One of the coolest things about movies about making movies is that they inevitably become meta. They comment on the world, while also, by necessity, living up to the same message that they’re spreading.
We see this in movies from Singing in the Rain to The Player. This often requires these films to possess a quality that’s tough for people, let alone movies, to possess: self-awareness. They have to know exactly what they’re doing, talk about what they’re doing, and even make fun of what they’re doing a little.
And out of all these types of movies with these particular challenges, few are as good as this one. So here we are with 1941’s Sullivan’s Travels, written and directed by Preston Sturges..
Make Em Luagh
A movie’s message is always a huge part of what makes it work, but this is even more the case when the movie is commenting on itself, as it then needs to embody its own message in order to be effective.
On the surface, the message of Sullivan’s Travels is simple: “comedy movies are great.”
And the movie lives up to it in the most simplistic form: it’s funny.
The character, Sullivan, has a disdain for comedies, thinking they’re beneath him. In the scene where he’s describing the comedy film to Veronica (which I’ll call her because she doesn’t have a name in the movie), he does so in a way where he’s implying, “can’t we get past this whole stupid movie in this stupid genre!”
But by the end, after he loses everything and has a cathartic experience watching the Disney short in the theater, he realizes what an important role comedies serve. And, of course, throughout this journey, many funny things happen in the film.
If this message was the only message, it would still work in the way movies about movies need to work.
However, it’s much more than that. Because not only is the movie funny, but it is also very poignant.
And thus, it gives a better message than just “ra ra, funny movies!” It, in fact says, “comedy movies can be very poignant”. And this is key. Comedy movies aren’t just a genre for people who want to turn their brains off. They can be every bit as deep as these big “important” drama movies that Sullivan wants to make. Movies can be these important works of art while also being funny and accessible. They’re not either/or, they can be both at once.
Part of the movie’s poignancy is that it delivers its own message, which, in turn, makes the movie more poignant, which strengthens its message, which makes it more poignant, which strengthens its message, which makes it more…
For instance, one thing it does–while being funny and supplying romance, and doing all the things we want in escapist art–is that it comments on important societal issues
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Privelege to Prison
Sullivan is the epitome of privilege. He’s a rich famous film director who has everything, at least superficially, that anyone could want.
Yes, he’s struggling, dissatisfied with his art and in a loveless marriage, but aside from this, he does have the highest amount of societal privilege. However, perhaps driven by guilt and the need to virtue signal, he wants to make a movie about poverty.
His butler, Burrows, warns him of glamorizing poverty. “Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms.”
Sullivan isn’t hearing any of it though. He’s determined to vacation into poverty for the sake of art.
But because he is who he is, he can’t escape his own privilege, being brought back to his lifestyle again and again despite him trying to live an underprivileged life. This is because no matter how much he tries to fake it, faking it will never let him understand. He’s got to make it.
It’s not until Sullivan dies–well, not the man, but the identity–and he’s forced into a life without privilege does he truly understand it.
And it’s only because he confesses to the murder of himself that he’s able to return to what he once was, being one of the few people who can escape the situation he’s in, while also gaining a new understanding of humility.
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This movie inspired my personal favorite filmmakers, ones who unfortunately do not have a space on the top 100 list anymore: the Coen Brothers.
Much like Sturges and as the message the movie encourages, they make movies that are funny and entertaining, while also carrying deep messages at the same time. In fact, you could watch almost any Coen Brothers movie or Sturges movie again and again, and they will get better every time.
A large part of this is because the messages are deep without being preachy. You could get one lesson out of the film through one viewing, and then you can get an entirely different message the next time.
They don’t make movies at people. Instead, they make movies for themselves, and they connect deeply to the ideas within. Counterintuitively this makes the movie for everyone.
And I think this is where these ideas really come together. In essence, no matter where we stand in the world and what we have or want to achieve, most of us want to make the most out of our lives. And when we’re able to kill that part of ourselves that feels as though we’re above everything else, in essence killing our ego, we can make art that’s both entertaining and poignant at once.
Hopefully without needing to serve on a chain gang for our own murder.
Thanks for reading!
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