Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ken Hughes, UK 1968, 144 mins

Just the sound of the title evokes memories of childhood - carefree days when you believed that hey, of course a car could fly; after all, why not? This is what we at Edinburgh University Film Society are relying on. What is required here is not a review of a film everyone knows back to front, rather an appeal to the inner child repressed beneath the academic propaganda forced on you by university ogres. Therefore let go, have fun, enjoy life without alcoholic stimulus cause let's face it: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - who can refuse an offer like that!?

Unfortunately, as the boss tells me, reviews are what punters want. So here goes: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has one of the stranger pedigrees of the happy-go-lucky musicals that popped up in the 60s. Originally written by Ian Fleming and meddled with by Roald Dahl, the story is of one Caracutus Potts (Dick Van Dyke), an eccentric inventor who invents a revolutionary car. The problem is that the car's so ahead of its time that a dastardly foreign (boo!) government wants to get its hands on Chitty... so much mirth, hilarity and bizarre flying car episodes ensue.

Full of catchy songs, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang gives us a technicolor version of the world as imagined by a child, although quite a strange child at that. While it isn't Mary Poppins (some would say this is a good thing) it does offer a quite different experience to Julie Andrews floating around, focusing more on Van Dyke and the children. Possibly the best parts of the film though are given to the baddies. The foreign forces (boo!) are ridiculously stereotyped and overblown and wonderfully so. The film's whole appeal lies on this level - we are given visual prompts at which to boo and do so with great aplomb. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang requires no thought whatsoever, its only intention is to delight and so I appeal to you: sod work, sod university, go watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, have a few beers and return home a happy contented soul. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - the proof that only kids can truly understand.

Andrew Hesketh
EUFS Programme 1998-99