{"id":9189,"date":"2018-04-17T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=9189"},"modified":"2019-01-12T14:48:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T19:48:12","slug":"the-death-of-stalin-and-the-canon-of-dystopian-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/the-death-of-stalin-and-the-canon-of-dystopian-farce\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of Stalin<\/i> and the Canon of Dystopian Farce"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘If you think this country\u2019s bad off now, just wait till I get through with it.’ \u2014 Rufus T. Firefly, Duck Soup<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Armando Iannucci’s historical farce The Death of Stalin \u2014 <\/i>which traces the madcap scramble for power between members of Russia\u2019s ruling Central Committee in the days following the titular predicament \u2014 has already established itself as an early contender for the most acclaimed comedy of the year. Many of the reviews have been quick to compare the film to a number of classic political satires, from The Great Dictator<\/i> to Animal Farm<\/i> to Dr. Strangelove<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

These comparisons are all apt, but they don\u2019t quite do justice to The Death of Stalin\u2019s<\/i> true achievement. The film will no doubt earn its place, over time, in the pantheon of subversive classics, but it may already stand as the apotheosis of a particular sub-genre: the Dystopian Farce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Political satire can run the gamut in terms of tone and appeal, but dystopian farce distinguishes itself via its pitch-black sense of humor, a general assertion that the world is run (if not entirely populated) by fools and monsters, and the prognosis that mankind is doomed to either live in a hellish state that mirrors society\u2019s worst aspects or else perish in an apocalypse of its own making.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Dystopian Farces are often set in the kind of future\/parallel realities that many classics of speculative fiction use for the purpose of allegory \u2014 including Terry Gilliam\u2019s nightmarishly funny 1984<\/i> homage Brazil<\/i> (1985); Paul Verhoeven\u2019s ultra-subversive and satirical adaptation of Robert Heinlein\u2019s Starship Troopers<\/i> (1997); Mike Judge\u2019s lighthearted but deeply misanthropic Idiocracy<\/i> (2006), and Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s Kafkaesque The Lobster<\/i> (2016) \u2014 they are just as often set in a world that resembles our own, be it our past, present, or future. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Dystopian Farce does not warn against the possibility of societal collapse or the threat of totalitarian oppression, so much as it posits that our species\u2019 innate stupidity has us living in such a predicament already. These films offer only one solution: to laugh despite the hopelessness of it all. <\/span><\/p>\n

In shaping a canon of Dystopian Farce, it is necessary to separate films that are philosophically dystopic from those that merely take place within a dystopia. That distinction disqualifies a film like Charlie Chaplin\u2019s The Great Dictator<\/i> (1940). Though its subversive bona fides are unquestionable \u2014 it was one of the first films to openly and unequivocally condemn the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini \u2014 it is, ultimately, a humanistic rallying cry, one that ends on triumphantly redemptive note.
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The same can be said, to a lesser extent, of two recent comedies that attempt to follow in Chaplin\u2019s footsteps: Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s The Dictator<\/i> (2012) and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg\u2019s The Interview <\/i>(2014). Neither can compare to The Great Dictator<\/i> in terms of quality or legacy, but they are similar in that they both offer happy endings and redemptive arcs in the face of brutal tyranny \u2013 Cohen\u2019s Dictator learns the value of democracy and imports it to his country, while The Interview<\/i> ends with Kim Jong-un dead and North Korea liberated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such resolutions are hardly surprising, considering that movies generally offer escapism and require happy endings. But when dealing with the subject of totalitarian oppression, these always feel false. The violent fallout of the Arab Spring and the current nuclear one-upmanship between America and North Korea put this false dichotomy in sharp relief. And while The Great Dictator\u2019s<\/i> ending remains one of the most stirring in all of classic Hollywood, it\u2019s tempered by the reality of how real-life events played out. Chaplin himself would go on to proclaim that, had he known the true scope of the Nazis\u2019 atrocity at the time, he never would have made his film.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Truer to the reality of its subject on a thematic level \u2014 while going even further into absurdity on an aesthetic one \u2014 is the Marx Brothers\u2019 Duck Soup<\/i> (1933). <\/span><\/p>\n

Setting their askew sights on the rising tide of European fascism seven years before Chaplin, the Marx Brothers presented an escalating series of conflict, rooted entirely in nonsense, between the imaginary nations of Freedonia and Sylvania. From the opening musical number, \u201cThe Laws of My Administration,\u201d wherein Freedonia\u2019s newly appointed leader, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx), bans everything from whistling to chewing gum (\u201cIf any form of pleasure is exhibited\/Report to me and it will be prohibited\u201d), it is clear that the central hero of this zany comedy is a full-blown dictatorial madman. He even breaks the fourth wall to let the audience know his psychotic intentions: \u201cIf you think this country\u2019s bad off now\/Just wait till I get through with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What follows is an anarchic sprint to all-out war, with no pit stops for sentimentality or moral lesson learning. It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that the film failed to resonate with critics or audiences upon its initial release. Depression-era audiences, who were still living with the fallout of the First World War while staring down the barrel of another, likely didn\u2019t see the humor in such cynical disregard for international politics, but the film has since come to stand as one of the most incendiary mockeries of the 20<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century diplomacy, as well as an uncompromisingly ironic treatment of war. It anarchic spirit would go on to influence any number of great American satirists, from Chuck Jones to Thomas Pynchon to Matt Groening. <\/span><\/p>\n

That same spirit can be felt across a number of Dystopian Farces throughout the years, including the recently departed Milos Foreman\u2019s gentle but scathing indictment of communist collectivity The Fireman\u2019s Ball <\/i>(1967), in which every member of respectable Czechoslovakian society is shown to be a leering, blithering, conniving character in the Marx Brothers mode. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is there as well in the paranoid farce of William Richert\u2019s Kennedy assassination spoof Winter Kills<\/i> (1979); in the Coen Brothers\u2019 misanthropic examination of Washington\u2019s \u201cintelligence\u201d community Burn After Reading<\/i> (2008); and in Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s elegiac adaptation of Pynchon\u2019s Inherent Vice <\/i>(2014), <\/i>in which the dark powers-that-be may not, in actuality, \u201cbe\u201d at all. While none of these films are set within an out-and-out dystopia, they all posit that the world is run by a shadowy deep state that, when the curtain is pulled back even a little bit, is revealed to be not all that deep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of these latter films, the most transgressive by far is 2010\u2019s Four Lions<\/i>, written and directed by early Iannucci collaborator Chris Morris. The British film takes a humorous, even empathetic look at the struggles of four would-be Muslim terrorists planning an attack on London. It treats them with the same loving ridicule that any number of sitcoms or Apatow-style comedies would their own stunted man-children. That the film not only doesn\u2019t shy away from the bloodshed and horror of their ultimate victory but also shows how stupid, meaningless actions can be repackaged into sinister conspiracy theories following these types of violent incidents, makes it a brilliant indictment of the dystopian mindset that much of society has adopted in the wake of the current War on Terror.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of all Dystopian Farces, there are two that stand out as especially terrifying. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first, and most obvious, is Stanley Kubrick\u2019s cold war comedy of errors, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb<\/i> (1964), which depicts the doctrine of containment (as assured by the theory of mutually assured destruction) as the biggest farce of all. Such doctrines mean nothing when human beings, with their myriad neuroses, madness, pettiness, and obsequiousness, are the ones attempting to abide by them. Is there a line that more succinctly encapsulates the hypocrisy of wartime diplomacy than \u201cGentlemen, you can\u2019t fight in here. This is the war room!\u201d? Or an image that more perfectly presents the distance between America\u2019s idea of itself vs. the ultimate end result of that idea than Maj. \u201cKing\u201d Kong riding the nuclear warhead like a bronco, waving his hat around like John Wayne on his way to ushering in the end of the world?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kubrick\u2019s fatalistic vision might end with a montage of the world devoured by nuclear fire, but it comes off as a light-hearted conclusion (and not just because Vera Lynn\u2019s wistful tune \u201cWe\u2019ll Meet Again\u201d plays over it) when compared against the other<\/i> ultimate apocalyptic farce. If Dr. Strangelove <\/i>shows us the word engulfed in flame, then Pier Paolo Pasolini\u2019s <\/span>Sal\u00f2<\/i><\/span>, or the 120 Days of Sodom<\/i> (1975) brings us fully inside the inferno, one that matches Dante\u2019s own in terms of atrocity (indeed, the film\u2019s four segments \u2014 the Anteinferno, the Circle of Manias, the Circle of S**t, and the Circle of Blood \u2014 make that influence clear). <\/span><\/p>\n

Long held as perhaps the most disgusting, brutal film ever made (a distinction that recent entries The Human Centipede<\/i> and A Serbian Film<\/i> have attempted to eclipse), <\/span>Sal\u00f2<\/i><\/span> is Pasolini\u2019s loose adaptation of the Marquis de Sade\u2019s book of the same name. The plot (such as one exists) concerns four ruling Italian fascists in the district of <\/span>Sal\u00f2<\/span> (known simply as the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate, and the President) who agree to marry each other\u2019s daughters in order to solidify their grasp of the district. First, though, they embark upon a 120-day orgy of debauchery in which they subject nine young girls and nine young men, all taken by force from the local villages, to a variety of sexual torture and murder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sal\u00f2 <\/i>is mostly considered an arthouse horror film, for obvious reason. But for as horrific as it is, it is also undeniably funny. That the humor is overpowered by the sadism on display, as well as the hopelessness of the conclusion, doesn\u2019t mean it is entirely negated. A second viewing of the film (should anyone voluntarily undertake one) reveals the depth of comedy hidden within the various abominations on display.<\/span><\/p>\n

While many consider Pasolini to have made a vile, irredeemably evil film (intentionally run over with his own car the same year that Sal\u00f2 <\/i>was released, many believe his murder resulted from anger over the film), a clear-eyed viewer can\u2019t mistake it for anything other than the ultimate indictment of the fascist dystopia which he knew firsthand (he was, at one point, an avid supporter of fascism, before renouncing it and adopting a communist ideology). Pasolini, by plunging us headfirst into coprophilous phantasmagoria, is able to convey how suffocating the oppression of that system truly was. No film has been able to match it in that regard\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Until The Death of Stalin<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

If Iannucci\u2019s previous film, In the Loop<\/i> (2009) \u2014 loosely based on his hit BBC series In the Thick of It<\/i> (2005 \u2013 2012) and following various Anglo-American political players alternatively attempting to avoid and incite an allied invasion into a Middle Eastern country \u2014 was a slightly less bombastic modern answer to Dr. Strangelove<\/i>, then The<\/i> Death of Stalin<\/i> is a less extreme, though no less frightening, answer to Sal\u00f2 <\/i>in its depiction \u2014 for the purpose of allegory \u2014 of what it\u2019s like to live in hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

While nowhere near as vomit-inducing in its depictions of physical torture or sexual violence, The Death of Stalin<\/i> is able to convey torturous daily life during the Stalinist Reign of Terror to such a degree that the terror becomes almost mundane. But of course such terror can never truly become mundane, and even when the tables are turned on the most vicious of its perpetrators, there is no sense of justice or comeuppance, only more death, in all of its ugly soullessness. <\/span><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s ability to maintain this sensation of horror while simultaneously remaining hilarious is its greatest achievement. If other examples of Dystopian Farce alternated between those two modes (Brazil<\/i>, The Lobster<\/i>, Burn After Reading, Four Lions<\/i>), or else let the horror inherent to their subject exist mostly as subtext (Duck Soup<\/i>, Starship Troopers<\/i>, Idiocracy<\/i>), The Death of Stalin<\/i> is able to balance all of it simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, it bests even Dr. Strangelove<\/i> \u2014 which heightens the farce to underline the horror \u2014 as well as Sal\u00f2 \u2014 <\/i>which <\/i>heightens the horror to underline the farce. It is the perfect amalgamation of horror, hopelessness, and hilarity, and as such, stands as perhaps the greatest Dystopian Farce yet made. <\/span><\/p>\n

That it can be read as allegory for any number of real life predicaments \u2014 from Vladimir Putin\u2019s plutocratic rule over modern Russian, to the bottomless stupidity and backstabbing of the would-be authoritarian Trump administration, to the factionalist division tearing apart the European Union \u2014 says something very frightening about the various dystopias we currently live in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, most of us don\u2019t need reminding. We are well aware that we\u2019re living in close proximity to dystopia, if not entirely with one. But with that in mind, it doesn\u2019t hurt to be reminded that, if nothing else, we might as well have a laugh at the farce of it all every now and then.<\/span><\/p>\n

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‘If you think this country\u2019s bad off now, just wait till I get through with it.’ \u2014 Rufus T. Firefly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":506,"featured_media":9190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,1399,1400],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-looking-back","category-on-the-marquee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}