{"id":771050,"date":"2026-09-15T03:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771050\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T03:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:42:18","slug":"the-phoney-1969-movie-mel-brooks-walked-out-of-halfway-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771050\/","title":{"rendered":"The “phoney” 1969 movie Mel Brooks walked out of halfway through"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vorobyaninov's<\/p>\n

Credit: UMC (Universal Marion Corporation<\/p>\n

Tue 15 September 2026 0:30, UK <\/p>\n

Just because he\u2019s become so synonymous with comedy, Mel Brooks<\/a> isn\u2019t only allowed to like movies designed to have audiences rolling in the aisles, with his personal tastes proving eclectic.<\/p>\n

One film he definitely doesn\u2019t like is Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Demolition Man, which he summed up as possibly the stupidest thing he\u2019s ever seen<\/a>, but a blockbuster sci-fi action flick wouldn\u2019t necessarily appeal to the brains behind some of Hollywood\u2019s most iconic and anarchic capers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a big fan of The Bourne Identity, calling it one of his favourites of the 21st century, and it ticks a lot of boxes associated with the pictures he used to love watching with his long-time best friend, Carl Reiner, with the duo proving to be a pair of suckers for anything<\/a> that involved securing a perimeter.<\/p>\n

The EGOT-winning veteran has been obsessed with \u2018Golden Age\u2019 musicals for as long as he can remember, not that they\u2019re \u2018Golden Age\u2019 musicals to him when he\u2019s old enough to remember them as modern-day cinema releases, and he\u2019s even got a soft spot for a little bit of horror now and then.<\/p>\n

However, when one of the medium\u2019s finest-ever auteurs crafted a decadent, debauched, and indulgent period piece that revelled in its own outlandishness, he\u2019d seen enough. The title in question runs for 129 minutes, but, according to Brooks, he barely made it past the hour mark before leaving.<\/p>\n

Summing it up as a big, fat slice of \u201cphoney baloney,\u201d the Blazing Saddles creator didn\u2019t hold back when sharing his feelings on an admittedly polarising Federico Fellini flick, although it was still one that earned him an Academy Award nomination for \u2018Best Director\u2019, even if it was rejected for \u2018Best International Feature\u2019 consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWrong! Wrong! Wrong!\u201d Brooks understatedly put it. \u201cFellini is a genius, but when he made Satyricon, I walked out in the middle.\u201d The filmmaker\u2019s hedonistic, Rome-set period piece isn\u2019t the easiest thing to get on board with, and you have to be in the right mindset<\/a> to exist on its wavelength, but the comic legend didn\u2019t even give it the time of day.<\/p>\n

Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n

By the midway point, he\u2019d seen enough, and no matter what unfolded in the back half of Satyricon, which was more of the same, to be honest, nothing could change Brooks\u2019 mind and have him consider attempting to make it all the way through on a second watch. Once was enough, and even at that, he feels like he wasted too many minutes of his life on it.<\/p>\n

The mastermind behind the first-ever fart joke to be beamed onto the big screen<\/a> doesn\u2019t come across as someone who\u2019d be particularly invested in Fellini\u2019s sprawling, impressionist, and occasionally phantasmagorical film, so he was at least living up to type by making his excuses and abandoning his one and only screening.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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