Christian Filmmakers

This was a classic film that I’d been interested in seeing for many years but never got a chance to see it until recently.

I wish I’d seen it after The Seventh Seal (see my other thread) rather than before.

This is a comedy about a Hollywood Director who is tired of making comedies and wants to make something serious and tap into the suffering of mankind.  So he sets out dressed like a hobo to find out what suffering is really like.

This is a great film that is very funny in the beginning and then it is lighthearted as a comedy and then it becomes very very serious… to the point that it tears you away from ever knowing it was a comedy in the first place.  The director takes you to such a seriousness like changing the food from sweet to sour so that when he brings you back to comedy you are laughing even harder.  And that’s when he hits you with the importance of the main character coming to the realization about his purpose as a filmmaker (Spoiler below)

He realizes that comedy is so important to people who suffer.  He realizes that laughter is all some people have to get through the hard times.

This is a great film that I recommend to everyone here.  I think you all would really dig it… especially the message.  And it really is funny especially the scene at the very begining and the brilliant resolution at the end.

Thanks for this good review, Tom. And Amen.

Preston Sturges, the director, can be outrageous at times, as in the scene where Sullivan is being followed by a camper full of his fellow filmmakers, and when he tries to lose them, a chase ensues that throws everyone in the camper on their heads. If you want to see Sturges at his outrageous best, watch Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek.

Of course, the film Sullivan is wanting to make that will be so socially significant is called O Brother, Where Art Thou, which name the Coen brothers took and turned into their own socially INsignificant comedy, which is a modern day classic.

There’s probably no more likable actor than Joel McCrea, who plays Sullivan and was also terrific in Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent. And Veronica Lake adds a nice - how would you describe her? - touch as the girl he picks up along the way to share in part of his journey. She’s known mainly for her pre-film noir roles (Sam Spade and the like).

I think Sullivan’s Travels hits on an important issue in filmmaking: should I make “significant films” that will impact society, or should I make entertaining films that will cause people to forget their problems? His answer is the latter because that is the kind of films Preston Sturges made. But then you have Frank Capra, a director who could do both; which is why Capra is a greater director, in my opinion.

Waitsel

Great thoughts, Waitsel.  I really liked this film a lot.  It was a little strange to see a comedy become so serious near the end.  But I understand why he did it.  I highly recommend this film to all of you here. It is really worth seeing.