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History of the World, Part I is a 1981 film written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. As he does in many of his other films, Brooks also gives himself a great deal of time in front of the camera, this time playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Tomás de Torquemada, King Louis XVI, and Jacques le garçon de pisse. The large ensemble cast also features Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines, and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. The film also has cameo appearances by Bea Arthur, Hugh Hefner, John Hurt, Barry Levinson, Jackie Mason, Paul Mazursky and Henny Youngman, among many others. Orson Welles narrated the film but did not appear on screen.
Synopsis
The film's story, such as it is, is a parody of the "historical spectacular" cinematic genre, including the "sword and sandal epic" and the "period costume drama" sub-genres. The four main segments of the film consist of stories set during the Dawn of Man, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, and the French Revolution. The film also contains several other intermediate skits including reenactments of the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Last Supper.
The Dawn of Man
The film opens with several scenes depicting the early behavior of man. The opening shot is set to Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, an obvious parody of the opening sequence of A Space Odyssey (film). Memorable scenes include depictions of inventing fire, the first marriage, the first artist (which in turn gives rise to the first critic), and early attempts at comedy and music.Following this segment, Moses (Brooks) is shown coming down from Mount Sinai after receiving the law from Yahweh. When announcing the giving of the reception of the law to the people, Moses proclaims "I have given unto you Fifteen..." (his proclamation is interrupted by his dropping of one of three tablets) "Oy!... Ten! Ten Commandments! For all to obey!"
The Roman Empire
The second act opens with a series of shots depicting comically nonsensical situations of life in first century Rome such as a column salesman, an inventor giving a sales pitch for plumbing, and a slave auction. Comicus (Brooks), a stand-up philosopher, first appears trying to collect an unemployment payment when his agent Swiftus (Ron Carey)(a thinly veiled reference to "superagent" Swifty Lazarr) informs him that he got him a gig at Caesar's Palace. En route to the palace, Comicus saves the life of a horse named Miracle (the horse figures prominently throughout the film, often rescuing characters from certain death), meets a vestal virgin named Miriam, and befriends an Ethiopian slave named Josephus (Hines). Josephus, initially condemned to death for assaulting Miracle's owner, is conscripted into the service of the Empress Nympho (Kahn) as a wine steward.The scene at the Palace opens with Caesar (DeLuise) holding court. He receives treasures from General Vindictus (Greene), returned in triumph from his victory over the Spartans at Crete, and listens to Comicus's performance. Comicus starts off well, garnering huge laughs. He soon forgets his audience and begins to joke about tense subjects concerning Caesar, mainly jokes about obesity and corrupt politicians. Dismayed at his friend's plight, Josephus absentmindedly pours a jug of wine into the emperor's lap. Caesar is enraged and orders Josephus and Comicus to fight to the death in a gladiatorial manner. Both combatants are obviously unskilled and unwilling to kill each other. The fight ends with both agreeing to fight their way out of the palace. They are assisted in their escape by Miriam, the vestal virgin, and are rescued by Miracle.
The group is chased by several Roman soldiers through the streets of the city. The soldiers eventually corner the group when Miracle comes to their rescue once more. The rest of the chase is done on chariot. The group makes for the port with the soldiers right behind them. It appears that the soldiers will catch the group, but Josephus spots a patch of plants by the road that turns out to be marijuana, and begins to burn it. When the soldiers come through the area, marijuana's well-known side-effects kick in leaving the soldiers incapacitated. The group then sets sail from the port to Judea. Once there Miriam, Comicus and Josephus take jobs at a local restaurant while Swiftus goes to scout for gigs.
While waiting tables at the restaurant Comicus blunders into a private room where the Last Supper is taking place. Eventually Leonardo da Vinci arrives to paint the group's portrait: the result is shown, with the "halo" behind Jesus's head revealed to actually be a platter held in place by the broadly grinning Comicus.
The Spanish Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition segment is performed in the style of a grandiose Busby Berkeley production. The segment is one long song and dance number featuring Brooks as the infamous Torquemada. Several instances of "comical" torture are shown including a spinning iron maiden and "water torture" re-imagined as an Esther Williams aquatic ballet.The French Revolution
This segment opens with a sequence depicting the squalor of the poor of Paris. Beggars beg from beggars. On the Rue de Merde vendors are selling rats for food and one vendor is shown selling "absolutely nothing." The next scene takes place in the tavern of Madame Defarge (Leachman) where a mob of plebeians has gathered to discuss their situation. Mme DeFarge rails that "... we are so poor we don't even have our own language. All we have is this ridiculous accent." Another plebeian chimes in, "It's true, we all talk like Maurice Chevalier, honh-honh-honh!" The mob, thus incited, goes on to plot the French Revolution.Meanwhile, the King of France (Brooks) is warned by his advisor, the Count de Monnaie (although most people pronounce it "Count-da-Money", a running gag) with the news that the peasants don't think that he likes them. He responds to concerns that violence may arise stating "...Violence, I hate violence, it's the one thing I detest!". Ironically while giving his discourse on violence he is skeet shooting using peasants in lieu of pigeons. A beautiful woman, Mademoiselle Rimbaud, then approaches him and asks him to free her father, who has been condemned to hang for being overheard saying "the poor ain't so bad". He agrees to the pardon under the condition that she would have sex with him that night. De Monnaie (Korman) manages to convince the king that he needs to go into hiding while a stand-in pretends to be him. They choose the "piss-boy", Jacques (also Brooks) whose job it is to carry a bucket in which the royals can urinate. The King agrees. Later that night, Mlle Rimbaud, unaware of the subterfuge, arrives and offers herself to the "piss-boy" dressed as the king. As she lies supine inviting him to take her virginity he wryly comments, "It really is good to be the King," but after he realizes why she has come, he simply pardons her father without requiring the sexual favors. After he returns from the prison, the peasants burst into the room and capture the piss-boy and Mlle Rimbaud. With the false King's head in the guillotine, Mlle Rimbaud says, "It would take a miracle to save us." The act and the movie proper come to a close with a classic Deus ex machina when Miracle suddenly arrives, drawing a cart with Josephus driving. The last shot is of the party approaching a mountain carved with the words "THE END."
At the very end of the film there is a teaser-trailer for History of the World: Part II, which promises to include a Viking funeral, Hitler on Ice, and Jews in Space. The melody for the "Jews in Space" song was later recycled by Brooks for the "Men in Tights" musical number in Men in Tights. The music that underscores the Viking Funeral segment is Vorobyaninov's Theme, composed for an earlier Brooks film, The Twelve Chairs.
Despite this, no sequel was actually planned, and the "Part I" of the film's title is merely a historical joke. The History of the World was a book written by Sir Walter Raleigh while prisoner in the Tower of London. He had only managed to complete the first volume before being beheaded. Mel Brooks' films usually have sequel jokes in them; for example, Spaceballs was, according to Yogurt, supposed to be followed by Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.
"It's good to be da King"
This popular catch phrase comes from its repeated use during the French Revolution segment of the film. Brooks, as Louis XVI, says this blatantly into the camera on several occasions as if to justify the King's wanton behavior. Brooks also portrays "Le Garçon de Pisse", "The Lowly Pissboy", who carries a bucket for royalty to urinate into and later impersonates the King. Brooks as Le Garçon delivers the same line with a sense of surprise when he is able to sample the King's luxurious lifestyle for the first time. Brooks recorded a hip-hop song of the same name which reached the 67th position on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The line would be used by Brooks twice more: once in Men in Tights, when King Richard kisses Maid Marion, and later in his stage musical version of the film, The Producers, as a lyric in a musical number about a Broadway producer titled "The King of Broadway."
Trivia
- In the scene where the nun/swimmers are coming out of the water in the group menorah at the end of the Inquisition scene, their heads seem to come alight with sparklers. Upon closer inspection, one realizes that the sparks are going into the flame, rather than falling out. This is because the scene was filmed in reverse.
- Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, makes a cameo appearance in the Roman Empire sequence. He can be seen talking to two girls about something he says will be called a centerfold.
- Mel Brooks came up with the name for this film because he was tired of people asking him what his next movie would be.
- The film makes quite extensive use of matte paintings for backgrounds. Every segment (except "The Stone Age" and "The Old Testament") features backgrounds that are nothing more than paintings, especially in the segments' establishing shots and in numerous wide shots. Such paintings were used for the harbor and for many of the city shots in "The Roman Empire", the castle in "The Spanish Inquisition" and both the city and the countryside in "The French Revolution".
- The person responsible for the matte paintings, Albert Whitlock, was drafted to appear in front of the camera. He is the gentleman with the prominent English accent selling used chariots.
- The background music in the Viking funeral sequence is recycled from John Morris' score for Brooks' The Twelve Chairs.
- The Red Sea scene used Universal Studios' attraction.
- The only Mel Brooks movie to be filmed in anamorphic wide-screen.
- Richard Pryor was originally cast in the part eventually taken by Gregory Hines (in his screen debut). Just before filming was to begin, Pryor had his infamous drug-related accident, catching fire and getting severely burnt.
- This is the second Mel Brooks film in which Harvey Korman's character has to correct someone on the pronunciation of his name. The first one was Blazing Saddles.
- The phrase "It's good to be king." was also used in A Tail of Two Kitties.
- The phrase "It's good to be king." was also used in Men in Tights by Mel Brooks as well.
- The phrase "It's good to be king." was the name of a Stargate SG-1 episode. In the episode, Jack O'Neill says the phrase to a character who naturally loves being a king.
External link
La pazza storia del mondo | ההיסטוריה המטורפת של העולם | Det våras för världshistorien del 1
"History of the World, Part I"