MovieChat Forums > Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965) Discussion > People bragging about stereotypes

People bragging about stereotypes

posted 18 years ago by kazuya_akira
35 replies | jump to latest

It seems that a lot of people were "put off" by the stereotypes in this movie, at least that's what forum and reviews could make you gather.

I really don't know how much time you need to have to analyze a 40 year old slapstick-movie for it's political correctness. Of course all the characters in this movie are stereotypes, just like basically every character in every TV-production or movie is a stereotype. It is just that some people get all touchy-bothered when it comes to so called "racial stereotypes".
Admitted, there are racial stereotypes that are hurtfull and outright racist, I agree on that, but calling this nice little movie racist... that would just go too far, way too far.

Let's see, the french guy is a womanizer. So? France has always been connected with "amour", their capital is even called the City of Love. And the gag with the same actress playing several girls is really funny. Just as the french pilot thinks that love and romance are obviously more important than this race. Do you really think every french guy is actually like that? Fontane, Gaugin and Napoleon Bonaparte were french too.

The younger english guy is the "typical" upper-class snob, true to the crown, and what not. So? The British have always been known for their etiquette and their royal behauvior, the "fine british style". That does not make him cold or heartless, at the end of the movie he seems rather emotional. But do you think every guy from GB is like that? Churchill and Watt were british too.

The Germans. Ah, I am so happy that I can laugh about that, because I am in fact, german myself. But so should everyone else. Seeing an actor like Gerd Froebe, who was indeed one of germany's finest actors of this time, playing dramatic and very distinguished parts in a lot of germany's best movies make such a mockery out of himself makes me want to laugh out loud. In the time the movie plays in, Germany was ruled by an Emperor and had a strong military tradition, especially the prussian part, where the german character clearly comes from. Also, the strong "going by the book" mentality is a typical "stereotype" for germans, even today. I don't feel insulted as a german that this movie makes fun about my home country, not as long as it stays funny and tastefull. Schopenhauer, Kafka and Goethe were german too.

Same goes for all the other nations. Stereotypes are nothing to fear, we all use them daily, even if we might not always mean or know it. When we start believing, that those stereotypes are true, then they become harmfull. But everyone who has enough time to analyze this movie for apparent political enigmas and then write it here also has enough time to learn about all the countries in the movie and their achievments.

If you travel to France and you shield your girlfriend, because you think the next french guy is going to jump her, that's racism. Laughing about a french bonvivant in a 40 year old movie that has only stereotypes and uses them for laughter, that's just fun.

I loved this movie as a child and I still do, so I kinda felt obligated to defend it. It is good to know that people read between the lines, but it is also sad to see, that some start writing stuff between the lines, when they don't find anything.

[–] Akzidenz_Grotesk 18 years ago

Well put, my sausage-eating blond Kamerad.

Sincerely, a beer-swilling, lumberjack Canuck.

Old Time Religion Stories. Some like 'em, some don't.

[–] kobras_whackbag 18 years ago

god you're insufferably verbose

[–] Saintted 17 years ago

Shhh! It's stereotypically German! Required by law and tradition, don't you know. Page 124 of the German Ethnic Instruction Book, of course. What ho, tea time, and all that, innit?

[–] jkholman 16 years ago

kobras whackbag,
this is a forum and the OP had something [positive]to say.
If you disagree, fine. If not, try to be a little considerate. As it is, you are more verbose in one sentence than the OP is in his monologue. And no, you are not the center of the universe even though you might be of your hovel.

[–] richard.fuller1 18 years ago

I just watched this movie for the first time on the AMC network. A week ago, I saw "Breakfast AT Tiffany's" for the first time, with Mickey Rooney as the most unlikely Japanese landlord.

Thankfully, Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines was cast with actual persons from the countries the characters were supposed to be from.

A major incredible plus.

How on Earth can Gert Frobe portray a German stereotype if he was German?

The same for the Frenchman, and yes, seeing the same woman over and over did make for a very original joke at the end.

The only one I truly found disappointing was Stuart Whitman as the utterly silly looking cowboy for 1910? I don't think so.

I would much rather have these actors who are from the very countries the character professes to be from, instead of Rooney in "Breakfast At Tiffanys" or Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".

[–] BoultersCanary 18 years ago

The film subverts a couple of sterotypes too - as when the Japanese pilot crash-lands:

"Have you a knife?"
"Ere, you're not goin' to commit hara-kiri are you?"
"No you idiot, I need to cut myself free of all these wires"

"Woof. In tones of low menace"

[–] richard.fuller1 18 years ago

BoutlersCanary: The film subverts a couple of sterotypes too - as when the Japanese pilot crash-lands:

"Have you a knife?"
"Ere, you're not goin' to commit hara-kiri are you?"
"No you idiot, I need to cut myself free of all these wires"
------------------------------------------------------------------

That wouldn't be a stereotype. The stereotype would be IF the Japanese character HAD hari-kari-ed.

For 1910, it would have been very likely for an average anglo character to make such an assumption.

As to the one who ASKED if hari-kari was going to take place, that shows his own stereotyping.

Thankfully, the line was politically corrected for the 1960s, but then that behavior wasnt taking place then.

[–] BoultersCanary 18 years ago

[–] Akzidenz_Grotesk 18 years ago

I don't think that poster understood the word "subverted."

On a hot day,I know nothing better than a fine spiced pickle.T.Jefferson

[–] kinetica 18 years ago

if such a thing were possible, could we conceive the inconceivable?

Ticks Ticks thousands of ticks, and not one blessed TOCK among them!

[–] SnowMoonFalling 17 years ago

if such a thing were possible, could we conceive the inconceivable?

People do all the time: that's how new ideas are born!

"Honor is the gift a man gives himself."--Rob Roy

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] vpilutis 12 years ago

or Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".
I understand the English have yet to forgive him for that.

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] richard.fuller1 12 years ago

vpilutis: "or Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".
I understand the English have yet to forgive him for that."
-----------------------------------------------------

Actually, younger generations seem to be overlooking his dialect now, Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, that is, as I had a discussion with several a couple of years ago, asking what they thought.

I guess where Van Dyke as Bert is now concerned, he is enjoyed more for his dancing than he is for speaking.

The character of Mary Poppins was, from what I understand again, supposed to be a homely ugly old woman, like Nanny McPhee, I imagine, and obviously that wasn't Julie Andrews.

My own mother, who is English, was always unphased by Van Dyke's speaking in Mary Poppins.

When Harry Potter became a film (before I go further, let me say I have never read a Harry Potter book or even seen one), JK Rowling was asked how she felt about the book being changed for the movie, and she responded with how Willie Wonka was changed (again, Wilder and three of the kids weren't even European).

The final one would have to be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with American Van Dyke having two English kids and the English grandpa.

AS it is, over 40 years later for many of these movies, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is on Broadway, Oscar winners such as Funny Girl and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner are unheard of today, and the same for Willie Wonka, with an article about the kids today, but do we hear about the French Connection? Not at all.

So clearly casting hasn't hurt any of these films.

Now to go back and see what it was I said about this movie, Daring Men in Their Flying Machines.

[–] vpilutis 12 years ago

"Mary Poppins" has been on Broadway for some years now CCBB closed years ago.

talk about the French Connection my home subway stop is Bay 50th St where the car
train chase starts.

Back then the "B" train ran on that line (West End) the producers wanted a new unit so they used an "N" train. Both trains sometimes run on each others line
when track work is being done i.e. this weekend the Coney Island train is running on the N. Lastly the "D" runs on the West End and the B is now the part time Brighton Express.

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] scotpens 11 years ago

"The character of Mary Poppins was, from what I understand again, supposed to be a homely ugly old woman, like Nanny McPhee, I imagine, and obviously that wasn't Julie Andrews."

P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, described the character as having “shiny black hair . . . Rather like a wooden Dutch doll . . . she was thin, with large feet and hands, and small, rather peering blue eyes”. The book illustrations by Mary Shepard fleshed out this description a bit, but Mary Poppins was NEVER intended to be old or ugly.

"The final one would have to be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with American Van Dyke having two English kids and the English grandpa."

Or how about the first version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which the English girl Veruca Salt has an RP accent, while her father has a distinct Lancashire accent?

[–] franklinlj 10 years ago

I never bring up Rooney in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' in discussions like this. We all hated that.

[–] kinetica 18 years ago

it isn't rascist, it is an acknowledgment that we can't change who our parents were... but it can go too far, but other times it is a close form of friendship. Also it is more NATIONAL than racial as there is just the human race. And having people from the same nation should be a larger stronger team network than ethnicity.
It is a strength and a weakness.

Ticks Ticks thousands of ticks, and not one blessed TOCK among them!

[–] Scott0923 17 years ago

It's just like a Jap to notice something like this.

:)

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mch3172 16 years ago

I just like how Gert Frobe supplies his own "oompa" marching music when he walks.

"How will I learn to fly"
"Like we do everything else in the German Army, by the book of instructions!"

That and his Edwardian bathing suit in Prussian imperial colors.

[–] Johneme 15 years ago

It's tough to caricature Wilhelmine Prussia when there is the reality of the Captain of Kopenick. Wilhelm Voigt was a rascal who cobbled together pieces of a Prussian captain's uniform in 1906 (he was 57) and picked up German soldiers and marched them to the city hall of Kopenick, and there robbed the city treasury, after signing a receipt for the money in the name of his former jailer.

Also, almost contemporary with the fictional Magnificent Men is Murnau's, The Last Laugh.