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BANG_BANG
April 9, 2005
Ye gods, what a bomb.
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
The title theme is the second
worse piece of music ever written.
The worst being the
"Toot Sweet" song.
What's really funny:
I think they cut a
song from the movie
late in production.
At one point, the song cue
and the dialog afterwards (1) The song cue: "You
seem inconsistent with the can't give up Hope!";
song that's actually sung. (2) Dick van Dycke does
a second rendition of
There was a song "Hushabye Mountain";
that was *too bad* (3) The dialog afterwards:
for "Chitty Chitty "Well that's easy to *say*"
Bang Bang"!?
Something *worse* There must have been
than the title a song along the
theme? Wow. lines of "You Gotta
Have Hope"; and it
was so bad that it
was cut.
"Always look on the
bright side of life"?
Okay, some of the effects are good,
the sets, props and some of the
scenery is impressive -- the Dangerbaby looked at the
british countryside, the white Castle in "Vulgaria" and
cliffs of Dover -- commented "Oh, I've been
there. That's a very famous
But the first half tourist trap, can't remember
of the movie is the name, but it's located in
incredibly slow. Bavaria. It's funny that
They had to pad it they used such a well-known
out with scenes of location."
driving around,
because they I fear that she
wanted to use the over-estimates the
cliff dive as a American public.
cliffhanger
mid-way through.
The secondary characters
indulge in some of the
worst examples of self This makes the Adam West
consciously camp acting Batman look like a classy, In comparison,
ever perpetrated... meaningful piece of work. Benny Hill's
performance as
SUNDAY_CAMP the toymaker
stands out as a
superb example
of naturalistic
The most disturbing thing, though: acting.
Is that I didn't understand why they And I have to admit
used the story-within-a-story the guy doing the
structure -- the framing narrative child-catcher was
is already so cartoony, trying to really pretty good.
rachet it up further is pretty odd.
Also, Dick van
The driving element of the story Dycke is good at
is that it's supposed to be about physical clowning
a poor, struggling inventor who (the bamboo dance
is regarded by all as a total in particular had
incompetent. some funny little
bits in it that go
So the story has to feature by pretty fast).
him demonstrating his skill,
he has to save the day with
his gadgets, right?
Isn't that clear?
Instead the car is just "magic".
It has a life of it's own. The I submit that this is
builder is continually suprised at far worse than the
the capabilities of his creation. James Bond deus ex machina:
Bond is not the hero-as-builder.
This considerably undercuts And Bond at least has the
the drive of the story. opportunity to show
some ability in the way
he uses the gadgets.
A point I've made elsewhere
talking about Ian Fleming's BOND_NOVA
*other* famous creation --
why not have the gadgets
actually be fallible?
Why not have some actual Yes, okay, so the flying car
suspense over whether or not jazz is a story-within,
the next gadget will really it's just something Potts made
work? up on the spur of the moment
to keep the kids entertained.
"Madman or genius?"
is the *real* issue But... is it at all
to address. psychologically
plausible that he
It is somewhat would relegate
Maybe the interesting, though, himself to such a
movie is that the inventor secondary role?
about saves-the-day (sort
Fleming of) by pretending to
himself: be an automaton.
Fleming's Instead of creating
brilliant ideas a machine, he
are snickered becomes a machine. I have no idea
at throughout what this means.
his career in
intelligence,
but finally he The only song that I
succeeds! actually like in the
movie -- I didn't
By turning the realize it was *from*
brilliant ideas this movie -- is the
into odd stories music box song.
that people like
a lot but have
trouble taking "All of you people round me/
seriously. What do you see?/
A doll on a music box,/
So then, the idea might be wound by a key."
that there's *supposed* to
be this sad undercurrent... Disappointing that it's
all of Potts crazed schemes so literal in context.
come to naught, except for
the candy-full-of-holes, (I think this neutralizes it
which succeeds in a way as a feminist commentary.)
that's unintended twice-over.
The need to retreat
to a world of imagination,
because the real world
is too disappointing.
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