History of the World: Part I (1981)
Directed by Mel Brooks

Film Review

Mel Brooks takes us on a whistle-stop tour of human history in this spirited but generally humorless attempt to parody the epic costume dramas of previous decades.  Whilst it was a significant box office success, History of the World: Part I is one of Brooks' lesser films, poorly structured and lacking the focus of his previous great comedy send-ups.  Apart from the spirited Spanish Inquisition sequence, a full-blown MGM-style musical number that is a monument to bad taste (complete with swimming nuns), the film lacks sparkle and is far too scattergun in its humour.  Most of the jokes are crude and fail to extort more than a grudging groan from the spectator, although the film's production values are generally impressive.  Brooks appears to be far too in awe of the target of his lampoonery to be effective at sending it up.  The director never intended to make a follow-up film; the film's title is a sly reference to Walter Raleigh's The History of the World, of which only the first volume was completed before Raleigh was executed for treason.  How Brooks escaped a similar fate for inflicting this comedy disaster on an unsuspecting public is a mystery.

Film Synopsis

Man has barely grown accustomed to walking upright before he invents fire, marriage, art and music.  Then his problems really begin... At the time of the Roman Empire, stand-up philosopher Comicus is delighted when he is offered a spot at Caesar's palace.  Unfortunately, the emperor does not appreciate his humour and he ends up having to run for his life, pursued by the Roman army.  During the French Revolution, Mademoiselle Rimbaud appeals to King Louis XVI of France to free her father from the Bastille, offering herself if he will show mercy.  When the king is warned by his advisers that his life is in peril, he saves himself by swapping his identity with his piss boy, who soon discovers the downside of being a monarch...