Four Greatest Broken Fourth Walls Ever

Next week Deadpool is arriving in theaters.  From the very beginning of the promotion for this film the title character has been speaking into camera and making meta jokes as he is wont to do.  This movie is potentially the most meta film that has ever been made but absolutely not the first.  It is only a continuation of a long tradition of comedies that have broken the fourth wall; a tradition that will likely continue even farther when Disney cowboys up and does something with my Pearls Before Swine script.

Horse Feathers

There are few things in modern comedy that wasn't done better by the Marx Brothers over half a century ago.  They may not have invented meta-comedy but when they used it they did so with as much precision as they did everything else.  In some ways Groucho is one of Deadpool's clearest predecessors.  He was a joke assassin with deadly accuracy who could also be extraordinarily silly as he drew ire from those around him as much with his stinging insults as with his absurdity, and yes, at times he broke the fourth wall.  The best example is in the Brothers' classic Horse Feathers.  As Chico is just beginning one of his typical piano numbers his dearest brother Groucho walks straight up to the camera and says "I've got to stay here but there's no reason why you folks shouldn't go out into the lobby until this thing blows over."  As wonderful as that joke is, there were at least a couple of reasons to stay in the theater.  Not only is Chico a fairly impressive pianist but it's just not worth the risk of missing any more Groucho jokes.

Duck Amuck

Where Marvel has Deadpool, DC Comics have a superhero character named Animal Man who also knows that he is fictional.  In place of Deadpool's antics Animal Man's reaction to this realization is nearly tragic, a philosophical tale of what happens when one realizes that they lack control in a big crazy universe.  Somewhere in between is Daffy Duck in the Looney Tunes classic  "Duck Amuck."  The short begins like any other and Daffy enters prepared for a swashbuckling adventure.  He swings his rapier threateningly at a nonexistent foe and advances right past the background, finding himself in a white void.  He prompts the animator and a paintbrush enters the frame to deliver a quaint farm scene instead of a 17th century French castle.  Daffy changes his wardrobe just in time to saunter from the farm to the arctic.  For the next five minutes the all powerful hand of the animator tortures the Duck, at one point erasing him out of existence until the only thing on screen is a bill.  According to director Chuck Jones it was all a test of the strength of Daffy as a character, supposedly saying "who is Daffy Duck anyway? Would you recognize him if I did this to him? What if he didn't live in the woods? Didn't live anywhere? What if he had no voice? No face? What if he wasn't even a duck anymore?"

It's Garry Shandling's Show

For some reason wall breaking is hard to do successfully on TV.  Just ask all the Community fans, myself included, who had to beg and plead for each new season.  Two decades before the phrase "six seasons and a movie" was ever uttered there was It's Garry Shandling's Show.  It was kind of like Seinfeld (which premiered two years later) if all the characters were at least vaguely aware that they were on TV and Jerry was very aware to the point that instead of doing stand up in a comedy club he delivered expository monologues while facing the camera, treating the audience like another character.  The show was so self-aware that the theme song contained lyrics of how it came into existence; "Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song."  Fortunately the show was successful enough to last four season and earn as many Emmy nominations without so much as a single hashtag.

It's surprisingly difficult to find gifs of late 80's
 semi-forgotten cult classics.

Blazing Saddles

Mel Brooks is one of cinema's greatest wall breakers.  Since some of his most famous movies are parodies of other movies it makes sense for self-awareness to be a key element.  There are a lot of moments to choose from.  The "Abott and Costello Meet Inception" from Spaceballs is a strong contender but the clear winner comes from the end of Blazing Saddles.  It is perhaps the funniest, and certainly most literal, broken fourth wall since Juliet asked the audience where Romeo was.  It also might be one of the greatest surprise endings since Macbeth's butler did it (I haven't seen that movie), so this might get into spoiler territory.  After a long battle between a noble sheriff and corrupt politicians, a fight broke out, then broke through a literal wall onto a sound stage where another film was being shot.  The rest of the fight takes place throughout the Warner Bros. lot, climaxing with a shootout in front of the theater where Blazing Saddles is premiering.  A few characters even go inside the theater.  I always thought it would be incredible if someone dressed like the characters walked in to the actual theater at that moment.  You know, there are an awful lot of Deadpool cosplayers out there.

My 5 Favorite Best American Movies

Earlier this week BBC released a list of what their judges think are the greatest American films of all time.  I have something of a love/hate relationship with these kinds of lists.  I think it's futile to try to rank something so subjective but lists like this introduced me to some of my favorite movies, TV, and music.  For instance, Rocky is glaringly absent but that's not a huge loss compared to the gain of someone taking an interest in Alfred Hitchcock.  Also, I'll take any opportunity to discuss movies I like.  The BBC already did a decent job of describing the appeal of their top 25 so I thought I'd explain what I like about some of my favorites in the bottom 75.

Duck Soup

http://maudit.tumblr.com/post/8868627900

Just before I started writing this I thought "it's been too long since I've seen a Marx Brothers movie" and went on Netflix to see what they had that I hadn't already seen, more than ready to settle for one I'd already seen if it came to that.  I was furious to see that they didn't have any Marx Brothers at all anymore.  The Marx Brothers are a pivotal part of any comedy fan's development.  The siblings were like a small army of comedy Terminators, each singlemindedly determined on flawlessly executing their individual roles: Chico with his smooth talking charm and Italian accent, Harpo with his wild physical antics and unsettling attitude towards women, Zeppo the self aware straight man and Groucho with his distinctive look and mind bending witticisms.  Duck Soup is their masterpiece.  It has all the elements of a typical Marx Brothers' outing but with a decade's worth of Daily Shows political satire stuffed into one movie.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

I recently developed a taste for western films.  Originally I had Segio Leone in mind who I know to have influenced several modern directors, but I soon realized John Ford is the true master of the genre.  He was an unparalleled storyteller with access to some of the greatest actors of his time.  Liberty Valance subverts expectations at every turn to tell a tale of two men, one a well intentioned scholar played by James Stewart and the other a hardened farmer played by John Wayne.  The two earn each other's respect in their battle against the villainous Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, as they both woo the same woman, Vera Miles, and Stewart's character enters the political landscape.  However, only one man shot Liberty Valance and he's the hero of the story, whatever that means. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most unique and skilled screenwriters in history.  Eternal Sunshine is one of his more digestible films but it's still pretty strange.  It's impossible to describe it any simple terms.  It deals with broad concepts like love and fate and memory and doesn't give any conclusive answers.  There's no question, however, in the talent of the cast.  Jim Carey and Kate Winslet play the main couple who make the regrettable choice to erase their memories of each other.  Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, and Mark Ruffalo play the team of technicians running the memory-erasing procedure on Carey's character while dealing with their own personal complications.

The Dark Knight

My love for superheroes is well documented.  My respect for Christopher Nolan is less so but it is very real.  I love Inception and Memento and The Prestige and of course The Dark Knight.  I saw it in theaters when I was 16.  At first I thought it was just a very good superhero movie but once I witnessed all of the acclaim it received I looked at it differently the next several times I watched it.  The script is complex and fascinating, a morality tale of the best kind.  Nolan's directing is crisp and vivid as always and Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is truly phenomenal.

Johnny Guitar

As previously mentioned, I'm still fairly new to the western genre.  I don't know what exactly attracted me to Johnny Guitar when I randomly saw it on the TV guide.  A major factor might have been that I was still looking to build my knowledge on the topic, but it also could have been the campy title, or that I had never seen any of Joan Crawford's work, or any combination of those reasons.  Whatever it is, I'm sure glad I watched it.  It is the oddest and most colorful western I've seen out the dozens I've watched over the past several months.  I found it at a time when I was starting to get weary of all the white guys in Westerns, so it was an exciting relief to see one that was about a conflict between two women.  The titular Johnny could almost be taken out completely and you'd have the same magnificent film.  It's really about the utter hatred between a casino owner and her local rival, played with captivating ferocity by Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge respectively.  It all culminates, as all westerns must, in a shootout between the two women, ending the violence and McCarthy-esque witch hunt at least for a little while.