I don’t remember any humor in Schindler’s List, but then, it’s been awhile since I saw it.
I thought the part in “House of Sand and Fog” where the woman got hurt while spying on the construction being done at her old house was a bit funny. There were a few moments in there that weren’t really jokes, but were supposed to be a bit humorous.
It’s been too long since I saw “Monsters Ball”, but I think there was some joking in there.
I don’t remember anything funny in 8mm.
You’ve never found Chloe O’Brian funny? Mary Lynn Raskjub steals that show.
Platoon has a few.
The scene where Willem Dafoe and the boys are all getting stoned in the bunker starts with Dafoe’s character smiling and waving with big shit-eating grin. Sheen’s first toke naturally results in the typical newbie coughing spasm. One of the guys is doing curls while obviously zonkered and another guy exhales his smoke into his buddy’s air mask who then breathes in the residuals.
Not the stuff of knee-slappers but enough to lighten the tension.
Didn’t he do some partying that was amusing? Until he fell through the glass table, or similar, that is.
Not much comic relief in **Schindler’s List ** but at the train station, Schindler is looking for Stern his accountant who was mistakenly placed on a train.
He explains the situation to two guards who are slow to react. Schindler gets their names and assures them that this time tomorrow they’ll be serving an outpost in Siberia and then cut to the next scene where the two guards are shouting out “Stern! Itzhak Stern!”
Also for a darker slice of humor, when Goeth executes a guy at random because a chicken had been stolen, a little boy steps up and declares that he knows who did it. When asked “Who?” the boy points to the guy who was just shot and says “Him.”
Se7en, Platoon and I’m sure What Dreams May Come had a few elements of at least sarcastic humor.
Most war movies have at least some GI wisecrackery.
Not **Thin Red Line ** though.
The quick cut where Peter Boyle is mouthing off then kicked out looked like a deliberate edit for humor.
BTW, wouldn’t most Jerry Lewis movies fit this thread?
How about Very Bad Things? Last I heard it was supposed to be a dark comedy…they just forgot the comedy parts.
-Joe
The Machinist? I don’t remember anything to smile about there.
I wouldn’t say those movies are completely devoid of humor of any sort. For example, in The Hustler, there was a bit of wry humor in having Bert (George C. Scott) insist on drinking nothing but milk while in the pool hall.
Also, in The Hustler, Piper Laurie has a cute line about how she goes to school on, I dunno, Tuesday and Thursday. Paul Newman asks her what she does the other days, and she says “I drink.” It was funny.
**The Machinist ** doesn’t offer much. But there is the scene after Christian Bale’s character stages his own hit and run accident and is then seen limping to police head quarters.
You know he’s going to be pretty banged up but my wife actually laughed out loud when they showed the poor guy’s face. I had also assumed that it was intended it to be a form of gallows humor.
Osama
Brute Force
Napolean Dynamite
Ironweed with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep has to be one of the most depressing movies from start to finish ever made. The phenomenal acting just makes it more-so.
Was there any comic relief in Monster?
I don’t recall anything intentionally humorous in The 10 Commandments, Jesus of Nazareth, or Ben Hur.
Most anything starring Kevin Klien or Jim Carey.
I was going to mention Osama, but I think there was some sort of joking when the boys are in school (although even at that point the movie is tense enough that maybe it doesn’t count).
Other than some absurdism in a few situations, I don’t recall any humor in Hotel Rwanda.
For a movie not about a serious subject, Primer comes close (though there is some sarcasm, plus the scene with the guy who used to be in design).
I suppose documentaries are out - there are plenty that contain no humor.