Ben Stiller, that great enigma of cinema…how will history judge his oeuvre? It's not a question I've heard asked too often, but it's one that's been one my mind ever since I saw Tropic Thunder a couple of weeks ago. It was a question I couldn't quite answer. Then I saw Tropic Thunder again. In a moment of clarity the answer finally came to me, terrific and frightening.
Ben Stiller is the 21st century's Mel Brooks.
Please don't be mad. I know such a bold statement is difficult to read. But before you surf away from my apparently-deranged ramblings in an offended huff, give me a chance to explain myself.
How many Mel Brooks movies have you seen? Sure, you've seen Blazing Saddles, you've seen Young Frankenstein, but what about High Anxiety? History of the World, Part I? Spaceballs? Put these films together, and they reveal Brooks to be a director/producer/writer (oh, and actor) whose body of work is almost completely based on two principles: (1) Make fun of everything that deserves it and (2) Make every joke that's funny, and a handful that aren't. This simple formula spawned a legend and a legendary set of films.
If Mr. Stiller were responsible for just one silly, ridiculous, hysterical film, the comparison to Brooks might not have occurred to me. But Tropic Thunder – which spits right in the face of some truly laughable people and things on earth – merely represents the (current) apex of a career that's been trending toward silly, ridiculous, and hysterical subjects for some time now. Much like Zoolander lampoons models and the fashion industry, or Dodgeball goofs on gym culture and sports mania, Tropic Thunder offers a biting-but-goofy send up of Hollywood. And much like Brooks, Stiller has chosen time and again to cast himself as the most awful and pitiable characters in a cast of varyingly awful, pitiable characters
There is, of course, a major difference between Tropic Thunder and Stiller's previous satires (Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball) : this is a much, much better film. Tropic Thunder pushes the envelope right to the brink, it takes just enough advantage of joke opportunities to keep you laughing continuously, but avids inducing eye-rolls, and it celebrates all of the sad-but-true Hollywood clichés it burns. There's no question about it. This is more that a great comedy, it's a good movie.
For every Producers in a Hollywood career, there's bound to be one or two Robin Hood: Men In Tights debacles. With that in mind, I suppose only time will tell if Ben Stiller's works, both great and small, will be remembered as classics in the annals of movie history. But if he keeps this up, I have a feeling that 30 years from now, some know-it-all blogger might be comparing some young director/producer/writer to the great Ben Stiller, much to the outrage of readers everywhere.
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