The Producers: Max Bialystock as a Comic Hero - Essay Example

The biggest attribute that classifies Max Bialystock as a comic hero is the immense complexity of his character and his willingness to chase the apparently impossible and farfetched of ideas to ameliorate his situation. First and foremost it is the Max’s looks that wring out laughter from the most obstinate of the viewers. He is a debonair of some bygone age whose good looks have faded away with time, leaving him comically portly. Still, Max’s character is not all that simple. His devilish mind projects a discernible persuasive charm on his persona throughout the movie.

In case of Max, his life is real messy, and replete with diversity, with a more than generous sprinkling of twists and turns. Max is shown to be a onetime successful producer, who is desperate to wrench a break. His diabolically comical intentions find a way out when his woebegone accountant Leo points out a possibility of making a fortune out of a blatant and preplanned failure. It is the following conception and planning of would be Broadway failure that brings out the true comical temperament of Max with all its innate shades and hues.

True to the characteristics of a comic hero, Max evinces a high tolerance for disorder throughout this project that aptly suits the random and improvised nature of the plot. Everything seems to be going wrong. An atrociously Nazi play is selected, to be accompanied by all the anti-Semitist paraphernalia. A flamboyant and gay director, with a reputation for failure is put in charge of things. True to his comical charm, Max dallies with every worthy and old heiress in the town to solicit finances for the intended flop.

Everything would have seemed out of place and improper to a more sober hero. However, Max being a comic hero, tends to perceive the surprising and the unexpected as an opportunity rather than as a drawback. Everything in the plot seems to be loose ended and unpredictable. Yet, the talent of Max as a comic hero lies in his ability to churn out theatrical humor out of all the surrounding nonsense and ambiguity. The true mastery of Max over the comic vein is evinced by his ability to unearth a plethora of questions, without showing any inclination to solve anything.

He is preparing for a flop, and hence as per him, almost anything will do. The other comic aspect of Max’s personality is his talent for divergent thinking that time and again oozes out on the screen with well timed one liner. For instance, his remark when his play turns out to be a hit because of inadvertently turning out to be a parody of Nazism, that “We got the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did we got right”, tends to bring out the incongruity in the nature of creative arts, making him appear to be poignantly serious amidst an atmosphere replete with nonsensicality and disarray.

The other comic aspect of Max’s personality that is revealed time and again in the movie is his emotional disengagement with all the mess around him, with him being responding with wit, cynicism and irony to all that comes his way. For instance, his response to Ulla’s casting that is “That’s it baby! When you got it, flaunt it, flaunt it’, evinces the essential practicality and pragmatism of a comic hero. The biggest thing that secures for Max the crown of a comic hero in The Producers is the final reversal of fate, with him turning out to be