Mel Brooks at 100: 8 movie scenes that capture his genius
Mel Brooks turned 100 on Sunday. To the 2000 Year Old Man, that probably wouldn’t seem like a big deal. For the rest of us, it was.
Few filmmakers in Hollywood history have remained this funny — or this relevant — for this long. Brooks’ improbable career, chronicled last year in a two-part HBO documentary, took him from defusing land mines during World War II to writing for Sid Caesar and reinventing movie comedy with hits like “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Spaceballs.” Along the way, he conquered Broadway and became one of the few entertainers to win an EGOT — an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
Even at the century mark, Brooks doesn’t seem especially interested in slowing down. A “Spaceballs” sequel is set for release next year. Asked by The Times in 2016, when he was 90, whether retirement held any appeal, Brooks joked, “Well, first of all, I don’t know how to play golf. I could play tennis if it was triples — not doubles. But if there were three on each side, I could cover my spot.”
Every Brooks fan has a favorite scene, and there’s a good chance yours isn’t on this list. That’s OK. We weren’t trying to settle the argument. These aren’t necessarily Brooks’ funniest scenes or his most famous — he didn’t even direct them all. Instead, we’ve highlighted eight moments that show his different sides, whether it’s his fearlessness, his showmanship or the warmth that so often ran beneath the anarchy. No handful of moments could tell the whole story. But these are a good place to start.