Satire in Movies - Part II - "Love Actually"

Since it is Christmas soon I thought that it would be a good idea to write about satire in Love Actually, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Christmas movies of all times. For those of you who don't know anything about the movie I can say that it consists of several different "love stories," and that it takes place around Christmas (it starts a few weeks before Christmas and ends a few days after (if you don't count the epilogue)). There are two prominent examples of satire in the movie, which I will now go on to discuss.

First of all, there is the example of how the song Christmas is All Around manages to become Christmas no 1 even though everyone knows that the song is really bad. This is mainly due to that the person who sings the song (Billy Mack, beautifully played by Bill Nighy) is prepared to do anything to reach no.1, including singing naked on television. This can be seen as satire of the music business, which has grown to care more about the artist and performers, and their reputation, than of the music it produces.

Secondly, there is the example of how the character Colin goes to America in the hopes of finding girls that want to sleep with him; something which he ultimately succeeds in doing. Colin bases all his beliefs about the US on stereotypes and prejudices, thinking that all American girls find British guys hot and attractive. Of course we (the audience) would regard this idea as bizarre, but when Colin reaches the US and walks into the first American bar he sees he is immediately surrounded by girls that want to have sex with him (four in total). This is clearly satire, since it exposes the absurdity of the stereotypes Colin believes in by showing how weird and unlikely (absurd) the situation Colin finds himself in is. The audience understands that what happens to Colin would probably never happen in "real life," that the movie is exaggerating, and thereby people understand that the prejudices and stereotypes about American girls most likely don't hold any validity.

I am going to go on a short Christmas break now, but I will be back in January with more satire. 'Til then, stay cool and Christmassy. If you haven't found your Christmas spirit yet, perhaps this song from Love Actually can help you.

Satire in Movies - Part I - "The Blues Brothers"

Since one of the purposes of this blog is to show the all-around-ness of satire I have decided to start writing some blog posts about the use of satire in movies, starting with one of my personal favorites: The Blues Brothers. As most of you hopefully already know, The Blues Brothers is about the struggle of two brothers, Jake and Elwood Blues, to put their old band back together and earn enough money from gigs and shows to save their old children’s home (which is about to shut down due to lack of funding). Both Blues brothers are very interesting characters with questionable morals. They are extremely hardcore, in a downplayed way, surviving explosions and car chases and gun fights with mere shrugs of the shoulders. This in itself could be seen as satire of action heroes in movies (who, as we all know, are supposed to be tough and feeling-less), since the Blues brothers' reactions to certain events are so exaggeratingly downplayed that they seem crazy. However, there are two other, much more prominent, satirical themes in the movie, which I will now discuss in more detail:

1. The way the women in the movie act, and how they are treated by the men in the movie, is clearly satire. Jake’s ex-fiancée, who constantly tries to kill Jake throughout the whole movie, is in many ways a parody of the “crazy ex-girlfriend.” She is completely obsessed by Jake, and has therefore decided that he must die in an extraordinary way (she tries to blow him up, amongst other things). When Jake kisses her in the end though, she wants him back immediately, forgetting all the broken promises and hate she has carried around. Other women in the movie are also extremely dependent on their men, and their men, in return, all treat them extremely poorly. Aretha Franklin, who plays the wife of one of the band members, sings a song to her husband in the beginning of the film, telling him how unfair it is for him to leave her alone with their business to go on tour. Despite the clear power of the song, however, Aretha’s husband just ignores her completely and walks out the door (and the unfairness of the situation thus becomes perceptible). Lastly, one can also look closer at the woman that Elwood casually hits on at a gas station; this woman agrees to meet Elwood at a motel at midnight, even though she has just met him (Elwood, of course, does not show up). By showing the stupidity in these women's dependency on men, as well as the poor manner in which the men treat the women, one could argue that the director of the movie uses satire to highlight gender inequality issues.

2. The stupidity of the police, and the use of “unnecessary force” (the police says that "unnecessary force" is allowed in the chase after the Blues brothers in the movie) in the police’s chase after the Blues brothers, is perhaps the most evident satirical theme in the movie. The police seem completely useless; they drive into each others’ cars, endanger civilians and constantly get fooled by the Blues brothers. What’s more important though, is that they seem to be using almost all their resources and equipment chasing after the Blues brothers, even though there are other greater “villains” in the movie, like the Neo-Nazis. Instead of putting resources and time into hindering the growth of the Neo-Nazi movement however, the police spend all their energy on protecting those Neo-Nazis during demonstrations and chasing after the Blues brothers, who aren’t even dangerous; they don’t even own guns. By showing and exaggerating the way the police mismanages its time and resources the scriptwriters and director of The Blues Brothers make some pretty valid points about the ineffectiveness of the police force. You can see an example of this in the video below.

Seven Golden Rules

You got to love an article starting with the sentences: "My name is Gregor Stronach, and I am a satirist. It's not a full time occupation – I doubt that anyone, aside from George Carlin and perhaps George Bush, is making a living out of full time satire in the world today." What's more, you got to love the article in question because of its very clear (and also funny) descriptions on how to write satire on different topics (the author calls them the Seven Golden Rules), ranging from religion to a tragic event (yes). I think that you ought to read the article if you want to use satire, since it approaches the topic in a very pedagogical way. Moreover, it takes up one possible satirical topic that I haven't discussed that much on this blog; namely yourself. By showing that you acknowledge that you are not a perfect person (which you can do by satirizing yourself), you make people more prone to listen to other points you make in your satire (an example from the article is: "Mother Theresa was an old whore with no morals! But I have a small dick – how funny is that?”). Remember, nobody wants to listen to a besserwisser.