mhollis
10-25-2009, 03:21 PM
This film is a commentary on the absurdity of government and war and takes a comedic standpoint at poking fun at society. The title Duck Soup, which I researched to find meant something easy to do back in those days, similar to “a piece of pie” or “synchy” currently. Throughout the film the brothers perform silly antics and pranks, mocking all the other characters, these hijinks serve the purpose to being hilarious for the audience of the movie and criticizing government leaders and the idiocy of war itself.
The kingdom of Freedonia “Land of the Free” finds a new leader named Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx’s character) who makes rude comments to everyone including the ambassador Trentino of Sylvania, their neighboring kingdom. His disrespectful remarks lead to the Trentino’s multiple declarations of war. Pretty much every time Firefly slaps Trentino he says “this means war!” showing how petty war can be, resulting from such trivial quarrels.
During the film there is a boardroom scene where we see the meeting being lead by the character Rufus T. Firefly, Groucho Marx, standing in the front of the room playing jacks. In that scene, while going over paperwork Groucho makes a remark that “A four-year-old child could understand this report… Run out and find me a four-year-old child I can’t make head or tail of it.” This goes along with the title expressing something as being really easy, almost pointlessly easy, but as a government leader Firefly is too dumb, or possibly lazy, to understand it. Also that a kingdom is so easy to run anyone could do it, even a four year old child, it’s a piece of cake, it’s duck soup.
Mrs. Teasedale (played by Margaret Dumont) is as stupid as she is ugly. She is totally oblivious to what’s going on the entire time, she is only important because of the money and power her husband left her and now she doesn’t know what to do with it. She has to seek out someone else to lead her country because she is utterly clueless. She is a woman who constantly needs to be taken care of so all she does is play the damsel in distress and wine and complain about everything.
The way the Marx brothers’ sarcastic puns and double entendres can also be taken as a demonstration of how many government leaders say one thing and mean another in order to manipulate situations. Groucho and Chico are amazing at making puns about any sentence or phrase, which sometimes can get annoying especially when it’s so clear that the other characters are frustrated with them. Their creative uses of the alternate meanings are models of the eloquent approaches that leaders use to avoid being blunt about the truth. Also, in the context of war and defending their country, Firefly a tendency to retreat and hide and send others to get the job done, like a fascist leader hiding behind his army and sacrificing/letting them die to protect his power “And remember while you’re out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we’ll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.” That quote alone has such a strong insinuation on how authoritarian leadership really works and how a soldier has no more value than a pawn to a president or a king during a time of war.
The silly slapstick humor of the Marx Brothers is the perfect approach for this satirical film about authority and power in controlling governments. They have the effect of making an audience laugh to tears and also depict government in way that provokes contemplation about how countries are directed and controlled.
Some other ideas and points I had but don’t really know how to integrate are:
>What does the use of sound/music and songs represent? How is it used?
>Mirroring Scene, all dressed like Firefly, Identity?
>Lemonade Salesman, what does he represent?
>Why does the motorcycle-buggie always leave Firefly behind?
>Harpo doesn’t talk but still expresses himself and communicates, what does that mean?
-MHollis
The kingdom of Freedonia “Land of the Free” finds a new leader named Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx’s character) who makes rude comments to everyone including the ambassador Trentino of Sylvania, their neighboring kingdom. His disrespectful remarks lead to the Trentino’s multiple declarations of war. Pretty much every time Firefly slaps Trentino he says “this means war!” showing how petty war can be, resulting from such trivial quarrels.
During the film there is a boardroom scene where we see the meeting being lead by the character Rufus T. Firefly, Groucho Marx, standing in the front of the room playing jacks. In that scene, while going over paperwork Groucho makes a remark that “A four-year-old child could understand this report… Run out and find me a four-year-old child I can’t make head or tail of it.” This goes along with the title expressing something as being really easy, almost pointlessly easy, but as a government leader Firefly is too dumb, or possibly lazy, to understand it. Also that a kingdom is so easy to run anyone could do it, even a four year old child, it’s a piece of cake, it’s duck soup.
Mrs. Teasedale (played by Margaret Dumont) is as stupid as she is ugly. She is totally oblivious to what’s going on the entire time, she is only important because of the money and power her husband left her and now she doesn’t know what to do with it. She has to seek out someone else to lead her country because she is utterly clueless. She is a woman who constantly needs to be taken care of so all she does is play the damsel in distress and wine and complain about everything.
The way the Marx brothers’ sarcastic puns and double entendres can also be taken as a demonstration of how many government leaders say one thing and mean another in order to manipulate situations. Groucho and Chico are amazing at making puns about any sentence or phrase, which sometimes can get annoying especially when it’s so clear that the other characters are frustrated with them. Their creative uses of the alternate meanings are models of the eloquent approaches that leaders use to avoid being blunt about the truth. Also, in the context of war and defending their country, Firefly a tendency to retreat and hide and send others to get the job done, like a fascist leader hiding behind his army and sacrificing/letting them die to protect his power “And remember while you’re out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we’ll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.” That quote alone has such a strong insinuation on how authoritarian leadership really works and how a soldier has no more value than a pawn to a president or a king during a time of war.
The silly slapstick humor of the Marx Brothers is the perfect approach for this satirical film about authority and power in controlling governments. They have the effect of making an audience laugh to tears and also depict government in way that provokes contemplation about how countries are directed and controlled.
Some other ideas and points I had but don’t really know how to integrate are:
>What does the use of sound/music and songs represent? How is it used?
>Mirroring Scene, all dressed like Firefly, Identity?
>Lemonade Salesman, what does he represent?
>Why does the motorcycle-buggie always leave Firefly behind?
>Harpo doesn’t talk but still expresses himself and communicates, what does that mean?
-MHollis