Art Appreciation and Philosophy

The movie vaudeville of the Marx Brothers was perhaps never so inspired, and surely never as brazen, as in this surreal satire of tinpot nationalism, dictatorship, and political pomposity in 1930s Europe. The Ruritanian state of Freedonia, forever teetering on the edge of war with its bellicose neighbour Sylvania, is bankrupt, and forced to accept a multi-million dollar loan from a wealthy American widow (played superbly deadpan by the Brothers’ regular foil, Margaret Dumont) on condition that they install as president her friend, Rufus T Firefly, a free-thinking visionary played by Groucho Marx. Wisecracking Rufus soon causes chaos among the flummoxed flunkies in Freedonia’s colossal government state rooms, which are designed with proto-fascist grandiosity. Sensing a weakness in leadership, Sylvania sends in the spies Pinky (Harpo Marx) and Chicolini (Chico Marx) to set the stage for a revolution but they can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.

"Unpredictable, hilarious, and completely deranged. Duck Soup is without doubt the distillation of everything that the Marx Brothers claimed as their own." (BBC)

"The primary reason Duck Soup transcends the rest of the Marx's output is its target — Groucho's Escher-like language contortions never found a better foil than governmental bureaucracy, and the hall-of-mirrors conversations dominating this war spoof rank alongside Heller and Vonnegut. For all their good intentions, contemporary antiwar filmmakers might do well to take a page from this, which, in its gleeful skewering, reminds us what about humanity might be worth saving." (MUBI)

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