Claudio Carvalho
Divided in six segments ("The Stone Age"; "The Old Testament"; "The Roman Empire"; "The Spanish Inquisition"; "The French Revolution"; and "Previews of Coming Attractions"), "History of the World: Part I" is an uneven parody of historical moments, but still worthwhile watching. This film is written, directed and produced by Mel Brooks, who is also the lead actor performing five roles. It is also the debut of Gregory Hines, who died so young. Narrated by Orson Welles, the film has a great cast and cameo appearance of many famous people.Last but not the least, there is no sequel and Part I is another Mel Brook's joke, since Sir Walter Raleigh wrote The History of the World Volume 1 but was beheaded before writing the Volume 2. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A História do Mundo: Parte I" ("The History of the World: Part I")
Steve Bailey
This movie did middling box-office (as did all Mel Brooks movies from this point on), but for my money, it's one of Brooks's funniest. Having made his reputation with the 2000-Year-Old Man, it seems inevitable that Brooks would eventually take on the spectrum (or sphincter, as he might put it) of world history. And in the age of the Farrelly Brothers, Brooks' ideas about bad taste seem almost quaint.It begins with a lot of black-out gags (the first such gag amounting to, Ape Man = Onan) and takes off from there. The first sustained sequence, The Roman Empire, probably goes on a bit too long, and it "introduced" a buxom actress named Mary-Margaret Humes who, justifiably, went right back to obscurity shortly after the film's release. But there are also many enjoyable moments: Gregory Hines's mellow film debut, Madeline Kahn's ecstatic song tribute to her well-endowed male slaves, and most of all, the Last Supper sequence at the end--completely messed up time-wise (it puts Jesus and Leonardo da Vinci in the same shot), but all the more hilarious because of it. (John Hurt plays Jesus, and as in Brooks' "Spaceballs," his straight-faced seriousness just makes the insanity around him that much funnier.) The next sequence is one of Brooks' best: The Spanish Inquisition as a Marx Brothers-style musical number, with Mel Brooks as a socko Torquemada, beating out a rhythm on his victim's shackled knees. This sequence alone justifies Brooks's existence as a comedy director.The sequence depicting The French Revolution, has two main objectives in mind: show off as much of (1) British comedienne Pamela Stephenson's bust and (2) Brooks's wee-wee humor as humanly possible. Nevertheless, it has its moments, with Cloris Leachman as Madame Defarge, and Brooks as a randy king.The final short sequence, a trailer for Brooks's non-existent "History Part II," is worth the bother just for one of those moments that makes me laugh for no discernible reason: a scene from "Hitler on Ice," showing Brooks' favorite nasty German as an Ice Capader. This ersatz trailer is enough to make me wish Brooks had really made a sequel. I doubt it would have turned out any worse than "Spaceballs."
Ed
Mel succeeds admirably in his outrageousness almost throughout the film despite occasional signs of the feebleness of the "Jesus-yes?" dialog in the Last Supper and the overextended French Revolution scene.But in most of the film, real outrage rears its head over man's inhumanity to man especially in the Inquisition scene and, though perhaps less so, in the Roman scene. Even his trademark Hitler spoofs, such as the "Hitler on Ice-coming attraction" here show his own obsessive and strong reaction to that horrible period in history. Some of the jokes have cobwebs such as the "Alms for Oedipus" beggar and Gregory Hines response "Hey there, m.f! But it works because it's carried off with energy.In the long run, the film is probably more serious than it seems on first glance and has more bite than the really feeble attempts to follow such as "Spaceballs", "Robin Hood" or "Dracula".
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
This is a series of sketches(and they're frankly quite hit and miss), detailing(well, spoofing) historical events(I have a feeling the Moses bit is what actually happened if The Old Testament wasn't a collection of poorly written, hateful fiction), starting at the dawn of man and ending with The French Revolution. Other than the longest portion, set in ancient Rome, there is no continuous plot, really. It's a nice satire, with plenty to laugh at, with silly stuff, cleverness, plays on words, smut, some slapstick, crude material, weirdness. We do get the, for the period mandatory, annoying "sassy black dude"(on the plus side, it makes fun of Christianity). This is quite sexually suggestive, and features some rather nice cleavage. It's *very* Jewish and Brooksian. There are a few ill-shot and/or –edited bits, though on the whole, it is put together well(in spite of the occasional obvious matte painting). The central musical number(about the Inquisition!) isn't half bad. There is a bunch of mild violence and disturbing content, and a moderate amount of strong language. I recommend this to any fan of Mel. 7/10
AD
