MovieChat Forums > The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) Discussion > How serious was the politics in this?

How serious was the politics in this?

posted 18 years ago by epa101
7 replies | jump to latest

I love the Naked Gun films. This one certainly has the best plot. Do you think that the environmental thing in it was meant as a serious message? I notice at the end that they thank several environmental organisations, and have George Bush Snr. saying a few more things to support the Greens.

Do you reckon that they just tried to make this one lean a bit towards the Left after many of the jokes in the 1st one were a bit Right-leaning? I'm not saying that the 1st one was particuarly political. I just found that the combination of the very American patriot intro, the several jokes about police brutality and the whole task of saving the Queen's life gave a slightly unbalanced picture, so they may have decided to go [a very long way] in the other direction for number 2.

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[–] jessdon-1 18 years ago

Why can't a funny movie just be a funny movie? Or any movie just be a movie. Anyone who finds political agendas in films has an agenda themselves.

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[–] Act_Nice 18 years ago

Actually, the commentary with the Zucker brothers has one of them joking that the environmental issues in the movie were put in because of his fascination with the subject, not just for plot. So it obviously served some sort of political agenda in the minds of the writers.

Besides that, why can't somebody just ask a question on these boards? The message boards haven't been established to only include praise for films. Any subject relating to any given movie is allowed to be discussed so stop attacking this person for wanting to talk about a certain aspect of the film.

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[–] nhamer 18 years ago

As jessdon-1 was rude enough to point out people have political agendas. It's safe to assume that when writers write movies they are aware of any message they are conveying. In this case the politics are played up enough to make me believe it is a serious message.

Though I can't say I ever figured the first movie to be at all right-leaning.

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[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dauntless_twin_stick 17 years ago

I don't believe there was any agenda to this movie. The year before (1990) was the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. That kicked off a new wave of environmentalists and I believe the writers used it as a gag. Drebin is the first "Environmental Police Officer".

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[–] stevenackerman69 17 years ago

No, I think they were just having fun with all those types of people. You're not supposed to take anything these films say or do seriously, which is the point.

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[–] skiop 17 years ago

Come on, they skewered the left like crazy in this movie. I'm a Democrat and I think this is the funniest of the series, but I can't deny it. I don't think the first one was right-leaning either. It was more of a spoof of the tough policeman movies (ala Dirty Harry), that some have taken as conservative, pro-violence propaganda.

I have no taste, but that just means there's less of a chance that I'll get eaten

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