My favorite is The Wizard of Oz. One thing I love about the film is that most of the major characters CHANGE (except for the wicked witch of the west -- well, i guess her change is from alive to dead --- also, Toto's noble character doesn't have to change; he is perfect just the way he is.
WARNING: What I've written below may sound like the ideas of a curmudgeon who hates musicals, but I really love the genre. But this course, just starting, has gotten me thinking about several things and asking a few questions, including: Why is this genre so incredibly white? Anyway.....
I love most of the Astaire/Rogers films: Swing Time, Top Hat, Shall We Dance, the Gay Divorcee, even Flying Down to Rio. I have a problem with Swing Time, which I hope comes up during this course, and that is the Bojangles/ black face sequence. I know that it is a tribute to the great dancer, and that blackface was never even questioned at the time, but, still... when i am at work at the movie is on, I turn off the screen during this part of the movie. I am uncomfortable watching it and I know that my colleagues will feel the same. There are other movies which, while otherwise wonderful, have some extremely offensive and racist blackface scenes, for example, the Lincoln's Birthday sequence in Holiday Inn ("Abraham"). I also have to shut off the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney film "Babes in Arms" when the kids perform an old-fashioned minstrel show in blackface. It's just terrible.
I do enjoy the Shirley Temple movies, especially the ones in which she dances with Bojangles Robinson, speaking of him, but the black characters in her movies are often portrayed as happy slaves or servants, happy to entertain their masters. And there is plenty of blackface in her movies, too.
There are several musicals starring African-Americans, including Porgy and Bess, written by Ira and George Gerswin. And Stormy Weather, short on narrative, is great for its fabulous tunes played and sung by Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and many others. But there are problems with these and other African-American musicals, in that, looking at them i 2018, one can easily see their racist/stereotyping elements.
Anyway - i just thought I'd throw out a few ideas. I also love John Waters' original Hairspray film and its wonderful soundtrack (not a musical because the characters in the film don't sing the songs? or musical, because the characters dance to the songs?). A Hard Day's Night also has a FABULOUS soundtrack.
I notice that many people here mention Gigi as a favorite musical, and that movie, musical or not, is one of the films that i have the greatest problem with, on a sociological level. This family classic is about a young girl who is being groomed by her grandmother to become a rich man's (any rich man) mistress. That appears to be her fate, without an alternative. Yes, Colette wrote it and Anita Loos adapted it for film, but it's a pretty tawdry plot. No wonder "thank heaven for little girls" can't really be listened to (in 2018) with snickers and snorts.
Opening Salvo For Mad About Musicals Course
in MAD ABOUT MUSICALS: THE HISTORY OF THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS
Posted
My favorite is The Wizard of Oz. One thing I love about the film is that most of the major characters CHANGE (except for the wicked witch of the west -- well, i guess her change is from alive to dead --- also, Toto's noble character doesn't have to change; he is perfect just the way he is.
WARNING: What I've written below may sound like the ideas of a curmudgeon who hates musicals, but I really love the genre. But this course, just starting, has gotten me thinking about several things and asking a few questions, including: Why is this genre so incredibly white? Anyway.....
I love most of the Astaire/Rogers films: Swing Time, Top Hat, Shall We Dance, the Gay Divorcee, even Flying Down to Rio. I have a problem with Swing Time, which I hope comes up during this course, and that is the Bojangles/ black face sequence. I know that it is a tribute to the great dancer, and that blackface was never even questioned at the time, but, still... when i am at work at the movie is on, I turn off the screen during this part of the movie. I am uncomfortable watching it and I know that my colleagues will feel the same. There are other movies which, while otherwise wonderful, have some extremely offensive and racist blackface scenes, for example, the Lincoln's Birthday sequence in Holiday Inn ("Abraham"). I also have to shut off the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney film "Babes in Arms" when the kids perform an old-fashioned minstrel show in blackface. It's just terrible.
I do enjoy the Shirley Temple movies, especially the ones in which she dances with Bojangles Robinson, speaking of him, but the black characters in her movies are often portrayed as happy slaves or servants, happy to entertain their masters. And there is plenty of blackface in her movies, too.
There are several musicals starring African-Americans, including Porgy and Bess, written by Ira and George Gerswin. And Stormy Weather, short on narrative, is great for its fabulous tunes played and sung by Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and many others. But there are problems with these and other African-American musicals, in that, looking at them i 2018, one can easily see their racist/stereotyping elements.
Anyway - i just thought I'd throw out a few ideas. I also love John Waters' original Hairspray film and its wonderful soundtrack (not a musical because the characters in the film don't sing the songs? or musical, because the characters dance to the songs?). A Hard Day's Night also has a FABULOUS soundtrack.
I notice that many people here mention Gigi as a favorite musical, and that movie, musical or not, is one of the films that i have the greatest problem with, on a sociological level. This family classic is about a young girl who is being groomed by her grandmother to become a rich man's (any rich man) mistress. That appears to be her fate, without an alternative. Yes, Colette wrote it and Anita Loos adapted it for film, but it's a pretty tawdry plot. No wonder "thank heaven for little girls" can't really be listened to (in 2018) with snickers and snorts.
DQ