i'm like a red rubber ball i come bouncing

She’s weeping and trembling, and the audience realizes something is wrong. In desperation, they disguise the refugees as clowns, and it’s actually working-until one poor old babushka, her wrinkled face pathetically smeared with greasepaint, freezes.

The bumbling crew of actors must smuggle Jews out of a darkened theater bristling with Nazis.

Until this scene, “To Be Or Not To Be” is pure comedy but then the weight shifts, and for a terrible moment, everything hangs in balance. Mel Brooks managed this feat handily in his lesser-known “To Be Or Not To Be,” which contains one scene that shatters me every time.įrom the very first scene, the movie puts in balance two monstrously weighty forces: Life and death, good and evil, hope and futility. I watched, enthralled, to see where it would land.Īs a Jew, I am ready and able to laugh at the darkest of jokes.

It whipsaws back and forth between slapstick and horror, comedy and tragedy. What to do? Who to trust? Who to fear? From the very first scene, the movie puts in balance two monstrously weighty forces: Life and death, good and evil, loyalty and rebellion, hope and futility. One day, Jojo and his buddy Hitler are both horrified to discover that his mother has hidden a Jewish girl in the walls of their house. In fact, he has made an imaginary companion out of him and spends his days palling around with a goofy, benevolent Adolph, who eggs him on and encourages him through every woe. It follows Jojo, a sweet and manic 10-year-old German boy who is absolutely wild for the Führer. The film’s premise is, if anything, more audacious than anything by Brooks. “Jojo Rabbit” is the latest applicant to an exclusive club: Movies that laugh at Hitler. It is the latest applicant to an exclusive club: Movies that laugh at Hitler. With this quote in mind, I went to see “Jojo Rabbit,” which has been nominated for six Oscars. But if you throw it against the hard wall of ultimate reality, it will bounce back and be very lively.” “Comedy is a red rubber ball,” said Mel Brooks, “and if you throw it against a soft, funny wall, it will not come back.

I'm like a red rubber ball i come bouncing