Kind of a Big Deal

June 5, 2023
New York University writing professor Austerlitz (Generation Friends) delivers an amusing examination of 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a spoof on 1970s newscasters. Interviews with star Will Ferrell, director Adam McKay, and other major players detail how the film got made, starting with Ferrell and McKay’s meeting in 1995 while working on Saturday Night Live, the energy of which McKay, the show’s head writer from 1996 to 2001, sought to capture in Anchorman by allowing the actors to improvise. Austerlitz’s thoughtful discussion of whether it’s “okay for us to enjoy Ron and his friends being objectively terrible” successfully interrogates how the film, in attempting to skewer the male bigotry of the 1970s, sometimes succumbed to bigotry itself (in Ben Stiller’s portrayal of a stereotyped Hispanic news anchor, for instance). However, Austerlitz overreaches in positing that “Anchorman has multitudes buried in its depths,” crediting the movie’s portrayal of misogynist newsmen with foreshadowing the #MeToo movement and positing that it’s “the film that, more than any other, has defined the course of twenty-first-century comedy to date.” Though Austerlitz doesn’t always persuade, this has enough behind-the-scenes insights to satisfy fans.

July 1, 2023

Many influential films have received exhaustive behind-the-scenes studies. Despite or perhaps due to its raunchy humor, Anchorman is absolutely deserving of this treatment. Austerlitz (writing and comedy history, New York Univ.; Generation "Friends") has taught Anchorman and its many themes in his classes. Featuring more than 60 original interviews, the book charts how significantly director Adam McKay and star Will Ferrell's script changed from its original version. Austerlitz also extols the crucial contributions made by the costume and set designers, provides a useful history of the 1970s news broadcasts that the film satirized, and explores the misogynistic behavior of Ferrell's Ron Burgundy character and his all-men news team whose lewd comments, readers may recall, consistently backfired, humiliating the men rather than their women targets. The book also mentions real-life TV journalists--Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, and Mark Halperin, for example--who were fired when allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct. Finally, Austerlitz explains the film's legacy, including the "Frat Pack" films that followed and Ferrell's and McKay's other projects (like Ferrell's George W. Bush--inspired play You're Welcome America). VERDICT An engaging read for fans of Ferrell and McKay's iconic film.--Peter Thornell

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2023
The story behind one of the most beloved comedies of the past couple decades. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy may be known for its catchphrases, sight gags, and wildly over-the-top plot, but this well-crafted tale reveals its unexpected feminist roots and satiric look at the changing business of news. Austerlitz, an adjunct professor of writing and comedy at NYU and author of numerous books about comedies on TV and film, assembles an impressive amount of research and reporting about the 2004 movie into an exhaustive, yet fast-paced text about how it was made and why. His use of an omniscient narrator places Anchorman in the context of not just Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay's work--as well as how it boosted the careers of Steve Carell and Paul Rudd--but also the discrimination against women in the workplace and the shifting priorities of local news. It's a heady combination, but Austerlitz pulls it off with style. He also offers revelations about the alternate version of Anchorman that got its own release, called Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, which featured an entire plot about a counterculture group of activists played by Chuck D and comedian Maya Rudolph. No matter how small the movie detail, the author provides some kind of insight that places it into the broader themes he wants to tackle. Take his explanation of the movie's use of the Starland Vocal Band's hit "Afternoon Delight." As he writes, "the song is a paean to love by a sensitive but cloddish white guy, and as such is the ideal vehicle for Ron's ode to love, which feels romantic while also being nothing of the sort." Austerlitz also has no problem questioning the sexist jokes that don't seem so funny anymore or why many of the jokes poking fun at homosexuality were always problematic. This surprising history doesn't just stay classy; it reveals how remarkably deep the Ferrell comedy really was.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2023
The 2004 comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is known for its jokes, but there's much more to the movie than its iconic one-liners. Comedy historian Austerlitz (Generation Friends, 2019) uses new interviews with the film's director and stars to explain how the movie was made, and original film analysis to explore its themes, including the proliferation of sexual abuse, sexism, and homophobia in the American workplace in the 1970s. For instance, he relays how Christina Applegate's character is loosely based on the career of television reporter Jessica Savitch, who like many female journalists struggled to break into the male-dominated field, and analyzes how David Koechner's character, Champ, is "simultaneously a homophobe and a closeted gay man," complicating the film's otherwise "less carefully considered" jokes about sexuality. Austerlitz doesn't have to stretch to make these and other points; rather, he puts a magnifying glass to what is already there in the movie. Anchorman fans will thoroughly enjoy this appraisal, and students of film criticism will learn from Austerlitz's readings. Sterling work.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.