The Producers

Over the bank holiday, the news reported that Gene Wilder died at the age of 83. Unsurprising news in some ways because of his age, unsurprising also because 2016 continues to mow down all beloved celebrities in its path and it must have been all of 20 minutes since the last one (are you on commission, 2016? Is there a quota??). I digress.

Gene Wilder, to me, is the ethereal eccentric from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and if I'm honest I haven't seen him in much else. Tonight it was suggested that I watch The Producers (1968). Now, 1968 was nearly 50 years ago. The world was a mere two decades out of WW2. People were more repressed, less worldly wise than we are now in 2016.

Or so I thought.

20 minutes into this film and there has been mention of S&M, fetishes, roleplay, cross-dressing and rape. And this is even before a Broadway play is staged in which Nazi stormtroopers goose step around a camp, stoned Hitler while singing "Springtime for Hitler (and Germany)!" in order to con the general public out of a load of cash so the two main Jewish protagonists can run off to Brazil.

No seriously. That's what it's about.  Which begs the following question...

How did this film get made? How did they get away with it? How has this bonkers spectacle not only slipped past the sensibilities of the general public, but also become an Oscar winner (Best Adapted Screenplay), Oscar nominee (Gene Wilder, Best Supporting Actor), be deemed "of significance" by the US Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Library? How? How??

How???

The short answer is that I have no idea. It's not because of the level of fame of the people involved (they weren't that influential at the time). It's not because the public were demanding it. I don't  think filmmakers could get away with it now - the closest thing I can think to compare it to is 2004's Team America, a film that has achieved cult status but I doubt will ever be revered like The Producers. Maybe it was "just one of those things" - a film that hit a zeitgeist at a particular moment, and worked because of a mood or an appetite of the time. Except...that it endures. It reappears again and again in lists of "the greatest film ever".

What can we take away from this story? Closer research tells us that Mel Brooks found the film almost impossible to back until he found a few like minded individuals who believed the following:

"If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win...That's what they do so well: they seduce people. But if you ridicule them, bring them down with laughter, they can't win. You show how crazy they are."

All of a sudden, 2016 and 1968 don't seem so different.


So if we can't quite explain how it came to be (and I would be interested if anyone can shed a bit more light on this), we move to the lessons we can take from this barmy piece of filmmaking.  And they are universal. 
1.  Point out the ridiculous. Laugh at it. Laughter is arguably more potent and powerful than anger (a theme referenced in Monsters Inc) Particularly where politics is concerned.
2.  Persevere. Make what you want to make and someone will find benefit and use for it. And if they don't, make it anyways for your own benefit..  
A theme Gene Wilder returned to in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

Come with me and you'll be

In a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you'll see into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin

Traveling in the world of my creation

What we'll see will defy explanation

If you want to view paradise

Simply look around and view it

Anything you want to, do it

Want to change the world?

There's nothing to it

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there you'll be free

If you truly wish to be...

Ah go on.  Might as well get a cuppa and watch this while we're here.