History of the World Part I Blu-ray – The Mel Brooks Collection

History of the World Part I Blu-ray
The Mel Brooks Collection Blu-ray
Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Dom De Luise
Directed by Mel Brooks
Originally released 1981
2:35:1 Widescreen
Fox Home Entertainment 2010
92minutes

History of the World Part I is now available on Blu-ray in The Mel Brooks Collection with eight other comedies by the 2000 Year Old Man. History of the World Part I is one of Brooks’ better movies but not quite as good as Young Frankenstein or Silent Movie which are also available in this collection. This comedy features more adult humor and language than most of the writer director’s other movies.

History of the World Part 1 is exactly that, ending with the    . There are a lot of visual verbal gags here but most of the humor is of course circumstantial and historical. This is a good movie but it spends a bit too much time in the Roman era and focused on Roman soldiers chasing Mel Brooks, Gergory Hines, Ron Carey, and the vestal virgin with them. There is also the problem of Dom DeLuise as the Roman emperor. Most annoying is the repetition of the horrible theme music that sounds like a rip-off of the Superman theme.

The Roman period ends with a great Last Supper gag.

The Spanish Inquisition and its hilarious musical number make for a nice change of pace. Look for Jackie Mason as a hanging Jew.

The French Revolution is also a good sketch in this comedy. It stars Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman as Count de Money. It’s good to be the king.

A particularly fun special feature on this Blu-ray is the Trivia Track.  You learn fun facts like the Vestal Virgins were played by Playboy Bunnies.

Other special features on this comedy Blu-ray are Musical Mel: Inventing “The Inquisition”; Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World; Isolated Score Track (DTS MA).

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