“Get That Number”
Stephen Leeds
This short was hilarious and sweet. It was corny at times, but cheese this funny and heartwarming is marvelous.
After watching two times, I finally connected the two films for this week: both contain unobtainable women who, through a series of unfortunate events, become obtainable and unobtainable once more. This film, however, proved to be much different than “The Crush” in various aspects. The relationships presented to the men had the probability of being real and true while Miss Purdy and Ardle’s did not. The main character’s “enemy” was his friend that he trusted; Ardle’s was simply someone he was competing with. The concept of charm is used throughout the film’s entirety and proves to be the protagonist’s greatest trial. How can he charm a woman and be himself? Ardle was naturally charming and innocently sweet. The differences are infinite.
But this film was much more intimate and realistic to me. The film work was not as accurate, crisp, and advanced. The characters were goofy friends who loved joking around. Women were flirty. The moral was universal and relatable: being yourself will ultimately make you the happiest. Everything pieced together in a genuinely entertaining way.
I, being the Rocky film virgin that I am, did not grasp onto the finer details of the Rocky allusions in the short. However, I thought that his run was hilarious and that the continuation of the allusion throughout the end was very well done. He worked hard and finally achieved his goal only to fail in the end. My heart broke for poor Scottie. His friend was sleazy and had superiority complex issues and, in the end, was holding him back from being who he truly was. Scottie did get something more than a girl’s number: he learned that ladies will love him for the person he truly is.
I really loved this selection as well.
PS. Did anyone else feel like women were degraded in this piece? They were viewed as desperate. Scottie’s friend threw away numbers like women were incapable of feeling anything. Scottie’s last girl had personality and brilliant character, but the rest of the girls were shallow and dense.
