![The In-Laws (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91HvTYv-jIL._AC_UL165_SR165,165_.jpg)
This is probably my favorite movie of all time. It was filmed during a low point in international politics, the so-called "cold war" period. Since I was a young person during this era and remember the fear it engendered, seeing the film put life into perspective and was a positive, enlightening, and healthy experience.
As an adult, I can appreciate the panic of the "invaded" villagers; I could almost have seen a similar behavior arising in the small Midwestern town I lived in as a child had something like it occurred. The rapidity with which information was transmitted and distorted throughout the community by word of mouth was familiar to me. In fact it reminds me of the time an upset busybody called my mother to report that my brother had "spun the wheels" of the family car at a stop sign outside her house. My mother, who had just arrived home merely said, "Oh no, that was me!" On another occasion I ended up in a ditch during stormy weather, and my parents were almost instantly aware of it via the back fence hot-line and rescue was on the way before I even had a chance to chill. (There's a good side and a bad side to the hot line of small towns.)
The Romeo and Juliet of the film are more sensible than in Shakespeare's play. With Juliet's Capulet and Romeo's Montegue at a stand off, they fall in love but agree to wait for better times. That makes them far more sensible and adult than their respective "families!" Someone should make another movie showing what happened after the collapse of the USSR; did they actually get together? After some 25 years of waiting, was the attraction still there?
My favorite scene is that of the telephone operator and the playwrite (Carl Reiner), "Wittaker Walt" as the Russian squad leader (Alan Arkin) calls him, tied together with phone cord, attempting to escape the office to warn people of the potential for disaster. The gentle poke at conventions respected even in a time of apparent disaster was funny, as was the horror of the two at each anticipated minor catastrophy, already well recognized by the audience.
One of the best features of the DVD version is the interview with the director Norman Jewison, who discusses the political climate of the period and the effect of the film on both sides of the contretemps. That the Russians actually saw the film and were impressed by it was something I had not even suspected when I first got the VHS version years ago.
As the story points out, the Russians and the Americans were just people, and people with the same desires: personal safety and a chance to have and raise their families. They may be caught up in the mutual insanity of world politics, but at heart they are all world villagers whose concern for the life of a small child, one who might well be their own, is still uppermost. The director and author managed to portray the ignorance and fear that arise from a lack of contact and the manipulation of the political elite in both countries to keep that fear enflamed. Agendas abound, and they are often those that benefit those in control more than they do the individual people of either country. This allows countries as entities to do without question things we might never do as individuals. We might do well to take note; it's still going on.
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2010
- Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2011
Top reviews from other countries
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Giulio PeruginelliReviewed in Italy on October 16, 2017
ottimo film ed ottimo venditore
- Steven D.Reviewed in Japan on December 8, 2023
If only we could forget the politics!
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2016
Another great quality of the movie is the choice of both ...
