MovieChat Forums > Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) Discussion > Great first hour but HORRIBLE second hou...

Great first hour but HORRIBLE second hour

posted 8 years ago by Navaros
10 replies | jump to latest

This film comes across as if it was made by one competent director for the first half, and a different, hack director for the second half.

The second half of the film is just plain idiotic. It all goes to crap the minute he starts telling a pirate story.

The first half is an 8/10. The second half is a 0/10.

Here are some of the many reasons why the second half is atrocious:

- It's not even about Chitty any more. In fact, Chitty is almost completely absent from it!

- The terrible fake German accents and the terrible acting of those who speak with them make all of those scenes unwatchable.

- Instead of following the stars, the film randomly starts to follow random morons for no reason, and to add insult to injury, it gives those random morons tons of screen-time whilst the stars get hardly any.

- All of the songs in the second hour suck (except for when Truly is pretending to be a wind up toy).

- The concept of Chitty's sentience is never developed, even though the first hour just barely started to scratch the surface of that concept.

What the heck happened?! Why does this film appear like two different ones?

Instead of the horrible second hour that they made, what should have done was either:

A> Extend the "Dad can't afford the car in time" plotline for another hour.

or

B> Develop an entirely new plotline that focuses on Chitty, the family and Truly, and not on new random morons. I.e. They could had the Grandpa fall ill, which causes the dad to train to win the new Grand Prixe with Chitty, so that he can use the prize money to buy medicine to save Grandpa's life.

or

C> Delete the entire "pirate story" out of the film and then simply end the film at ~ the 1:10 mark.

[–] austin-pearce 8 years ago

I personally feel the film comes alive in the second half.

[–] billhaldenby 8 years ago

film would have been a flop without the second half. No action, no drama, no excitement, just a feel good mushy love story about a guy fixing a car and meeting a lady beyond his means..blah

[–] Navaros 8 years ago

I agree that the first half didn't have much action, but a much better solution to that problem would have been to put the action into the second half in a way that follows logically from and keeps the same tone and style of the first half.

Like, as I said in the OP, extending the "dad can't afford the car" plotline.

In fact, the film acts like it is going to be developing a huge conflict-based plotline between the good dad who wants to save Chitty and the evil greedy man who wants to murder Chitty for money. Yet inexplicably, that plotline development never comes. Instead, the film abandons that plotline almost immediately after setting it up.

But they could have made a much better film by finishing what they started.

I.e. they could have had the kids steal Chitty in order to save him from being murdered by the evil greedy man, and then the dad has to deal with the consequences of their theft while also keeping Chitty out of the evil greedy man's hands.

Likewise, what's the point of the Grand Prixe scene at the start, when they aren't even going to put Chitty in a Grand Prixe? That scene implies they are setting up a plotline where Chitty must reclaim his former glory despite being older, by winning the new Grand Prixe...yet once again, that good plotline completely abandoned for no reason.

[–] TMC-4 (20153) 6 years ago

At 2 hours and 25 minutes, this this movie feel too long for a kids/family movie? I mean, the car doesn't show up for like an hour into the film (after the opening race and the kids playing in it).

[–] Obifuntoknowme (1130) 6 years ago

What a load of rubbish !! ALL of this film is great

[–] modica (4169) 6 years ago

What? No "pirate story", no Child Catcher. I love The Child Catcher. Great, weird villain.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 6 years ago

As a kid, I would watch everything on tv geared toward kids. I was a compulsive tv watcher. With only 7 network (ish) channels, ya had to settle for what was on. Because of this, I watched this semi-sour movie and too much Pipi Longstocking.
I agree with OP that the movie failed to embellish the namesake of the movie itself properly. The theme song had hooks and it sailed on that. Little else.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 4 years ago

Actually, I would have trimmed about 15 minutes off the first hour. The second hour is much funner.

[–] Techto (1307) 4 years ago

I felt the same as OP the first couple of times I watched it as a kid but have come to have a certain affection for the back half as I have grown. I like the Child Catcher, the Roses of Success, the Doll on a Music Box, the scene with the kids scrambling everywhere, and the happy ending. But I do agree that the second half feels like a different movie from the first (as if by a different director) and that it drags in parts.

[–] chilidoggg (14301) 4 years ago

Unpossible - this movie is at least 6 hours long. It's almost as long as "Easter Parade."