Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933) ALL HAIL FREEDONIA!!!

[tdiamond]

Duck Soup came out at around the beginning of world war 2 (at least for Europe) so there is a small play on the possibility of US involvement. this is obvious from calling the country Freedonia, however, at the same time the country has a regal European theme to it, further suggesting that this country of Freedonia is going to be swallowed up by a rival country after squabbling over money

Although the WW2 was started by action, Duck Soup starts its war with words, that is to say, Grouchos'. the last scene i think can be the most important. it foreshadows the coming war. the small European country of Freedonia being swallowed up by a larger more militant country. in the the last scene where Groucho and the other Marx brothers are held up in the building, you can see that Groucho is wearing a raccoon fur hat similar to that of Davy Crocketts that he (supposedly) wore during his defense of the Alamo. the parallels that can be drawn from this show that the European country is holding out in its last line of defense against impossible odds.

Freedonia is not suggested to be America, more likely that it is one of those European countries that no one ever heard of. Its leaders squabble and argue and eventually allegiances are tested and torn apart. the difference between what happened in real life and what happens in Duck Soup, is Duck Soup is funny as hell.

[jdefever]

Although WW2, and arguably every war, can be said to be started by actions, such actions most often initially start from words. I felt that Duck Soup was an attempt to portray just how ridiculous the words between two leaders can be to wage war and ultimately spend millions of dollars and lose millions of lives. As preposterous as the words exchanged between the two leaders in “Duck Soup” may seem, I would contend that some historical wars seemingly (if not probably) started in manners as trivial as this one. It may be important to note the sense of pride that comes with differing social positions. What I mean by this is that the popcorn salesman puts up with a plethora of shit from the goofball spies, while the ambassadors’ patience is thin with Firefly’s humor. This also may be a reference to the social strata that we associate ourselves with in today’s world.