From: strwbery_fields@webtv.net   
      
   Fool548891@aol.com   
   I challenge the verdict that "Anything Else" is his most political film.   
   At best, the whole paranoid\violence\lashing out thing was a subplot. I   
   would argue to put "Sleeper" in that position, which pokes fun at   
   politics from frame one to the last line.<<   
      
   >> Good point. His early funny ones are about revolution in the plot,   
   the future police state, fascist communism, Castro/Napoleon.   
      
   Along those lines I would inject that "Bananas" contains the most overt   
   political content of the early films, it opens with an assassination, he   
   dates an activist, becomes the leader. "Love & Death" espouses the most   
   philosophy. "Sleeper" was more about the future, and hypothetic farce   
   rather than soapboxing. All of these early films are topical, and   
   non-offensive with the political content. He never was a satarist along   
   the lines of Chaplin, who was often current in political farce.   
      
   From watching his movies we assume Woody believes Oswald didn't act   
   alone (AH), is pro-choice (H&HS), pro- gun control (AE) etc.,   
   traditional liberal, but it never prevents any persuasion to enjoy him,   
   because he always appears on the fence emotionally, subjective honesty.   
   Anything Else he takes a position, albeit by saying "don't be like me".   
   He takes it up a notch. JMO   
      
   Rather than argue a "verdict", I'll give a synopsis why the content of   
   AE hits me harder than prior references.   
      
   I would submit that the political content in AE isn't topical, and   
   serves a bigger, vital role in the theme than mere subplot. His movies   
   have gone through the motions each year like clockwork, masked in   
   nostalgia. AE takes place in a post 9/11 world. Not so blatant as Spike   
   Lee's "25th Hour", but it's present nonetheless. There's a scene where   
   he lists Falks' problems, dismisses the shrink, the girlfriend, says   
   there's no God, and where they stand the camera is directly pointing   
   where the 2 towers used to be. He takes the neurosis of old, and turns   
   it inward, for the first time it's a NEW New York, the look on Biggs   
   face as he's contemplating Dobel's pessimism, we know it's not nostalgia   
   any more. There's paranoia on the surface, and there's the feeling of a   
   deadline, a reckoning. Woody is no longer laying on the couch or playing   
   wimp, he's tearing up the contract, he's smashing the window. The   
   politics of mental masturbation may be just like 'anything else', and   
   even though the character "isn't happy with the suit, want's a new   
   suit", he hasn't solved the same old problems by the end, BUT he's   
   moving differently than usual. The tortured soul of inexperience, and   
   love is no longer inhibited by the crisis of an old, or middle-aged man   
   compromising for hollywood endings, he DOES move to L.A.   
   I suspect the reason the 1970s Woody was more popular is that very   
   youth. If he made "Annie Hall" today it would not resonate as much   
   because we don't buy it when he pretends he's "dating" today. This is   
   for a different generation.   
   The rage in AE is always beneath the surface if you look for it. David   
   Dobel is a great character/performance, and vital to the core of   
   Anything Else. Dobel not only smashes the window, and buys the gun in a   
   rather preachy sequence, he tells tales of beating the shrink with an   
   extinguisher, he means to shoot the cop in the ass. Is he making it up?   
   Perhaps, but there is wisdom in these jokes.   
      
   Never trust a Naked Bus Driver !   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)