On Feburary 26, 1973, the American Film Institute(AFI, a non-profit organization created in 1967) established the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. The first recipient was auteur John Ford. The gala dinner was televised on March 31st, 1971 on CBS. Stars from John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart attended. The award was even presented none other by the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Due to Ford's age, he was helped to the stage by movie star and AFI president Charlton Heston.
The primary agenda of the televised ceremony was to fundraise money for the AFI. They even took time during the ceremony to solicit for donations. But looking beyond that, it was very easy to see the appeal for audiences. For one, aside from the Academy Awards, it was only way to see so many celebrities in one place. Secondly, the ceremony in and of itself was a great way to educate the masses. The presenters would list and discuss all of the movies the recipient was a part of, which would allow clips of the various movies to be shown. Keep in mind, this was before the days of not only internet streaming, Blu-Rays and DVDs, but even VHSs and cable television, so this was a great way to introduce and encourage people to check out titles people may never have heard of at their local theaters or to look out for a certain film to come on television.
Nowadays, thanks to DVDs, Blu-Rays and internet-streaming, there's a good chance most people have seen the majority of films the recipients have been apart of, let alone heard of all of them, so the event really isn't all that special as it used to be(as can be demonstrated by the fact that ceremonies now broadcast on cable instead of network television like they used to) and the honor itself isn't seen by many people as anything other than another Hall Of Fame for celebrities of the film world to win. Still, the ceremony is an annual event that keeps on going largely because its a fun way to indulge in photo ops as well as a fun way to showcase interviews, montages and video-clips to audiences across the world. Not to mention allows for some unexpected surprises, such as William Shatner's toast/roast of George Lucas and Star Wars. For the record, the previous recipients have been:
1973: John Ford 2002: Tom Hanks
1974: James Cagney 2003 Robert Deniro
1975: Orson Welles 2004: Meryl Streep
1976: William Wyler 2005: George Lucas
1977: Bette Davies 2006: Sean Connery
1978: Henry Fonda 2007: Al Pacino
1979: Alfred Hitchcock 2008: Warren Beatty
1980: James Stewart 2009: Michael Douglas
1981: Fred Astaire 2010: Mike Nichols
1982: Frank Capra 2011: Morgan Freeman
1983: John Huston 2012: Shirley MacLaine
1984: Lillian Gish
1985: Gene Kelly
1986: Billy Wilder
1987: Barbara Stanwyck
1988: Jack Lemmon
1989: Gregory Peck
1990: David Lean
1991: Kirk Douglas
1992: Sidney Poitier
1993: Elizabeth Taylor
1994: Jack Nicholson
1995: Steven Spielberg
1996: Clint Eastwood
1997: Martin Scorsese
1998: Robert Wise
1999: Dustin Hoffman
2000: Harrison Ford
2001: Barbra Streisand
This year's recipient was the king of spoofs, Mel Brooks. Definitely a deserving recipient(more than any in 5 years I'd say). The ceremony itself was fine, the only problem is this: Mel Brooks is 86(87 later this month) which means that unfortunately, many of his actors, such as Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Kenneth Mars, Peter Boyle, Dom DeLuise among several others have since passed. It just isn't the same to hear Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel explaining Brook's influence on them than to see casts reunite to share stories and memories. Even Robert DeNiro got up and made fun of the fact he was there despite having no real connection to Brooks.
Brooks' contemporaries weren't completely absent however. Carl Reiner, Brook's 2000 Year Old Man partner and BFF, talked a bit about their time as writers on the Sid Caesar Show, as well deliver and one of the shows funnier one-liners. Cloris Leachman toasted Mel exclaiming that they have to face the the fact "we're old now, though not quite up there to Carl", even Gene Wilder made a rare post-retirement appearance(though only through a recorded message, strange he couldn't manage showing up while his Young Frankenstein co-star Teri Garr could in-spite of having multiple sclerosis) to give a more sentimental speech.
Some other highlights included interviews with Brooks himself describing his childhood from his short mother to his early memories of watching the films of Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, interviews with Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discussing Brooks' ability to satirize different genres, Woody Allen's take on Mel Brooks, even David Lynch got to appear on stage to thank Brooks for letting him direct The Elephant Man which Brooks produced, as well as David showing Brooks the suit that Lynch wore everyday while shooting The Elephant Man. The mere fact that Brooks was the one that pushed Lynch's career to continue after Eraserhead is reason alone Brooks deserves this honor. In fact its probably his greatest achievement.
Brooks accepted the award from Martin Scorsese. While accepting, he noted its a tradition for recipients of this award to come to next year's ceremony to introduce that year's recipient, so Brooks hilariously introduced the recipient right there and then noted he didn't "have to bother coming back next year with this tuxedo and tie". It was very easy to see Mel is as sharp and lively as he's ever been. It made you wish Brooks would continue to make at least one more film, but those days seem to be behind him now, even though Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money would be more timely now as ever.
While the tribute overall brought back many great memories, it made you a bit depressed that there really is no modern-day Mel Brooks. While there are some people capable of Brook's fearlessness, such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Brook's over-the-top wit seems to be a lost art. Heck, no one seems capable of making a funny spoof anymore. Even the once mighty Zucker-Abrahms-Zucker have fallen dramatically since their heyday of Airplane and Naked Gun(Scary Movie 5 was released earlier this year with zero fanfare).
The good news in all of this, however, is that we always have Mel Brook's films preserved to rewatch and relive.
Just another guy who uses "just another guy" on their blog description
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