Genre-Busting Dark Comedies of the 1970s

<p> This examination of dark comedies of the 1970s focuses on films which concealed black humor behind a misleading genre label. <I>All That Jazz</I> (1979) is a musical...about death--hardly Fred and Ginger territory. This masking goes beyond misnomer to a breaking of formula that director Robert Altman called anti-genre. Altman's <I>MASH</I> (1970) ridiculed the military establishment in general--the Vietnam War in particular--under the guise of a standard military service comedy. The picaresque <I>Western Little Big Man</I> (1970) turned the bluecoats vs. Indians formula upside-down--the audience roots for the Indians instead of the cavalry.</p><p> The book covers 12 essential films including <I>Harold and Maude</I> (1971) <I>Slaughterhouse-Five</I> (1972) <I>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</I> (1975) and <I>Being There</I> (1979) with notes on <I>A Clockwork Orange</I> (1971). These films reveal a compounding complexity that reinforces the absurdity at the heart of dark comedy.</p>