'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' chronicles the comedic genius of a living legend

Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio person made a two-part, four-hour documentary astir a drama idol, “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!,” premiering Thursday connected HBO and HBO Max. It follows Apatow’s “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling” and “George Carlin’s American Dream,” besides directed with Bonfiglio, successful a increasing room of comic biographies; a movie connected Norm Macdonald is successful the works.

It’s a fundamentally chronological telling of the beingness and enactment of a antheral who helped signifier the drama of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and arsenic an influence, of the ‘80s and ‘90s and beyond — determination is possibly nary “Airplane!,” nary “Austin Powers,” without the way blazed by “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” When I told my person Jack, 33, that a “Spaceballs” sequel is coming, co-starring and co-written by Brooks, helium could not person been much excited.

It’s besides arsenic a emotion story, oregon stories: that of Brooks and 2nd woman Anne Bancroft; of Brooks and champion person and double-act spouse Carl Reiner; of the emotion of the assemblage for the work, and the emotion betwixt characters successful the work, which mightiness not ever beryllium evident but is wide to Brooks. (“He’s a loving man. It’s astir emotion with him,” says Richard Pryor, 1 of the writers connected “Blazing Saddles.”) There’s a subtle sweetness to the documentary that tin beryllium rather moving, particularly if the enactment means thing to you, arsenic well. I grew up connected the New York Jewish dependable of Brooks arsenic the 2000 Year Old Man and the soundtrack medium to “The Producers,” which included ample sections of dialogue; I cognize its inflections similar 1 mightiness internalize each constituent of a fashionable song. It’s euphony to me.

I besides laughed a lot, adjacent astatine clips from movies I mightiness not person laughed astatine before, which makes a people of rewatching consciousness inevitable.

After Brooks apprenticed arsenic a teen entertaining successful the Catskills and served successful World War II, Sid Caesar hired the young comedian connected his ain dime to constitute for “Your Show of Shows.” He joined a murderers’ enactment of Jewish drama geniuses there, led by Mel Tolkin (born successful a shtetl adjacent Odessa, Ukraine) and including Neil Simon, Norman Lear, Larry Gelbart, Lucille Kallen and Selma Diamond, with contributions from co-star Reiner. Woody Allen came connected committee for “The Sid Caesar Show” and “Caesar’s Hour.”

Mel Brooks with 2nd woman Anne Bancroft arsenic seen successful HBO’s “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”

(Mel Brooks / HBO)

When Brooks failed to person Caesar to discontinue TV and marque movies with him, which helium saw arsenic the much durable medium, helium struck retired himself, reducing his income from $5,000 to $85 a week. Even erstwhile he’d been doing well, his ambitions were inextricable from anxiety, and it wasn’t until “Get Smart!,” the 1965 sitcom helium created with Buck Henry, that his fortunes turned around. “The Producers” followed, which was not initially a large fiscal oregon captious success; antagonistic reviews are displayed here. (In “History of the World, Part I,” helium had a caveman professional urinating connected cave art.) But it earned Brooks an Oscar for penning and started something.

“Blazing Saddles,” a occidental astir racism, with farting, followed “The Twelve Chairs,” an underappreciated, superior benignant of drama and a tonal anomaly successful his canon. An tremendous occurrence (“We went to that movie similar it was a concert,” recalls “Dumb and Dumber” manager Peter Farrelly), “Blazing Saddles” codified the Brooksian style, mixing astute humor, debased humor, surreal humor, metahumor, satire, show gags, slapstick and an insouciant impudence that smelled similar freedom. “Young Frankenstein,” different immense success, came next, with different genre parodies — “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “History of the World,” with its immense accumulation fig based connected the Spanish Inquisition, “Spaceballs,” “Robin Hood: Men successful Tights,” “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” — lined up behind. And then, aft a spell, came the Broadway philharmonic adaptations of “The Producers” (which won a grounds 12 Tonys and became a movie successful turn) and “Young Frankenstein,” their scores written by Brooks.

One of the advantages of taking Brooks arsenic a taxable is that helium likes to talk, and is astute and comic erstwhile helium does. (Interviewer: “You mislaid your begetter astatine an aboriginal age.” Brooks: “No, no. My begetter died.”) “Your Show of Shows” shaper Max Liebman called him “a quality interruption,” and Gelbart observes, “Mel thought erstwhile helium got slapped successful the ass by the doc who delivered him that was applause, and helium has not stopped performing since.”

“The 99 Year Old Man!” supports Apatow’s caller at-home interviews with decades of speech amusement and sheet appearances, which the directors mightiness chopped betwixt to conception a patchwork mentation of a azygous anecdote — the oft-told “Cary Grant” ne'er gets aged — and providing a representation of Brooks done the ages. Time, inevitably, is simply a taxable of specified a film, and though mortality isn’t specifically connected the agenda, galore radical seen present are nary longer live — not conscionable Brooks’ peers, who are each gone, and Bancroft, who died successful 2005, but David Lynch, whom Brooks hired to nonstop “The Elephant Man,” and Rob Reiner, who has a comic communicative astir gathering him arsenic a child.

Mel Brooks, left, connected the acceptable of “The Producers” with histrion Gene Wilder successful 1967. (Sam Falk / The New York Times)

Bill Pullman, left, Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis connected the acceptable of “Spaceballs.” (Moviestore postulation Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

Brooks is forthcoming astir the debased points successful his beingness and career. When helium met his aboriginal 2nd woman successful 1961 — oregon rather, shouted “Anne Bancroft! I’m Mel Brooks!” from retired successful the theatre wherever helium archetypal saw her rehearsing for a TV broadcast, past proceeded to travel her astir for days — helium was wholly broke. (She would wage for meal erstwhile they went out, but gaffe him the wealth to sphere his ego.) “I was successful emotion with him instantly,” Bancroft said, “because helium looked similar my father, and helium acted similar my mother.”

As pictured here, their narration is simply a delight, not the slightest due to the fact that they look truthful delighted with each other. Though Brooks calls himself funny-looking wherever Bancroft was a large quality each her life, they made a handsome couple; the photographs are wonderful. On immoderate tandem tv appearances they harmonize, advertisement lib, connected “For Me and My Gal,” and sing “Sweet Georgia Brown” successful Polish (as successful their co-starring remake of “To Be oregon Not To Be.”) They are fantastic successful a meta occurrence of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” echoing the crippled of “The Producers,” successful which Larry David is formed arsenic a replacement Max Bialystock, successful bid to adjacent the show.

Newly interviewed subjects see Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Nick Kroll, Patton Oswalt, Dave Chappelle (who was 19 erstwhile Brooks formed him successful “Robin Hood”), Cary Elwes (doing a wicked Brooks imitation), Conan O’Brien, Josh Gad, Robert Townsend, Jerry and David Zucker, Barry Levinson, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Brooks’ 4 children and granddaughter Samantha.

There is treatment of Jewishness (“There isn’t anybody our property oregon up that didn’t person the pridefulness of Mel being Jewish,” Sandler tells Apatow), of the appropriateness of Hitler jokes (“Comedy destroys the dignity of the enemy”) and of the uses of humor: “I support earnestly determination is thing that is not the taxable for comedy,” says Brooks, “because drama is simply a sensational and sometimes spectacular governmental weapon.”

“I consciousness I‘m doing a large work to mankind by bringing important ideas successful the signifier of large creation to the public,” helium says of his studio, Brooksfilms (which, too “The Elephant Man,” produced David Cronenberg’s “The Fly,” the Frances Farmer biopic “Frances” and the Caesar-inspired “My Favorite Year”). “And successful instrumentality each I privation is simply a batch of money.” But helium besides lives for “the infinitesimal an assemblage volition wantonness its dignity and its self-respect” and laugh.

“You springiness them a small sweetness,” helium says, “you get it back.”