A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
by Richard Lester
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DVD details
Actor: Buster Keaton, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford, Phil Silvers, Zero MostelDirector: Richard Lester
Cinematographer: Nicolas Roeg
Producer: Melvin Frank
Writer: Melvin Frank
Writer: Burt Shevelove
Writer: Larry Gelbart
Writer: Michael Pertwee
Writer: Titus Maccius Plautus
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-04-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
DVD Review: Ancient Rome fall again to comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a classical musical comedy.
Sort of like a keystone cops set in ancient Rome,
it does the Roman slave economy a real turn.
Except for the extensive slapstick
this might be a Shakespearian comedy ( more what they called a farce ?).
No element of Roman society seems to escape without a scratch:
the army, the landed gentry, the vestal virgins, gladiators, slave dealers
and merchants.
I liked it and appreciated much more for having studied ancient Roman history: a musical comedy that bring Rome down with humor.
DVD Review: The Worst-ever Film Musical
Summary: 1 Stars
This film should be avoided at all costs. The brilliant Sondheim score was eviscerated for the film. Sadly, there has not been a good movie version of any of the brilliant Sondheim-scored shows. A Little Night Music was awful; Sweeney Todd... well, not bad, but not good.
Someone out there needs to devise a way to film Sondheim. Kind of how they "finally" found a way to film Kander & Ebb's Chicago. But as for now, Sondheim only works on stage.
DVD Review: Still the best
Summary: 4 Stars
I was twelve years old and actually delerious with fever the first time I saw this movie. Almost twenty-eight years later and in my right mind it is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The best part about this DVD was being able to see a whole uncut version which is a pleasure I did not have the first time I saw it. The musical elements, the verbal, physical, and visual jokes and all the individual stories of the characters intertwine perfectly.DVD Review: 2.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 3 Stars
The Bottom Line:
AFTHotWTtF means well, but it's dated and not terribly funny and only worth watching if you really like Ancient Rome--even those who like musicals should be warned, for much of the music from the stage show has been cut.
DVD Review: Still hillarious
Summary: 5 Stars
Supurb cast, excellent music, hillarious action - still very funny after all these years. Hummed the songs for the next 2 days. Very, very enjoyable.
Description of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Something appealing. Something appalling. Something for everyone a comedy tonight! "One ofthe hottest burlesque shows that ever hit Broadway" (Time) comes to the screen showcasing the enormous talents of Tony Award?(r) winner Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford (Cocoon), Buster Keaton and Michael Crawford (Broadway's "The Phantom of the Opera"). Featuring keenly clever tunes like "Comedy Tonight" and "Lovely," this wild Stephen Sondheim musical about a raucous gaggle of ancient Romans is a "flip, glib and sophisticated, yet rump-slapping bawdy and fast-paced look at the seamy underside of classical Rome through hipster's shades" (Variety).When a wily, witty, lying, lazy, cheating slave discovers that his master's son is in love with thegirl next doora virgin courtesanhe promises to help win her heart in exchange for his freedom. But the road to romance is blocked with stunning surprises, cunning disguisesand the wildest chariot race ever!"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!" Those words from the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hottest directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is a pixilated romp and very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amidst all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. --Robert Horton
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