I usually never review TV movies on this site. But when I heard that PBS was doing a documentary on the great Mel Brooks for their “American Masters” program, it perked my interest almost immediately because I’m a fan of his work and I also consider him as the last great comedic director. That’s what drew me to “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise”.
Brooks has been in the show business for over sixty years. From his day as a writer of Sid Ceaser’s “Your Show of Shows” to his most notable films “The Producers”, “Blazing Saddles”, “Young Frankenstien” and “Spaceballs”, everything is highlighted in this documentary. It also feature interviews from Brooks, Mathew Broderick, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner and others that have appeared in his films and productions over the years.
It was a good thing that I was interested in watching “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise”, as this was a very good documentary that focused on the career of Mel Brooks.
One of the reason that I liked this was the fact that it had a raw feel to it. Director Robert Trachtenberg does very good job making sure that you’re not sitting there and watching the camera not stay still for eighty four minutes. The camera movements helped the time go by. Also, he and his director of photography dis a very job making sure it has a raw feel to it during the interviews. It helped drown some of the boring aspects that you see in a regular documentary has when it’s shot with a single camera.
The documentary also focuses on his body of work. It does a very good job covering his whole career from time that he wrote on Sid Ceasar’s show “Your Show of Shows” to the Broadway version of one of his famous films “The Producers”. There were some very good stories about his films and his hit play from some the actors involved in his productions like Bill Pullman (Spaceballs), Richard Lewis (Robin Hood: Men in Tights), Carl Reiner, Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein) and others. It also does a good job going into Mel Brooks. Whether about his personal life or the end of his film career, there were some interesting things that you never knew about him. The film also does a good job with the way it handles the archival footage from various things that Brooks was a part of over the years to old interview footage of the late Gene Wilder talking about Mel Brooks. It made the film feel complete to me.
DVD Extras:
The DVD only features an additional seventeen minute of deleted scenes. It features interviews from Brooks, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner and more. It was a nice addition, as it gave you more interesting stories of Brooks that weren’t featured in the film.. It’s worth checking out, after you watch this film.
Final Summary:
This is a must see, if you’re a fan of Mel Brooks. It’s a very good and interesting look at one of the masters of comedy.
Review Rating: Four Stars
DVD Extras: Two Stars
