Wednesday, May 17, 2006

“He is the father of the modern Hollywood comedy”

Great profile of Harold Ramis in The New Yorker. from a couple of years ago. (Better late than never ... hey I still haven't posted a link to that Holy Cross audio yet.)

The author on Ramis's movies:

These comedies have several things in common. They attack the smugness of institutional life, trashing the fraternity system, country clubs, the Army—even local weathermen—with an impish good will that is unmistakably American. Will Rogers would have made films like these, if Will Rogers had lived through Vietnam and Watergate and decided that the only logical course of action was getting wasted or getting laid or—better—both.

Ramis on Stripes:

“My whole problem was, We’re doing an Army movie and we’re not going to talk about Vietnam? What can I put in this movie to convey my antiwar sentiments?” In the end, after filming at Fort Knox and coming to admire some of the local Army personnel, Ramis says, “We did it when Bill says, ‘We’ve been kicking ass for two hundred years—we’re ten and one!’ That was my reference to Vietnam.”