Thursday, 03 September 2009 21:37
The Greatest Man in the World by James Thurber
VHS, 51 min., 1980
1937: Admiral Byrd is a hero; Lucky Lindy is a hero. Enter the next hero-aviator in the person of Jack "Pal" Smurch, a primitive, illiterate incorrigible lout who just happens to succeed in flying non-stop around the world. Cheers. Adulation. And into the limelight he’s catapulted, this gin-soaked, uncouth, stubble-faced boor, now a potential national embarrassment. This wild tale of heroism gone awry, for all its humor, is a deft assault on the hypocrisy behind official "respectability."
1937: Admiral Byrd is a hero; Lucky Lindy is a hero. Enter the next hero-aviator in the person of Jack "Pal" Smurch, a primitive, illiterate incorrigible lout who just happens to succeed in flying non-stop around the world. Cheers. Adulation. And into the limelight he’s catapulted, this gin-soaked, uncouth, stubble-faced boor, now a potential national embarrassment. This wild tale of heroism gone awry, for all its humor, is a deft assault on the hypocrisy behind official "respectability."
Category:
Literature