Rick McGinnis: ‘…sitting down together for a movie regularly has always been as important as sitting down for a meal’

Rick McGinnis writes:

This might not be my kids’ favorite Marx Brothers film. Depending on the day that might actually be A Night At The Opera or The Big Store, but I always end up picking this satire of politics and war in some Ruritanian backwater, since it aligns most perfectly with a fond wish that my daughters will mistrust authority figures in general and politicians in particular. It’s the bedrock of my own worldview, and even more than our DNA, don’t we all hope that our opinions and beliefs are the legacy we pass on for posterity?

When they were smaller I’m sure they might not have caught most of Groucho’s asides, but that didn’t matter because they had the broad slapstick of Chico and Harpo to keep them laughing until Groucho’s relentless irreverence revealed itself as the engine of all that anarchy and mayhem. The real challenge will come later in life when they realize that politicians aren’t all so obviously pompous, venal, gutless or sinister, and that there’s rarely a Rufus T. Firefly around to flush them from their holes.