Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

The makers of this long documentary, chiefly Judd Apatow, must have set out to celebrate their comedy hero, but the finished product doesn't do him many favors. By concentrating together so many of his public and television appearances, it becomes vividly clear that Brooks's massive ego has removed his filters. Many comedians have a compulsive need to feel love through making people laugh, but few have it so bad that they'll verbally shove aside whoever else is talking and seize the floor and crack wise so much that no one else can get a word in edgewise. There's a story here about the night that Brooks met and fell instantly in love with Anne Bancroft that I think is meant to be endearing but comes across as cringeworthy, when, from the audience of her musical, he was so struck by her beauty that he stood up during her song and started loudly making jokes to get her attention. I guarantee you that not everyone in that theater agreed with Brooks's opinion that anything he wanted to say in that moment was the most valuable sound that could fill the room.

Still, though, Brooks has made an enormous and invaluable contribution to comedy and to cinema, and as this tribute re-affirms, his work is indeed often very funny. The stories that his colleagues share about him in old footage, when he stops interrupting them from off camera, communicate the love and respect that they feel for him. The clips here, taken from hits and flops alike, all sparkle with his wit. The passages of the documentary covering the criticism he's endured over the years for his tasteless ongoing satire of the Nazi Party, in which he was denounced for making off-color and desensitizing jokes about such evil, make a great point when they come after the part about his fighting in World War II: This man was literally belly-down in the dirt exchanging fire with Nazis close enough that he could hear their conversations, and you snobs are going to lecture him about what's inappropriate to say about them? Bravo to this film for standing up for him in this way, and for being honest about how obnoxious he can be when that compulsion to interrupt takes over, but four hours is about as long as I think I can spend in his company.

− May 20, 2026 • more by Scott • log in or register to reply