Ran across an unexpected gem within a gem of a movie: Rat Race. I was barely aware the movie existed and had no idea what it was about (malarkey & shenanigans) or who was in it (a whole bunch of people), but it has a whole bunch of elements I love in movies. I love when a cast of characters is assembled and you get to see each of them arrive (for a dinner party, for a murderous week-end at a country manor, for a journey on a boat or train, or at a Vegas casino, as in this movie). I love having this line-up of people trotted out one by one, pair by pair … being introduced to them by their costumes and mannerisms and voices. I love when one of or more of them has a speech impediment, or a limp, or an entire family acting as a handicap as in the case of Jon Lovitz’ character, Randy Pearl.
Here he is trying to ditch his family at the beginning of their vacation by saying he has a job to go to in New Mexico (he actually just wants to compete in a race to win a locker-full of money). His wife wants to know WHAT JOB?!?
I was not anticipating his answer, but found it thoroughly delightful:
Ink! For fountain pens!!!
Bwahahaha!!!
It’s almost always fun when your hobby pops up in movies, but there’s extra charm when it’s as a joke, and the joke rides on the obscurity of your hobby. There’s a fun dorkiness to being into something so unusual that a mainstream audience would never anticipate FOUNTAIN PEN INK being the imaginary job someone would create to excuse himself from family life to go on a risky competitive adventure; most people would not believe that there ARE jobs AT ALL in this century dealing in fountain pens, let alone their INK. Of course, this movie came out in 2001 so FPs and ink would’ve been even more obscure then, but still.
I am not into fountain pens just because they’re anachronistic (they’re not, to me; they are practical every day tools in my world), but there is a sort of humiliating joy in being part of a subculture or fetish interest that functions as the gentle butt of joke. I’m kind of weird that (those?) way(s), though.
The Jon Lovitz storyline also includes some Nazi shit. They even wind up driving Hitler’s car, and then there’s a physically humorous accidental aping of a crazed Hitler speech. It’s wacky (and maybe worrisome and weird) how fountain pen fetishism and Nazi shit wind up portrayed in close proximity to one another, but Tarantino’s loooooooooong-ass yet lovely (and suspensefully sadistic and terrifying) Inglourious Basterds Nazi fountain pen scene is a subject for another post.
NOTE: this post is in no way intended to glamorize Nazis or make light of their horrifying crimes. I do believe there is a place for black humor, though, and a natural human fascination with villains. There is something about fountain pens that “normal” people associate with weirdos and sadists, I suspect. Not that I think Tarantino is “normal”.
