In the pantheon of great comedy films, few have stood the test of time quite as well as The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which is quite remarkable considering how many would consider it to represent a sub-genre that is rarely known for its timeless qualities or ability to challenge audiences, but instead are built on ridiculous, off-the-wall scenarios that define a very specific kind of humour. Conceived and written by the creative team of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker (the latter holding court as the designated director), who had previously had major success with Airplane! and Top Secret!, this film is probably their most well-rounded, intriguing project, for several reasons. Primarily designed as a spin-off of the television comedy Police Squad! (from which the film and its later sequels derived their titles) that aired a few years earlier, the film continues the misadventures of the affable and hilariously eccentric Lt. Frank Drebin, someone who somehow manages to be both the best and worst police officer in California, an unconventional badge of honour that he wears with pride. The film follows him and his team as they investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding an attack on a fellow officer, which plunges Drebin down a rabbit hole of intrigue, showing him a sinister conspiracy that involves some of the country’s most significant businessmen, which is only complicated by the arrival of the Queen of England, who proves herself to be quite a distraction from the investigation. Hilarious and irreverent in ways that immediately make it one of the great comedies of the 1980s, The Naked Gun is truly an exceptional achievement in terms of both its overarching ideas and how it executes some truly wild filmmaking that could only be achieved through the perfect collaboration between a few delightfully deranged comedic minds.

Comedy is a genre that can either age exceptionally well or become hopelessly dated immediately, with several factors going into the creation of a truly strong work of humour. However, the spoof genre has mostly gone downhill over the decades. The era of Mel Brooks and Monty Python gradually went out of fashion in the 1990s, remaining influential but not producing a generation of fawning filmmakers who were able to meet the standard set by their idols. Zucker, Zucker and Abrahams exist at the perfect intersection between highbrow and lowbrow – their work is smart and well-written enough to be artistically resonant, but never sacrosanct to the point where aspiring to live up to their standard is impossible. The Naked Gun is perhaps their most well-crafted film in terms of how it handles the idea of spoofing a genre while still building a universe in which its characters can exist and thrive as more than just narrow archetypes, which is what a more contemporary version of such a film would likely have achieved at most. Arguably, a lot of the work was done a few years earlier when the television show was still on the air, since despite being short-lived, it had many interesting ideas that set the foundation for this, which many consider to be the definitive use of these characters and a premise that could have failed almost immediately without the right attention to detail and willingness to challenge conventions in interesting ways. Without losing the spark of anarchy that makes this so irresistibly hilarious at the best of moments. Humour is always subjective, but when you are witnessing this wall-to-wall absurdity, it is impossible to not be at least mostly quite amused, since the creators are dedicated to this ridiculous premise that becomes all the more entertaining solely because they are willing to go to any lengths to get a laugh, which is certainly beyond admirable in quite a few ways, at least in terms of how it makes use of some increasingly wacky scenarios.

Unlike Airplane, which was considered the director’s greatest work before this film, The Naked Gun does not depend on an ensemble cast but rather orbits almost entirely around Leslie Nielsen’s character. It may not be the surprisingly deadpan revelation that audiences had encountered years before, but he trades in the element of surprise for a more nuanced, well-crafted character that was more than just a scene-stealing supporting player in a larger cast, but rather the heart of this film, which is entirely built around his hilarious performance. There is an argument to be made that no one was ever funnier on screen than Nielsen, and it’s impossible to deny his brilliance when seeing his exceptional work in this film, which is a lot more challenging than we would expect, especially since this part required Nielsen to be attuned to a very specific kind of comedic frequency to navigate that razor-thin boundary between being hilarious and annoying, something he does with such ease but which many other actors would fail to achieve. He’s just so deeply charismatic and hilarious, and the way he commands the screen is extraordinary. However, he is supported wonderfully by some of the other actors, including the always reliable George Kennedy as his boss and friend, as well as an unexpectedly hilarious performance from Priscilla Presley, who turns in a wonderfully eccentric performance that comes very close to stealing the film away from Nielsen. As in most comedies, The Naked Gun is driven primarily by its performances, since the witty, irreverent screenplay can only work if the right actors are cast to bring it to life – and whether in the major leading roles or the smaller supporting parts, absolutely everyone in this film is firing on all cylinders, delivering striking and earnest work that ties the entire film together beautifully.

There is a lot of credit given to Nielsen for The Naked Gun and the success it has enjoyed over the years, but the reality is that it is as much a credit to his performance as it is to Zucker, Zucker and Abrahams, who bring such incredible precision to a film that could have gone spectacularly off the rails without the right approach, which is why it is very easy for us to praise this film and everything it sets out to achieve. Primarily, we find that the reason this film works is that it doesn’t aspire to be anything more than it presents itself as on the surface, which is quite an impressive feat when you consider how many spoof comedies have tried to employ high-concept storytelling when in reality it’s the more simple works that make the biggest impression. The film never overstays its welcome – at only 81 minutes, it is the very epitome of brevity, and while any logical person would want to experience an endless stream of Drebin’s misadventures, the length is perfect – it has enough time to tell a complete story, but never has the chance to meander or become too verbose, since it has a limited amount of time to execute some wildly ambitious ideas, being proof that the more economical a comedy, the more likely it is to age well. Much of the humour is still very resonant – while obviously, some elements don’t age quite as well (such as some of the political and social allusions, as well as the framing device of the Queen of England visiting Los Angeles – but then again, that concept was perfectly relevant up until only about two years ago), but it’s the way they approach these jokes that make them so timeless. The best way to describe the kinds of spoofs Zucker, Zucker and Abrahams make would be as the chaotic but charming collision of Buster Keaton and New Hollywood, with the equal emphasis on physical humour and witty wordplay being perfectly serviced by this film, which proves to be a lot more layered than we would expect based on a cursory glance.

There isn’t much to be said about The Naked Gun that hasn’t been expressed on multiple occasions over the past 35 years, which has been more than enough time for it to be consolidated into the culture as one of the great comedy films of its era. Usually, some kind of argument needs to be made before we can label a film as such, but there isn’t any need to provide some passionate defence or motivation about plucking this film out of cult status and repurposing it as a classic – since its release, it has acquired an incredible reputation, perhaps only growing in acclaim, particularly since it appeared there were a few critics at the time that didn’t fully comprehend the devil-may-care brilliance that exists behind a film such as this. It continues to be quite influential, even if it is obvious that the genre it defined is a product of a bygone era, particularly since we have films such as this that managed to come so close to achieving perfection, many efforts afterwards didn’t manage to come even vaguely close to achieving this kind of chaotic brilliance. Whether watching it for the first time or revisiting it, The Naked Gun is a supremely rewarding film – the sight gags are some of the greatest in film history, and nearly every joke lands with precision and sharpness, something that we have seemingly lost as comedy films have strove to become more intelligent and high concept, rather than simply being allowed to be absurd and deranged, which is the perfect definition of this film. Hilariously irreverent and charming in a genuinely surprising way, The Naked Gun more than earns its place as a classic of the genre and continues to be the very definition of what a truly extraordinary piece of comedy should aim to be, particularly in establishing certain timeless qualities that will allow it to be enjoyed by future generations in much the same way that we are enthralled by this film today.