If you haven't seen "Beau Geste" (one of me favorites) with Gary Cooper or read the classic novel of the same name (one of my favorites) you don't need to. This movie uses the name but it's self-evident. The plot is merely a clothes line for stringing together the sort of jokes that closed Vaudeville.
I have a robust sense of humor, even on spoofs of things I like. But I don't need to reveal my creds to say this movie is abysmal. The only reason I didn't give it a star rating is that one is as low as one may go.
But since I try to look for the good in everything I'll start by saying the cast is miraculous, containing many of my favorite actors.
Feldman does one neat trick in a modest way that Woody Allen ripped off wholesale for one of his flicks. If you're unfamiliar with Gary Cooper it won't work anyway.
And he had a few touches of brilliance, such as the Sergeant's moving scar.
Okay, on with the deconstruction. The script looked like it was hammered out on a typewriter (they used those, then) over a drunken weekend by sniggering college freshmen.
Feldman could be very funny, but no comedian is better than his material. According to his erstwhile writing partner from the 1960s, Barry Took, Feldman's standup career foundered because he relied too much for laughs on his being wall-eyed. Did he do more than one script, and did it ever occur to him that relying on cheap boob and filth jokes might not be best for comedy on this level? For himself, he always seemed to rely on cheap humor.
That might not have been so bad, had the jokes been good. They are not.
Despite some wonderful sets and costumes and one of the greatest casts ever, the whole mess looks cheap and quickly done.
Very well, the studio recut the picture and if Feldman had been given a free hand and final cut it would be a comedic "Lawrence of Arabia" (it is largely set in the desert). But I can't review intentions, only what exists. And what exists is a bloody awful mess. If you like it, that's your business. I hated it.
I have a robust sense of humor, even on spoofs of things I like. But I don't need to reveal my creds to say this movie is abysmal. The only reason I didn't give it a star rating is that one is as low as one may go.
But since I try to look for the good in everything I'll start by saying the cast is miraculous, containing many of my favorite actors.
Feldman does one neat trick in a modest way that Woody Allen ripped off wholesale for one of his flicks. If you're unfamiliar with Gary Cooper it won't work anyway.
And he had a few touches of brilliance, such as the Sergeant's moving scar.
Okay, on with the deconstruction. The script looked like it was hammered out on a typewriter (they used those, then) over a drunken weekend by sniggering college freshmen.
Feldman could be very funny, but no comedian is better than his material. According to his erstwhile writing partner from the 1960s, Barry Took, Feldman's standup career foundered because he relied too much for laughs on his being wall-eyed. Did he do more than one script, and did it ever occur to him that relying on cheap boob and filth jokes might not be best for comedy on this level? For himself, he always seemed to rely on cheap humor.
That might not have been so bad, had the jokes been good. They are not.
Despite some wonderful sets and costumes and one of the greatest casts ever, the whole mess looks cheap and quickly done.
Very well, the studio recut the picture and if Feldman had been given a free hand and final cut it would be a comedic "Lawrence of Arabia" (it is largely set in the desert). But I can't review intentions, only what exists. And what exists is a bloody awful mess. If you like it, that's your business. I hated it.