We aren’t used to laughing at our political movies. And who would blame us? With the police state we live in and the Great Depression of 2009 looming over our heads, the cost of buying a permit to laugh is getting more and more expensive. So it’s easy to see why most movies involving politicians are dramas or, of course, horror films.
In fact, most politically charged movies don’t focus on politicians themselves. They focus on broad topics like crumbling diplomatic relations, zombie invasions or crumbling diplomatic relations with zombies.
So, in honor of Charlie Wilson’s War coming out on DVD today, we’re celebrating the rare beast that is the successful political comedy and the essentials that make them work.
If you happen to be making a movie about politicians, here are a few things to remember:
1. Politicians Love Talking.
If Frank Capra’s brilliant Mr. Smith Goes to Washington teaches us anything, it’s that every major problem can be solved forever by talking for a long period of time. Classic everyman Jimmy Stewart provides a heart and soul for Jefferson Smith, and we get to laugh at his naive blunders in politicking right up until we realize he’s serious about fixing the system. And how does he propose to fix the world? By reading the Constitution to the Senate One-hundred and eighteen times, followed by his grandmother’s fried chicken recipe and the Magna Carta. This film is a classic because the jokes are still fresh. It appears as if we’re actually watching a non-politician when, in fact, Smith turns out to be the most verbose politico of them all, beating the establishment at its own narcissistic game.
2. Politicians are Egomaniacs.
Representative Charlie Wilson is delightfully unethical. In Charlie Wilson’s War, Tom Hanks provides this character with enough charm to be disarming, but you get the idea that after everyone else leaves a room, Wilson is probably still flirting with himself and pretending to be interviewed. His involvement with ending the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan is more about his own ego than saving countless lives. That’s why we love him. Because the only realistic way he would have gotten interested in Afghanistan is if it had been wearing a miniskirt and sported C-cups. He’s hilarious because he quips about not wanting to join the ethics committee since he’s against the issue, but likable because he seems, underneath it all, to still have some form of a human heart. Like most politicians, he stumbles into an important issue like a child wandering into an ammunitions bunker and somehow avoids being blown up. Of course, Charlie Wilson, like the best of them, mugs for the camera the entire time. Who wouldn’t vote for this guy?
3. Politicians are Fake.
As mentioned before, most political comedies don’t focus on politicians since politicians are not funny. They’re old, stuffy white oppressors who we allow to kiss our babies and give themselves raises. They aren’t fun to talk to because they always want to bring up the Stamp Act or Vietnam or some other depressingly unfunny thing from the past. Their hearts are also made of used mud. To sidestep this problem, the movie Dave focuses on a small town politician who happens to look and sound exactly like the current president. When the panderingly fake President is incapacitated by a heart attack, his cabinet calls on Kevin Kline’s Dave to be a fake, replacement President, and the fake-fake-President turns out to be very real. Dave is funny in the standard fish-out-of-water way, but the stakes are much higher because the water happens to be the White House. We also get an entire movie of what would happen if the President actually, deeply cared about his citizenry. Thus, by avoiding realism, this movie rises to the top as a successful comedy.
4. Politicians are Just Like You and Me.
In Dr. Strangelove or The Curse of the Incredibly Long Film Title, the politicians and war hawks are all fairly average people. It’s the situation that is unique. Placed around the table in the War Room (where there is no fighting), the men of state discuss the impending mutually assured destruction of the US and Russia with the calm detachment that you and I might use to debate where to have dinner tonight (correct answer: not Applebee’s). The incomparable Peter Sellers plays seventeen or eighteen characters as well as acted as gaffer and Best Boy for the film. Perhaps one of the funniest political comedies that focuses on politicians, Stanley Kubrick gives us situation after situation where insane human beings try to speak calmly and rationally about an issue that could mean the destruction of the entire planet. One imagines that any average idiot could be sitting in the decision-making chair, smoking a pipe and trying not to avoid a much-needed pie fight with his four star generals.
5. Politicians are Ballet-Dancing Hitlers
Even without including it in campaign pamphlets, we all know that every serious political candidate is a classically trained, professional dancer and Hitler look-a-like. And rightfully so. Who would want a stodgy creature with no rhythm representing their civic needs on the national scale? Despite the truism of Rule #1 on this list, the funniest moment in The Great Dictator comes when Charlie Chaplin silently dances his way into our hearts, playing with a giant balloon shaped like the planet. Certain spoil-sports will claim that it’s a metaphor for how dictator’s use the world as their play thing, but do not be fooled. The real message of this movie is that portraying politicians as they truly are behind their sound bytes and teleprompters - as brownshirt-wearing, Hitler-clones dancing daintily to choral music - is the only real key to comedic success.
If you’re one of the lucky few who are wealthy enough to afford a permit to laugh, these movies are the best examples out there. If you’re looking for inspiration for making your own political comedy, you’d do well to remember all of these rules, especially #5. We love seeing politicians fall from their ivory towers, bumble through incoherently, and fail us at the most important hour. Basically, the humor of politicians comes from proving that they’re human when, in fact, they are all robots. Or Hitler. Or Hitler-bots.
Politics is confusing.
译文:
拍政治类喜剧要记住5件事
我们在看政治喜剧时都不习惯开怀大笑。可谁会怪我们呢？生活在这样一个极权国家中，头上笼罩着2009年经济大萧条的阴影，想让自己大笑的成本也越来越昂贵。所以，显而易见，这就是为什么大多数有政治家露脸的电影都是戏剧的原因了。当然，或者还有恐怖片。
实际上大部分政治类影片都不是单单着眼于政治家自身。他们把重点放在了更广的话题上，比如摇摇欲坠的外交关系，僵尸入侵，或是用僵尸使外交关系岌岌可危。
因此，为了纪念DVD版《查理的战争》在今天上市，我们正在庆祝这杰出的野兽——这部成功的政治喜剧，以及让他们工作的要素。
如果你正巧在拍一部政治家的戏，这里有些事情你要记住：
1. 政治家喜欢谈话。
如果弗兰克•卡普拉那部有才气的作品《史密斯先生到华盛顿》教了我们些什么，那就是每个主要的问题都永远可以通过长期的谈话来解决。一流的普通人吉米•斯图尔特为杰弗逊•史密斯提供了一颗心和他的灵魂，然后我们开始嘲笑他在政治活动中的天真失误，知道我们意识到他是很严肃地在修复这个系统。他是怎么打算修复世界的？通过阅读参议院宪法118遍，以及他祖母的炸鸡处方和大宪章。这部影片是一部经典，因为里面的笑话至今仍新鲜。似乎我们就是在看一部没有政治家的电影，但事实上，史密斯正是他们中最标准的政客，抨击着这个自恋的游戏的形成。
2. 政治家是极端利己主义者。
有代表性的查理•威尔森欣然成为没有职业道德的人。在《查理的战争》一片中，汤姆•汉克斯为这个角色提供了足够的吸引力使之变得不让人防备，但是你得到的信息是当所有人都离开了房间后，威尔森可能还在自我摇摆，假装在被采访。他想停止在阿富汗的苏联冲突与其说是拯救无数的生命，倒不如说是为了他自己。那就是为什么我们喜欢他。因为他对阿富汗感兴趣的唯一现实的方式就是她是否穿了迷你短裙和运动的C罩杯。他欢闹是因为他由于反对这个问题而讽刺不想加入道德规范委员会，但是他依然可爱，因为在这一切之下，他似乎仍然有人心。象大多数政治家一样，他无意中卷入了一个重要问题，比如一个小孩漫步走进一个军火碉堡，然后不知何故避免了爆炸。当然，象他们中的最优秀者，查理•威尔森一直占据着镜头。谁不会为这个家伙投票呢？
3. 政治家是假的。
之前提到过，大多数政治喜剧不把焦点放在政治家上，因为他们不好玩。他们是又老又乏味的白人压迫者，我们允许他们亲吻我们的孩子，给他们自己提升。他们交谈起来不有趣，因为他们总是想实施印花税法案或者提越南或者其他一些过去的压抑无趣的事情。他们的心也是用用过的烂泥做的。为了回避这个问题，电影《冒牌总统》聚焦于一个小镇的政治家，他碰巧和现任总统的长相和声音都如此相似。当那个荒淫的傀儡总统被心脏病弄得丧失劳动能力时，他的内阁让凯文克莱恩的戴夫担当冒牌的总统来代替现任总统，而这个假冒的傀儡总统却非常真实。《冒牌总统》以标准的主人公与环境格格不入的方式来显示幽默，但是级别远远提高了，因为这个环境变成了白宫。我们也看到了一部完整的关于如果总统真的深深地关怀他的公民会怎样地影片。这样，通过避免真实，这部电影作为一部成功的喜剧登上了高峰。
4. 政治家就像你我一样。
在电影《奇爱博士》（英文全名Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ， 长得难以置信。）中，政治家和战争雄鹰都是普通人。这是独一无二的情况。在作战室的桌子周围落座（没有斗争），国家人员讨论这迫近的美国与俄罗斯互相之间确定派冷静的特遣部队的毁灭，这种冷静是你我也许还在讨论今晚在哪里吃饭（正确答案：不是Applebee's）。无与伦比的彼得•塞勒斯为此片扮演了17－18个角色，包括乡下老头和最佳男孩。也许最有趣的聚焦于政治家的政治喜剧之一，斯坦利•库布里克为我们展示了一个接一个的状况，其中，愚蠢的人们努力镇定、理性地讲述可能意味着整个星球毁灭的问题。一个人会想象任何平庸地傻瓜都会坐在决策人的位子上，吸着烟斗，努力不让一个急需的馅饼与他的四星上将冲突。
5. 政治家是跳着芭蕾的希特勒。
即使不把它包括在运动册中，我们也知道，每一个严肃的政治候选人都是按古典方式训练的，专业的舞蹈者，希特勒就像。也理所当然是这样。谁会在国家高度上要一个平庸的没有节奏感的创作者来表现他们公民的需要呢？不管我这张单子上第一条的真实性，在《大独裁者》中最有趣的场景是当查理•卓别林沉默地以他的方式一边跳着舞，一边玩着一个形状象这星球的气球进入我们心中时。某种破坏运动表明这是对独裁者如何将世界玩弄于鼓掌之间的隐喻，但是不要被愚弄。这部电影要传达的真实信息是描绘政治家在他们的声音字节和讲词提示机背后的真实面——就像穿着棕色衬衫，和这合唱音乐跳希特勒式的舞蹈——是喜剧的成功唯一真正的关键。
如果你是有财力笑的少数幸运者，这些电影是最好的例子。如果你在为你自己拍摄的政治喜剧寻找灵感，你最好记住所有这些规则，特别是第五条。我们喜欢看政治家从他们的象牙塔上掉下来，把一切弄糟，然后在最重要的时刻辜负我们。基本上，政治家的幽默来源于证明他们是人类，而实际上，他们都是机器人。或者是希特勒。或者是希特勒的走狗。
政治是混沌的。
《查理的战争》DVD热卖中。