funny.