Film Analysis: Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks

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Camp Rhetorical Analysis

Mel Brook's film ,Young Frankenstein, is a comedic throwback and famous parody to Univeral's Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). (quote from interview generally describing movie experience).

Young Frankenstein has important visual effects that bring to this film a well-rounded sense of both frivolity and campy thrill. Satirically embodying the older films, Young Frankenstein includes overly dramatic scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and “fading to black”, like all classic Hollywood horror films. In classic Hollywood horror, there are lightening flashes, villagers carrying torches and monsters moving in slow motion. The black and white filming technique of Young Frankenstein is one of the most essential elements to creating the film's vintage horror mise-en-scene, providing an air of authenticity to connecting this film to the earlier Frankenstein movies. (Burke quote involving scene:act)

The Transylvanian village itself embodies much theatrical mise-en-scene. The Old World-styled buildings in the village cast an antiquated ambience to the film. Most of the setting of the film is seemingly unto itself and unattached to the contemporary world in which the film otherwise takes place. [aestheticism- brummett quote]The lightning that almost ubiquitously strikes during exterior shots of the Frankenstein castle, as well as scenes involving Frankenstein's laboratory, becomes a character of its own: with intense flashes of light during the scene in which the exhumed corpse is given life to become the Creature.

Young Frankenstein's characters have a tendency to be overly stereotypical, adding another layer of camp s...

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... of his brother and Justine, finally ending in his own demise. This showcases some of the issues of the Enlightenment, a time where the boundaries of science and religion were defined. The character of Victor Frankenstein reflects the enlightenment scientists who wanted to discover the secrets of life, leading to what he discovered ultimately destroying him. There is no way that, according to the definition of Romanticism, Victor could ever be happy, since rationality is not a sufficient source of happiness and meaningful life. Even though he did succeed in unraveling the mystery of creating life, he was not going to be happy with it because it was found through reason. The Romantics see the Enlightenment as drawing away from nature. In Young Frankenstein, the Romantic qualities of death, rebirth, and sexuality renew these characters and change them for the better.

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