Sullivan's Travels

A Journey We Can All Learn From

Director: Preston Sturges
Release Date: 1941
Rating: U
Running Time: 90 mins
Genre: Screwball Comedy
Sarring: John McCrea, Veronica Lake

"But nothing's going to stop me. I've got to find out what it's like to be without friends, without credit, without chequebook, without name. Alone"

I was recently introduced to the concept of Screwball Comedies having had no idea about the genre in the past. Thriving in the 1930's and 40's, the films adopted a genre of comedy similar to that of Film Noir, but with a slightly more light-hearted twist. The films distinguish themselves for their masculine and feminine characters battling for control and also for their battle of classes in those times. Needless to say the films featured a generous amount of conflict yet shown in a rather comical way to create the humorous element that was almost seen as a rarety when the film was first released.

With regard to this film, Sullilvan's Travels, one of which I will shamefully admit, despite being an early Hollywood classic, I had never actually heard of before viewing. We're taken on a journey with our lead: Joel McCrea playing John R Sullivan or Sully to his friends, an ignorant movie director, who wants to see the world through the eyes of a poor man suffering poverty, before then making a picture about the topic. It's an interesting concept for a film, and highlights perfectly the class conflicts that were common in the genre around the time. But what's more interesting about Sullivan's Travels is the way that Sully keeps being warned not to make this picture, it's not what he knows and it's not what the people around the time wanted to see. Emphasising how in cinema, people wanted escapism  rather than realism. Even at the end, Sully expresses how he wants to make a comedy instead of a drama, which his producers and crew are still surprised by. This is interesting given that the film itself is infact a comedy and you can wonder if Sturges battled with the same problems making the film as his protagonist.

In the early parts of the film we see him heading down the road in a Pingu like fashion, wielding a scrawny satchel and followed by a lorry full of his film crew. It's hard to really get a grasp of what's going on in the early parts of the film due to the fast dialogue and, if I'm honest slightly unclear narrative. I struggled to understand quite a lot, and clearly it's a film that may require a re-view. 

For me, it's a film where we see the story go from bad to worse in the characters case, but for the audience, it leaves us with some hilarious moments. It's feel is light overall, though does gradually get darker throughout the film, although the end message leaves us feeling positive understanding of the importance of people's laughter and how the people rely on it so much. It represents the time as well of course, early 40's, and how there was a lot of harrowing events occurring: poverty, bankrupsy, depression and of course the outbreak of WWII. It's a reminder of how important it is to simply, laugh.

There's a strong sense of how important money can be to people, and in John R Sullivan's case, he feels as though it can buy him whatever he needs, whether that's friendship or even freedom. We see him suffer poverty, assault and even imprisonment, but the whole time I felt that, the rich cannot understand the poor in the same way, no matter how hard they try. It didn't matter on the situation, or how bad things got, Sully could always get out of the problems, with proper health care, food, comfortable sleeping that his money was able to buy him, where as a man living in severe poverty like Sully was trying to, would not be awarded the same luxuries. This shows a lot about the American ideologies such as the 'American Dream' and how for many, it was something never experienced. The film gave the feeling of a protagonist who in this case was slightly flawed and not really one you can really get behind in support of. Everything bad that goes on, which (Spoiler alert) is quite a lot, happens purely Sully's own decisions, showing how he himself is flawed and the dark comedy element is brought out. 

One famous face I did recognise in this film however, was the very beautiful and famous Film-Noir actress Veronica Lake. I found Lake's performance to be one of a strong female character, but due to the time, had no real power in any circumstance during the film. She made important suggestions and showed how smart women in that time could be, but still the film, like most 40's Hollywood, felt to be slightly misogynistic.

So maybe these two characters, flawed for different reasons, tied in with the poverty aspects can sum up perfectly the function and intention of a Screwball comedy. There are as well, a few narrative flaws which are glossed over, and there's a lot of motifs and symbolism revolving trains, they themselves playing a huge part in the story, but if I'm being honest, I struggled to work out one exact answer for this enigma. Overall however, it was an enjoyable watch, proving how early 40's classics can still stand out as great cinema, which, though now only really targets a niche audience, it can still entertain and be loved.

7/10