The 2007 movie Blades Of Glory follows two rival figure skaters who partner up in hopes of becoming champions. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder play the two main characters, and they make audiences of all ages laugh out loud. However, laughs are not the only thing that make a comedy, at least according to Aristotle. Aristotle wrote that a comedy is a story of the rise in fortune of a sympathetic central character.
Blades Of Glory opens with two skaters who are down on their luck. They gone as far as they can individually and have no more will to skate. In Aristotle's terms, they are starting from the bottom. This establishes sympathy from the viewers. There are a ton of jokes in between, but these two skaters end up as a duo and win the gold medal. This is an example of a sympathetic character rising up in fortune. They started as bums, but ended as gold medalists.
In this sense, Blades Of Glory is clearly a traditional comedy according to Aristotle. It is a rise of two lovable characters. Not all comedies in modern times are like this though, so it is fun to analyze and find the history and tradition in a new and funny movie.
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