Duck Soup (1933) — How Hard Is It to Run a Country?
Duck Soup is one of the finest and most unbridled product of the Absurdist Marx Brothers Comedy. A combination of slapstick comedy, timeless political satire comedy and also some musical. To make it simple, Duck Soup is arguably one of the most influential satirical and political comedy that ever been made and become an example of how satire comedy should be. You might ask what’s the title supposed to mean. Well, Duck Soup is a slang for something that very easy to do or it could be a slang for someone who’s easy to fool and the term is very suitable to deliver the point that the Marx brother trying to say about the movie.
The film starts with a story of fictional nation called Freedonia in a brink of bankruptcy due to mismanagement by its government and also on the verge of revolution. The country richest widow benefactress, Mrs.Gloria Teasdale, willing to support the government by offering $20 Million but only if it’s placed under new leadership of Rufus T.Firefly whom she characterize as a progressive fearless fighter. And to be fair, Firefly isn’t something like that at all, he’s a sociopathic,reckless, self-centered and incompetent yet the people still loves and trust him as a leader.
In the midst of political power shift in Freedonia, the ambassador of neighboring country of Sylvania, ambassador Trentino, planning and scheming to take Freedonia under their own flag with the help of two dimwitted spies Chicolini and Pinky that he hired to discredit Firefly in front of his own people that leads to war caused by hilarious reason. After all the whole plot is basically mocking the foreign relation and the absurdity of war at that time.
Duck Soup came out in 1993, the same year as Adolf Hitler elected as chancellor of Germany. The Rufus Firefly character is a parody of that typical authoritarian leader with how lousy and irresponsible they are with power of a nation under their command. We could see this from the very beginning of the film like how Firefly rise to power not by the votes of the people but bought with cash from Mrs.Teasdale as his sponsor, how Firefly ignore his cabinet and post his friend to position of power without consideration. Also, in the address of his law administration he make sure whoever taking graft he must get his share.
On the matter of war, Firefly forego democracy and send his nation Freedonia off to war with Sylvania just because he mix his personal feud against ambassador Trantiono with national interest. Things like this happened in our International Society just like how realism view the state as a reflection of its human ego and selfishness. For example, one of many reasons Adolf Hitler do the Anschluss (Austria Annex)not only for the sake of unification of Germany, but also to wash away the jews from his birthplace.
And back to the film there was a scene when Firefly send one of the spies to the battlefield and said “You’re a brave man, go and break through the lines. Also remember while you’re out there risking your life and limb through shout and shell we’ll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.” This scene shows how absurd the war is. The elite doesn’t really think of the soldiers that willing to die in battlefield for their country have a human value with them and see them as just mere an object.
But if you put it aside the political thingy that’s going on, actually it’s a fun film to watch. With intense comedy that built entirely from utter nonsense, slapstick and a lot of solid puns that executed in a very clever way that can make you laugh. Some might say this movie is one of those movies that you probably should watch before you die, so check it out!
-Rassya Axagoras
