The Great Race: Avoids Many Pitfalls of Aging Movies (and is funny)
The review:
I’d not seen Blake Edwards’s The Great Race since I was a child; it was interesting to see the scenes I remembered in context* and I was happy that this managed to have aged almost 55 years and yet is nearly totally free of cringe-worthy moments.** It’s also hilarious (Jack Lemmon is the main carrier of this torch) and though its nearly three-hour run time means it does eventually drag, it has an overture and intermission included in those 160 minutes.*** Overall, it’s a fun intergenerational film, especially if your generations tilt toward the advanced ages, though kids would probably like parts of it too.
The verdict: Good
Cost: free via White Elephant Gift Exchange
Where watched: at home with the mothers and aunts
Consider also watching:
Further sentences:
*Tony Curtis’ teeth and eyes sparkling in a “dream boat” way and the best pie fight in the history of cinema were the most prominent, but some of the landscapes felt very familiar, too.
**It’s not overtly racist (though that Indian-chase scene is a bit iffy), Natalie Wood playing a suffragette means that it doesn’t come off as terribly sexist (though I’m sure some of the suffragette stuff was “funnier” in the original) and though there’s a drunken crown price who veers dangerously close to a “light in the loafers” stereotype, most of his behavior can be chalked up to alcohol consumption and not same-sex proclivities.
***Unlike, say, a certain seminal superhero movie released in April, 2019.
