Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Director: Adam McKay
Had I seen this before: Yes
Did I recognize the “famous quote” in the ad: No
Anchorman, the McKay/Ferrell sendup of 1970s SoCal news personalities, marks the midpoint of a run of seven movies in a row in this series wherein my probing critical analysis boils down to “this movie is very silly” before we run smack into the brick wall of a totemic American crime epic. That’s just to orient you somewhat in terms of this specific journey: we are now at a sort of goofiness high tide.
My favorite types of movies to write about here are the ones that I think are both really great and potentially under-seen: your magnificent 70s slapstick extravaganzas, your devious, Hitchcock-inspiring post-war thrillers, your pitch-black paranoia comedies, etc. There’s nothing more fun than making a head-over-heels enthusiastic recommendation in the hopes that at least one person out there will discover something new and delightful. It can also be entertaining, of course, to dig in to a movie that is oddly conceived or executed, going deep on an intriguingly unsuccessful little curio. The most difficult movies to write about are the opposite of these—movies that are both very popular and pretty good. Because what is there to say? Anyway, this is a post about the movie Anchorman.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is the feature film debut of Adam McKay, which kicked off a successful era of Ferrell-partnered bombastic nonsense for him, before they had a falling out and he matured into browbeating the choir. It follows Ron Burgundy, a local news anchor and oblivious blowhard who sports the grooviest of 1970s suit colors and an unshakeable sense of self-esteem. He has a loyal news team consisting of ladies’ man field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), and so-dumb-he-could-only-exist-in-a-movie weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). If it sounds like I am complaining about the lack of realism in the non-functionality of the Brick character, I am not—an early scene at a house party cuts to him carefully putting mayonnaise into a toaster with no explanation and it made me laugh a lot. That’s not where mayonnaise goes!
This haven of 1970s masculinity is disrupted when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) joins the team, both tempting and threatening every man in sight. Almost a quarter century after Caddyshack, comedies had progressed to the point that the fact that every man in the building is discombobulated by the attractive thin blonde woman is presented as a meta commentary about how sexist things used to be, although the result is still that we spend quite a bit of time ogling Christina Applegate’s ass. (I don’t think it’s a huge problem here, but I do think this would make an interesting double feature with 1980’s 9 to 5, an excellent comedy that focuses more on the contemporary experience of the women trying to makes strides in such a workplace.) Ron prevails as the only successful suitor to the trying-to-keep-it-professional Veronica, due to his dexterity with a jazz flute and the fact that Brian Fantana’s Sex Panther cologne smells like “pure gasoline,” “a used diaper filled with Indian food,” “a turd covered in burnt hair,” and/or “Bigfoot’s dick.” Again, I have to say…everything about Sex Panther is funny to me, including the faces that my children made while listening to the descriptions.
There is soon a battle of the sexes occurring at the news station that culminates in Ron (due to his unwavering faith in the teleprompter system) losing his job and his will to live. He is, of course, eventually redeemed and returned to his rightful place, next to Veronica, anchoring the news. In the meantime, a dog is punted off a bridge but survives to save the day, a West Side Story-eque street rumble descends into full-out war, and the station covers a cat fashion show, which was hands down my children’s favorite part of the film. There are so many people in this movie that the incredible Katherine Hahn is relegated to a tiny part and Danny Trejo appears in what I believe is the only crossover between the Regal Ad movies and the actual Regal Ad. It’s a real smorgasbord of mid-2000s comedy cameos that mostly hit although I think we could probably have found a better use for Ben Stiller if we all put our minds to it.
Like any comedy, this film will not be to everyone’s taste, but Will Ferrell was part of the last SNL cast that I watched with any regularity and I guess he just got grandfathered in to the group of people I find amusing. Now, do I find him amusing enough to dedicate two of fifteen (13.3%) slots in a national ad campaign to his movies from the 2003-2004 era? No, and the fact that this is the first of two early 00’s Will Ferrell vehicles on this relatively short list representing the joy of great movie lines is truly the wildest aspect of the whole thing that I have discovered thus far, I say as someone who finds Will Ferrell funny. I understand that I have already given this ad 4000 times more attention than the people who conceived it but like…only three (3) of the fifteen lines were originally spoken by women and one (1) was spoken by a non-white actor. TWO WILL FERRELLS THOUGH. I mean, whatever, I’m not in a glass cage of emotion about it or anything. I like both of the movies. I am not mad at this Regal Ad Man for enjoying the things that he enjoys, I am just disappointed in his stunning lack of imagination.
The Regal Ad
The outfit: He’s wearing a suit, which I guess is technically what all the male characters are wearing throughout the movie, although there’s no colorful period-appropriate twist at all. I just think Ron would be pretty depressed if you put him in too much gray. B-
The line: This comes at the end of an escalating Champ Kind run about how much he misses having Ron around for office activities now that he’s distracted by Veronica. It’s a pretty funny little capper that I think walks right up to the gay panic line without quiiiiiite toppling over it, but I don’t really remember it as being a part of the many, many inescapable quotes to plague the world after the release of this film. Of all the movies I’ve covered so far, Anchorman has by far the highest number of lines that I remembered while rewatching it and yet I did not recognize this one at all. C+
The context: Our guy is inhaling the scent of his hot buttery popcorn, and I guess indicating that it’s been a while since he was at the movies? And missed the popcorn smell? To the extent that he is anthropomorphizing it? It’s fine. I don’t really like the word “musk” in relation to “appetizing food” (or in relation to…almost anything anymore, frankly), but it more or less makes sense. B
Cheese Fondue from Well Plated by Erin
This movie is sort of the opposite of Airplane! in that it is full of 70s jokes and references that are so broad and non-specific as to be accessible to audiences of pretty much any age. The clothes, the hair, the set design, the music—you get the vibe without really needing to know anything about the original versions of these things. This incudes the date that Ron and Veronica take to a fondue restaurant, a concept that my Gen Z children took to very easily.
Up next: “Son of a…that’s gonna leave a mark.”