The Movie Young Frankenstein directed by Mel Brooks in 1974 is an adaptation of the famous Frankenstein novels written by author Mary Shelly decades before. The story of Frankenstein had come to her in a dream at a very young age, little did she know her story would be told over and over in many different ways for years to come. Just a few months before releasing Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks and famous actor Gene Wilder saw great success with a comedy film called Blazing Saddles. They loved working with each other and on a quick whim decided to create the parody film Young Frankenstein. Gene Wilder came up with the idea to turn this fimiliar story into a comedy, and along with Brooks’ agent, had to convince him to direct it. Mel Brooks exclaimed that he would only do it if the movie was filmed in “Black and White,” even though studios at that refused to do so because they thought the audience wouldn’t receive it well. With new technology available to bring color to the screen, it seems like a retrograde thing to do. Brooks wanted to make a joke out of the old “mad scientist” movies, so his point was to use satire in every way possible. He created the atmospheres of an old movie by doing this and also used similar scene transitions like “iris outs,” “wipes,” and fades to black. A popular site called TVTropes that describes itself as a “pop culture wiki” page says “The effect originates from the early filming technique of shrinking the physical iris of the camera to film closing shots. At some point, this became so cliche that variations and parodies were inevitable.”  (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IrisOut#) Using these techniques along with exaggerated character roles really allowed the audience to enjoy this movie as one that was making fun of old steryoptypes. You can see in the following screenshot from the film how the “scientist” and “monster” relationship was overdone and made to be funny.  Here Gene Wilder, acting as the scientist, is passionately gripping his monster in the face probably exclaiming something about how proud he was to have made this creature. The monster, Frankenstein, has a huge head with scars, is partially bald and has messy hair. He’s looking off into space like he’s not fully aware of what’s happening, foreshadowing the havoc he would create when he escaped from the grips of the scientist and was off on his own. It evokes laughter just looking at the shot because it was such a common them/story line in earlier horror films and now we can just laugh at that since film makers have become much more creative with horror plots since then. This shows me that this movie was an example of how filming is a form of art and a way for directors or actors to express themselves. Sure, it made the people involved a lot of money, but they wanted to do it because it was in their character to do so and they wanted to entertain people with their goneuine and authentic work. In this case the form of art being carefully crafted comedy. I think this film was also influenced by the new and emerging culture and politics of its time. The new wave of feminist movement was gaining momentum and people we’re talking about breaking down gender roles. In 1970, Gloria Steinem, a writer for New York magazine published an article in TIME magazine called “If Women Were to Win” and said, “Schools and Universities will help to break down traditional sex roles, even when paretns will not. Half the teachers will be men, a rarity now… girls will not necessarily serve cooked or boys hoist up the flag.” (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876786,00.html) This shows how new ideas about gender roles we’re already changing and becoming mainstream, and it reflects on Mel Brooks use of satire for the female characters in Young Frankenstein. The female characters are overly sexualized, either in the shadow of a man or very vain. This is done so in such an overt way that it is clearly making fun of these gender roles and shows how ridiculous it was for women to be seriously cast to act this way in older films. Some may even see the satire in the film, as it applies to gender roles, as a progressive form of comedy and political expression. Sometimes comedy is the best way to get people to be open minded for change. Other reviews on the film repeatadly talk about how much fun the cast and crew reportedly had making this move and how that bleed through to the audience, adding to the enjoyment of the movie. For example, a review analyzing why this movie was so funny explains that “When principle photography for the film was winding down, the cast and crew were having so much fun, director Brooks actually wrote some extra scenes, just so filming wouldn’t have to come to an end.” (http://www.neatorama.com/2012/08/02/mel-brooks-comic-masterpiece-young-frankenstein/) I thought it great to know that this movie brought joy to not only the audience but also everyone involved. Young Frankenstein IS a genuine and timeless masterpiece.