This is one of the funniest movies that utilized the irony between truth and fiction through the eternal clash between history and art; to present an enjoyable comedy which mocks at both!
Look at the movie's point of view out of its own cosmos: history is unknown, since nobody reads in the image's age. Cinema is just a lie to make a thrilling time, whether history is damaged or not; to create the artistic "lying" version of it. Movie stars are sick people after that creative lying sneaked into them, from their work to their daily behaviors, to become whether unfaithful to their wives (Michael Caine), or at least schizophrenic (Michelle Pefiffer). The director is a cat's-paw in the hands of a giant studio that wants nothing but money and down with the credibility. So, the writer becomes the last man standing, or the last honorable worrier for the truth; which turns him into the enemy. Consequently, he finds that the only heroic solution is to deal randomly and impudently, like all the others, to achieve just one thing he believes in, by the way he exactly wants. To grow eventually - despite all of his pure idealistic principles - into one of the liars, and a shield in the machine of cinema, not history, as the last shot reveals to us sarcastically; where (Alan Alda) listens to the TV reporter and her question about "the secret of his movie's success" to find no answer but smiling with vanity, or as a ridicule of everything!
This movie is hilarious, however so believable. The performance was flawless. In fact, the whole cast was great to an extent where you got to feel how this was not acting at all. The comedy was ironic and thoughtful in the same time, because of that top notch script by (Alan Alda) which was genius with some talented details: The short storyline of the old mother and her needing of lying to be happy, the big climax to achieve one victory by "the historical truth" side, and to embody the real conflict of the movie through a wonderful droll battle, not to mention small moments but so rich; like the scene of (Michael Caine) and his story about meeting (Winston Churchill); it could say a lot about the effect of WW2 on a character as disordered as his, however leaving the story as it is, true or false, is one wicked wink to us about the meaning of the movie, and its main irony.
Finally, did (Alda) mean that illusion is the Sweet Liberty from all the annoying facts that we live? Or that truth nowadays is the Sweet Liberty from all the lies that we sunk under them? Whatever the answer is, asking the question proves how (Alda) is an intelligent movie-maker, and how he managed to make profound and entertaining comedy. Actually, it's wholly rare plus interesting for me as a scriptwriter myself and a previous student of history too.
Look at the movie's point of view out of its own cosmos: history is unknown, since nobody reads in the image's age. Cinema is just a lie to make a thrilling time, whether history is damaged or not; to create the artistic "lying" version of it. Movie stars are sick people after that creative lying sneaked into them, from their work to their daily behaviors, to become whether unfaithful to their wives (Michael Caine), or at least schizophrenic (Michelle Pefiffer). The director is a cat's-paw in the hands of a giant studio that wants nothing but money and down with the credibility. So, the writer becomes the last man standing, or the last honorable worrier for the truth; which turns him into the enemy. Consequently, he finds that the only heroic solution is to deal randomly and impudently, like all the others, to achieve just one thing he believes in, by the way he exactly wants. To grow eventually - despite all of his pure idealistic principles - into one of the liars, and a shield in the machine of cinema, not history, as the last shot reveals to us sarcastically; where (Alan Alda) listens to the TV reporter and her question about "the secret of his movie's success" to find no answer but smiling with vanity, or as a ridicule of everything!
This movie is hilarious, however so believable. The performance was flawless. In fact, the whole cast was great to an extent where you got to feel how this was not acting at all. The comedy was ironic and thoughtful in the same time, because of that top notch script by (Alan Alda) which was genius with some talented details: The short storyline of the old mother and her needing of lying to be happy, the big climax to achieve one victory by "the historical truth" side, and to embody the real conflict of the movie through a wonderful droll battle, not to mention small moments but so rich; like the scene of (Michael Caine) and his story about meeting (Winston Churchill); it could say a lot about the effect of WW2 on a character as disordered as his, however leaving the story as it is, true or false, is one wicked wink to us about the meaning of the movie, and its main irony.
Finally, did (Alda) mean that illusion is the Sweet Liberty from all the annoying facts that we live? Or that truth nowadays is the Sweet Liberty from all the lies that we sunk under them? Whatever the answer is, asking the question proves how (Alda) is an intelligent movie-maker, and how he managed to make profound and entertaining comedy. Actually, it's wholly rare plus interesting for me as a scriptwriter myself and a previous student of history too.