Grant never won an Oscar, but has become one of the most acclaimed film stars ever. For those who find this film "trite, dated, and boring" I dare you watch it without laughing at least a few times and smiling a few more. This film accomplishes what most of us pay to see - it entertains without being preachy or sending a message. Not that this last effort doesn't have a message. Smantha Eggers fiancé plays the bureaucratic type we have all meet through the course of our lives, and it fun to laugh at him.
This film is a remake of another film made during WWII. It was about another crowded city, for a much more serious reason. The War had drawn tens of thousands from outside the city, to fight the largest war yet. Movies for war time audiences(the film industry was at its height) were not interested in "message movies", they just wanted a few hours of light entertainment and a bag of popcorn to forget about the War.
Grant's career, which everyone seems to think remarkable, was made up of a staple of films that expose his comedic talents. "Bringing Up Baby and "The Bachelor and the Boby Soxer" are no more or less than "Walk, Don't Run" but the meat and potatoes of Grant's films. He did made some films, like "Destination Toyko" which could be considered a serious melodrama aimed at helping the War effort, but his pairing with Tony Curtis in a film about a pink submarine was far more Grant-like in that it was funny and more entertaining to watch today. What age does to any art form is most important in judging its value as an art form.
"Walk Don't Run" doesn't pretend to be serious-its a comedy. If it makes you laugh or smile, its mission has been accomplished. Whether it makes money, was only important at the time the film was made. It now belongs to the Ages.
If someone is looking for a message, I think the film is about the last truly amateur Olympics. Some have described Hutton's character as a dullard. I would describe him as ambitious, unpretentious, and a true amateur sportsman. Since he finished 10th in the Walk Marathon, he represents the average athlete-only a few go home with medals.
Everyone who looks back at any film, novel, or play, must remember the time in which it was written. Virginity and social correctness meant one thing in 1964, just as they mean another in 2007. Who knows what they will mean, if anything another 43 years from now? Just as Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" was a satire about Victorian society which doesn't exist anymore, the play is still being performed today.
This film is a remake of another film made during WWII. It was about another crowded city, for a much more serious reason. The War had drawn tens of thousands from outside the city, to fight the largest war yet. Movies for war time audiences(the film industry was at its height) were not interested in "message movies", they just wanted a few hours of light entertainment and a bag of popcorn to forget about the War.
Grant's career, which everyone seems to think remarkable, was made up of a staple of films that expose his comedic talents. "Bringing Up Baby and "The Bachelor and the Boby Soxer" are no more or less than "Walk, Don't Run" but the meat and potatoes of Grant's films. He did made some films, like "Destination Toyko" which could be considered a serious melodrama aimed at helping the War effort, but his pairing with Tony Curtis in a film about a pink submarine was far more Grant-like in that it was funny and more entertaining to watch today. What age does to any art form is most important in judging its value as an art form.
"Walk Don't Run" doesn't pretend to be serious-its a comedy. If it makes you laugh or smile, its mission has been accomplished. Whether it makes money, was only important at the time the film was made. It now belongs to the Ages.
If someone is looking for a message, I think the film is about the last truly amateur Olympics. Some have described Hutton's character as a dullard. I would describe him as ambitious, unpretentious, and a true amateur sportsman. Since he finished 10th in the Walk Marathon, he represents the average athlete-only a few go home with medals.
Everyone who looks back at any film, novel, or play, must remember the time in which it was written. Virginity and social correctness meant one thing in 1964, just as they mean another in 2007. Who knows what they will mean, if anything another 43 years from now? Just as Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" was a satire about Victorian society which doesn't exist anymore, the play is still being performed today.