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| Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I knew all the major gripes. (Cassie singing What I Did for Love etc.) The gee whiz quality of the whole thing. But what are some specific little things that bother you? I actually really like the opening up until the credits and I Hope I Get it Start BUT it always drives me crazy how Maggie looks directly into the camera at one point and even gives a flirty smile. There is no camera!! It is a theater audition!!! Don't look in the camera! |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 05:16 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I saw A Chorus Line in 1985, when I was reviewing movies in the Bay Area, duly reviewed it for my paper, and probably within a week or so I'd forgotten everything about it. That's what's wrong with it. I can still remember long stretches of other Eighties movie musicals because they were so mind-bogglingly terrible (hello, Flashdance and Staying Alive), while I can remember a few sequences from Footloose because they had charm and because I liked Kevin Bacon, even though I thought the plot was dumb. But A Chorus Line, the movie, evaporated in my mind almost immediately. If I hadn't read the posts below I'd have had to look it up even to tell you who was in it or who directed it. I didn't love it; I didn't hate it; it was just there. And then gone. | |
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| The first seven minutes... | |
| Posted by: bobby2 04:03 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I actually think the first seven minutes are pretty great. Even Cassie arriving late provides a beautiful shot of the Twin Towers which is now sort of poignant. Then it sort of goes down hill. |
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| Link | the first seven minutes |
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| re: The first seven minutes... | |
| Posted by: Circlevet 12:48 am EST 01/08/19 | |
| In reply to: The first seven minutes... - bobby2 04:03 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| Actually it goes down hill in the first seven seconds. | |
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| re: The first seven minutes...ALL THAT JAZZ | |
| Posted by: Broadwaywannabe 08:47 am EST 01/05/19 | |
| In reply to: The first seven minutes... - bobby2 04:03 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| The audition at the beginning of All That Jazz shows how truly amazing audition on film could work. | |
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| re: The first seven minutes...ALL THAT JAZZ | |
| Posted by: bobby2 06:40 pm EST 01/05/19 | |
| In reply to: re: The first seven minutes...ALL THAT JAZZ - Broadwaywannabe 08:47 am EST 01/05/19 | |
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| and more realistic. While I like the opening of the ACL movie the dancers all hundreds of them are perfect in the dance they just learned a minute ago. They obviously rehearsed the hell out of them. It looks good as a number but how could you cast from that group? They are all perfect already. | |
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| re: The first seven minutes...ALL THAT JAZZ | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 09:49 am EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: re: The first seven minutes...ALL THAT JAZZ - bobby2 06:40 pm EST 01/05/19 | |
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| You’d be surprise how great some dancers are at picking up audition choreography. | |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:42 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I've always found it odd that the movie restored the "Cassie showing up late" aspect of her story that was originally part of the workshops and then was dropped when the creative team deemed it unnecessary or unworkable. Besides...I've never found it plausible that Cassie, as important as we're told this audition is for her, would risk waiting to fly into New York until the day of the audition itself. |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: Barrister1132 03:23 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I think the substitution of Let Me Dance for You for Music in the Mirror was a huge mistake. I did, however, love the addition of Surprise Suprise, as it provided a better showcase for the amazing Gregg Burge than Sh*t Ritchie ever would have done. | |
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| A guilty pleasure... | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 11:32 am EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| I saw it on VHS back in the 80's. I didn't know any better. It wasn't until late high school that I picked up the OCR and realized what A CHORUS LINE was supposed to be... So, now, looking back, I can admit the tiniest amount of guilty pleasure at just HOW EIGHTIES IT ALL IS. That style of dance, what I suppose some would have simply called "jazz dance," coming right out of the "Solid Gold" era, is just so deliciously tacky to me. I kind of love it. Of course, now, I feel awful for Terrance Mann, who clearly knew better, and I yet, my god, there are an awful lot of pretty people in that cast. I consider it a trifle now, and can't for the life of me imagine how anyone thought it was a good idea to NOT use the Bennett, but as a kid, I rather liked it. :) - GMB |
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| A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 04:58 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: A guilty pleasure... - GrumpyMorningBoy 11:32 am EST 01/04/19 | |
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| There used to be quite a few columns over the years at the NY TImes about how could they ever make a film of "A Chorus Line" -- until after the movie came out and most thought Attenborough really didn't know that much about making musicals or musical auditions apparently. They really should have given Michael Bennett the opportunity to direct the film -- after all, one of the most-received plaudits for his "Dreamgirls" was how cinematic it was. He might have seen the possibilities in a real cinematic way for his chorus liners. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 11:17 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: A Chorus Line - the Movie - PlayWiz 04:58 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| I read that originally Universal hired Bennett to direct the film of A Chorus Line. However, the studio wouldn't go along with his vision for the film, and Bennett subsequently walked away from the project. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie/the dances in GHANDI | |
| Posted by: bmc 09:17 pm EST 01/07/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - BroadwayTonyJ 11:17 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| It was because of the thrilling dance numbers is the movie GHANDI that Attenborough got the movie of ACL(?American civil liberties??? if they were to (and I hope they do) re-film ACL(The abbreviation stands for A CHORUS LINE) the should use Bennet's TV staging at the TONYS, where he re-worked the opening for the camera. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 11:09 am EST 01/07/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - BroadwayTonyJ 11:17 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| If I remember correctly, Bennett wanted to make a movie about dancers auditioning for a movie version of A CHORUS LINE. I sort of get why the studio wasn't thrilled with that idea, which is really a completely different project than a film adaptation of A CHORUS LINE, which is, obviously, what they wanted. It all sounds a bit meta and I feel like Bennett's concept would have been better served by creating an entirely new movie musical about dancers auditioning for a movie musical adaptation of a Broadway hit that would have been informed by Bennett's experiences working on the actual ACL film. Thinking about it...I'm not sure how Bennett ever saw this working. The songs in ACL come out of those characters' very specific experiences and I can't figure out how he was thinking of presenting them in his concept. Would you have a dancer auditioning for Mike singing "I Can Do That" as though it was his own experience? Would we have seen multiple versions of each song as different dancers audition? It just doesn't seem workable to me. |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 06:40 pm EST 01/07/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - JereNYC 11:09 am EST 01/07/19 | |
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| I wonder if Universal ever approached Robert Wise about directing the Chorus Line film. Although past his prime, he was still active back then. Also, Stanley Donen and Blake Edwards would have been better choices than Richard Attenborough. I assume they offered him the job because of his success with Gandhi. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 12:12 am EST 01/08/19 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:10 am EST 01/08/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - BroadwayTonyJ 06:40 pm EST 01/07/19 | |
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| While Robert Wise had a tremendous hit with "Sound of Music", he followed that up with huge flop with the film "Star!". Maybe if "A Chorus Line" had some adorable children and Alpine scenery, the studio might have come calling. I think he was off the radar by that time anyway. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 09:35 am EST 01/08/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - PlayWiz 12:10 am EST 01/08/19 | |
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| Not in the mid-1980's, of course, but I can't imagine a better person to make a film of A CHORUS LINE now than Rob Marshall. He comes from Broadway and likely knows the material backward and forward, he clearly has experienced Broadway auditions on both sides of the table and he has experience taking a stage-bound show biz story and making movie magic with it. The problem would be that, I think, the material in A CHORUS LINE is resistant to being pulled apart and rewritten and changed...every word, note, and lyric is so interconnected that, once you start pulling it all apart to make changes, you risk all the dominos falling. And that IS a problem with the film. Marshall wouldn't be able to make the kind of changes to the material that he made to make CHICAGO work on film without risking another debacle like the 1985 version. He'd have to commit to working with the material as it is, and that might feel too constraining to a director who wants to interpret material in his own way. |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:10 pm EST 01/08/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - JereNYC 09:35 am EST 01/08/19 | |
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| I remember seeing these terrific commercials in the movie theater for the show "Dreamgirls" when it was playing on Broadway, and on a big screen, filmed as it was playing on Broadway, in a 1-2 minute ad, it looked tremendous. It's possible Bennett or someone else could have just filmed the play pretty much as it was presented on Broadway, with some shots around the theater, perhaps to show Zach before he comes on stage, and it would have worked. There have been successful films that for the most part take place in one room or locale. ACL didn't need to be opened up really -- when you're an actor waiting for hours to be seen at an audition, it's part of the experience to be in that vicinity and world for a while. | |
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| re: A Chorus Line - the Movie | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 12:55 pm EST 01/08/19 | |
| In reply to: re: A Chorus Line - the Movie - PlayWiz 12:10 pm EST 01/08/19 | |
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| Absolutely agreed that the best possible person to have made that movie in the mid-80's was Bennett himself. He clearly was experimenting with ideas for just such a film with his staging of the show's opening that opened the Tonys that season. I just wish that he hadn't been so stuck on his own concept, written about above, that was anything but a movie adaptation of ACL. As I wrote elsewhere in this thread, he could have made a fairly straightforward adaptation of ACL and THEN made an original movie musical about dancers auditioning for a film adaptation of a Broadway hit that would have only benefited from whatever his experience would have been making ACL. It would have been win/win...we all would've gotten a better ACL film that probably would have done better at the box office and we would have gotten an interesting film experiment from Bennett. |
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| "Every Little Step" | |
| Posted by: GreatMartin (GreatMartin2003@yahoo.com) 11:10 am EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| To me the movie version of "A Chorus Line" is "Every Little Step"! | |
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| re: "Every Little Step" | |
| Posted by: Broadwaywannabe 08:45 am EST 01/05/19 | |
| In reply to: "Every Little Step" - GreatMartin 11:10 am EST 01/04/19 | |
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| Exactly. And from what I read, Bennet’s conception of the movie was that it would be about auditions for the movie version of ACL. | |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Last Edit: lordofspeech 08:59 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 08:57 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
| In reply to: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 06:24 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| Someone (was it Kelly Bishop?) said a problem with the movie was that it seemed like a lot of hopeful beginners, and I do think they “look” too fresh. These people are meant to be thoroughly professional troupers, survivors even. It’s not a beauty contest. But in the movie, they seem too glossy to me. | |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: bobby2 12:53 am EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - lordofspeech 08:57 pm EST 01/03/19 | |
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| Attenborough didn't understand that. He spoke about how it was kids hoping for their big break. You are correct about Bishop. In one of the books she said she wanted to reach thru the TV and throttle him when he said that. It wasn't kids looking for a break it was people looking to continue what they were doing professionally. Diana even says the stuff about how "you dance on Broadway, you got somewhere" or something like that right before she sings What I Did For Love. I always think Mark is the only person never to have been on Broadway yet. Another pet peeve: and there are many on this performance but non-dancer Audrey Landers is dancing in the opening and they are sort of indicating thru Zach's gaze and Larry's verbal complements who is standing out as possible hires. Larry says good! to Val just after she has clearly missed a kick the others all do. |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:12 am EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - bobby2 12:53 am EST 01/04/19 | |
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| Those of us who only saw the movie only once and can't watch it again are indebted to the rest of you who obviously know it quite well and can analyze its flaws so perceptively :-) | |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 12:27 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - Michael_Portantiere 10:12 am EST 01/04/19 | |
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| What Michael said. Looking back, I can think of only three annoying things about that movie: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Laura |
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| re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:36 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Annoying things about A Chorus Line: The Movie - showtunetrivia 12:27 pm EST 01/04/19 | |
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| Ha! | |
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