I have been trying to understand the mechanics of movie-making, as I’d like to write a screenplay some day. Maybe I am “basic”, but I do think some of this is meant to get “back to basics” for people. I have watched plenty of obscure movies, and a lot of them lack nuance or pacing. The concept that carries them is little different than the concept carrying an ostensibly simple movie.
What interests me is the mechanics of big-budget films. I personally tend to overthink things, and sometimes movies like these work for a person like me. It’s not even about being funny or not (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is still funny to me, this one, having seen it for the first time now, is not that funny).
As with a lot of 80s movies, this comedy trope, and Harold Ramis in general, pushes a “moral of the story” that is effectively meant to comfort people who have spent their lives trying to have a normal life and fit in. They imagine this idealized family situation with picket fences and trips to Disneyland, but they find the cold reality creeping in: some people are scum, and they will screw you over every chance they get. It seems that the key, to Ramis at least, is to go crazy with the right intentions. If you go crazy with the wrong intentions, you end up like the trashy cousin, or the bitter old great aunt. If you go crazy with a neurotic focus on family and bonding, you’ll be fine, no matter what. Then, just when you think the SWAT team is going to put you in jail or kill you, some bit of extraordinary good fortune will come to the rescue and everything will turn out okay.
In other words, if you go around expecting the best out of people, which is to say, if you go around trying to cram other people into your idealized reality that you gleaned from television, although it might work less often than you like, you will end up with an idealized happy ending in one way or another. The notion of writing something like this must feel like trying to condense hope into a bottle, and then also sell it. It’s kind of fascinating that it works for many people, that these sort of cheesy blockbuster movies are mythical parables of so-called “universal truths”. The cold reality is, of course, that if you go around trying to fit the rest of your world into a series of expectations that aren’t suitable, you’ll end up with disappointment.
However, one universal truth that is reflected in this movie, is that if you work through your ego only, you’ll end up humiliated in one way or another, eventually. …And maybe after you’re completely humbled by these experiences, something you did that was crazy and courageous might end up feeling worthwhile in the end. Or maybe I’m overthinking it.