Film Studies
‘What’s up Doc?’ is a scintillating and a highly entertaining comedy that Peter Bogdanovich made in the year 1972. The film is a delightfully fascinating comedy, which is rather eccentric, that went on to become the second biggest Hollywood hit films of that year. The movie has several remarkable performances along with also having loads and loads of ludicrous humor and it can ultimately be regarded as a homage the director pays to several Hollywood films that had simply swept the box-office during the 1930s and 40s. The director actually intended creating a kind of a remake of ‘Bringing up Baby,’ that Howard Hawks made and this served as one of the most important inspirations for Bogdanovich to make this movie. Extremely fast-paced, filled with innumerable sequences of coinciding dialogue deliveries and frenzied communications, portraying a sequence of finely molded characters and conveyed charmingly - thanks to the impressive cast of the movie and its talents, this particular movie is a simply amazing film that instantaneously swept over the audience, and became the third most viewed and lauded film of 1972 in the United States, with The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure leading the race.
Bogdanovich, an earlier critic who was known to have spent the last decade and half absorbing the movies of several Hollywood mavericks of the 1930s and 40s, ascertains himself as being the master of ‘screwball comedy’ - a movie genre that until recently, everyone thought was departed. The move "What's Up, Doc?" is actually a kind of homage that the director pays to Howard Hawks, although Bogdanovich does not try to be an imitator as he is rather a fan of the maverick director, with his own ideas being brought into this film.
The film has everything that audience wish to view, like for instance, a one-sided engagement between Miss Streisand and O'Neal; a shot at a ceremonial banquet with everyone winding up beneath the table; a highly entertaining and comical hotel corridor shot, with people emerging in and out of their doors at the elevator doors opening; a race; extraordinarily incredible concurrences in the dialogue delivery; a sober and dull reception in the hotel, which eventually turns out to become a ground for pie fight, and many more.
The director made this movie in retro style by deriving genres and tones from the classic Hollywood movies and ultimately included the colossal catastrophe humor of silent movies into this particular film. The legends of classic Hollywood films imparted a relentless impact of personal experiences in the form of concealed identities. Even today, there are a number of Hollywood movie lovers who are continuously haunted by the classic Hollywood movies and this particular spirit is well conjured by Bogdanovich in the movie ‘What’s up Doc?’
In a nutshell, the movie can be described as a fast, frenetic, and an infinitely hilarious and despite the plot being a four decade ole one, does not seem to be obsolete. Personally, looks like there is no actor in the movie who has not done a remarkable job. Anyone who watches the movie, can have lots of fun trying to make the reference while the complexly choreographed shots and conversations between the actors whiz by.
Works Cited
Cinephelia and Filmmaking. The making of 'What's Up Doc?'. 2013. Web. 20 March 2016. <http://cinearchive.org/post/118808304870/the-making-of-whats-up-doc-still-photographer>.
Roger Ebert. What's Up Doc? 2010. Web. 20 March 2016. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/whats-up-doc-1972>.
