Pardon the grumpiness, but "Bachelor Party" might be the most misogynistic comedy ever realized on screen. At least that I've seen. There's room to be forgiving of the attitude toward women that most 20th century films have, but "Bachelor Party" seems to bend over backward to make women the butt of the joke — or more accurately to this film, the t**s.
"Bachelor Party" sees bus driver Rick (Tom Hanks) and retail worker Debbie (Tawny Kitaen) deciding to get married, launching Rick's sad sack of a friend group — Jay (Adrian Zmed), Gary (Gary Grossman), Rudy (Barry Diamond), and Ryko (Michael Dudikoff) — into discussion of the hookers they're going to hire. Meanwhile, Rick's disapproving future father-in-law (George Grizzard) convinces his preferred choice for Debbie, Cole (Robert Prescott) to sabotage the party and the engagement. The film is the series of gags that ensue, which also includes what happens at Debbie's shower.
So many films of this era are patterned this way, with sex-themed debauchery the primary objective. What sets "Bachelor Party" apart — in all the wrong ways — is its one- dimensional (that dimension being sex-crazed) characters whom it holds up as being cool and clever despite programming them to do nothing but objectify women. Of course Rick is written to be the exception — and serve as the film's argument for why it isn't sexist.
Bob Israel, with writers Neal Israel and Pat Proft —who just a few months before this film released their first "Police Academy" movie — write a funny screwball comedy in many respects, but so many jokes are contrived and tailored to sexual situations, i.e. laughs that come at the expense of women (and in one case, a trans character). That it even flirts with a character having sex with a donkey is sad. Other things can be funny.
The film's ambition to be the next "Animal House" is so transparent that it borders on pathetic. There's its use of Mozart to create irony similar to the opening of "Animal House," but the coup de grace is when Rudy, the character with rocks for brains (aka this movie's Bluto/John Belushi), is seen chugging a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Only "Animal House" can be "Animal House." That film at least made up for its treatment of women with a unique quirkiness, charming characters and a greater purpose in evoking the nostalgia of the vintage collegiate experience.
Israel and Proft do a killer job in one respect — Rick's dialogue. In spite of everything around him, Hanks might give his funniest performance of all time in this movie. His lines are razor sharp and display incredible wit and Hanks oozes with charm. His work and character salvage the movie and then some.
It feels harsh to go after a film from 1984 for being misogynistic; "Bachelor Party" was far from the lone perpetrator. Yet the design of this movie calls particular attention to its penchant for exploitation and sours the experience of revisiting this comedy in a way it doesn't for other similar films.
~Steven C
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"Bachelor Party" sees bus driver Rick (Tom Hanks) and retail worker Debbie (Tawny Kitaen) deciding to get married, launching Rick's sad sack of a friend group — Jay (Adrian Zmed), Gary (Gary Grossman), Rudy (Barry Diamond), and Ryko (Michael Dudikoff) — into discussion of the hookers they're going to hire. Meanwhile, Rick's disapproving future father-in-law (George Grizzard) convinces his preferred choice for Debbie, Cole (Robert Prescott) to sabotage the party and the engagement. The film is the series of gags that ensue, which also includes what happens at Debbie's shower.
So many films of this era are patterned this way, with sex-themed debauchery the primary objective. What sets "Bachelor Party" apart — in all the wrong ways — is its one- dimensional (that dimension being sex-crazed) characters whom it holds up as being cool and clever despite programming them to do nothing but objectify women. Of course Rick is written to be the exception — and serve as the film's argument for why it isn't sexist.
Bob Israel, with writers Neal Israel and Pat Proft —who just a few months before this film released their first "Police Academy" movie — write a funny screwball comedy in many respects, but so many jokes are contrived and tailored to sexual situations, i.e. laughs that come at the expense of women (and in one case, a trans character). That it even flirts with a character having sex with a donkey is sad. Other things can be funny.
The film's ambition to be the next "Animal House" is so transparent that it borders on pathetic. There's its use of Mozart to create irony similar to the opening of "Animal House," but the coup de grace is when Rudy, the character with rocks for brains (aka this movie's Bluto/John Belushi), is seen chugging a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Only "Animal House" can be "Animal House." That film at least made up for its treatment of women with a unique quirkiness, charming characters and a greater purpose in evoking the nostalgia of the vintage collegiate experience.
Israel and Proft do a killer job in one respect — Rick's dialogue. In spite of everything around him, Hanks might give his funniest performance of all time in this movie. His lines are razor sharp and display incredible wit and Hanks oozes with charm. His work and character salvage the movie and then some.
It feels harsh to go after a film from 1984 for being misogynistic; "Bachelor Party" was far from the lone perpetrator. Yet the design of this movie calls particular attention to its penchant for exploitation and sours the experience of revisiting this comedy in a way it doesn't for other similar films.
~Steven C
Thanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more