I (Hamlette) used to listen to this soundtrack all the time as a teen. In fact, I still have most of the songs memorized, even the minor ones. I'd listen to this while I was doing schoolwork or writing, and hearing it always makes me think of my little corner in the basement where I had my desk, not far from the family computer, which was a 486 and played CDs! (Does anyone here even know what a 486 is?)
(Why does this lobby card advertise "the joy of color!" and then feature a big black-and-white photo?)
Okay, anyway, this is the soundtrack for Brigadoon, a musical about a very unusual town in Scotland: it only exists on earth once every hundred years. Two American hunters, Tommy (Gene Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson), stumble into the town on that one day, and Gene's character quickly falls in love with a Brigadoon woman, Fiona (Cyd Charisse). Most of the movie takes place during that one day they have together.
"Once in the Highlands" is a lovely, haunting song that tells you the basics of the story before the movie even begins. I guess the show's writers audiences to have extra help wrapping their heads around this kind of odd story. "And this is what happened... the strange thing that happened... to two weary hunters who lost their way..." I like the use of chorus here because it ends up sounding sombre and eerie, and really setting the mood for the story.
"The Heather on the Hill" is the big romance number. Tommy is fascinated by Fiona, mostly because she's not trying to get him to marry her, but also because she's quiet and intelligent and sincere. He's got a girl back in America who is loud and bossy and wants to marry him, you see, and the contrast kind of hooks him. So here, he asks if he can join her in gathering flowers.
After that song, they dance this dance, which I love, partly because it's very different from Gene Kelly's typical jaunty, peppy dancing. Fiona hasn't told Tommy yet that Brigadoon is magical, and in the dance, she's trying to keep herself from liking him because she knows it can't last, but gradually she finds she can't help falling for him. (Her dress has the weirdest neckline ever, though -- it's always bugged me.)
And after dancing together, she leaves, and he sings my favorite song from the whole movie, "Almost Like Being in Love." And dances a much more typical dance, for him. He says "almost," but we can all tell there's no "almost" about him being in love by this point. I'm just going ahead and including the movie clip for this song, partly because I love watching Gene Kelly dance and partly because Van Johnson is so grumpy and fed up through the whole thing that he makes me chuckle. But if you'd rather just listen to the music, you can do that too -- you don't *have* to watch it if you're not all that into musicals or whatever.
(I promise not to talk about only Antonio Banderas. --Hamlette)
Although The Phantom of the Opera is the first Andrew Lloyd Webber musical I heard, Evita is the first I saw because it was made into a movie starring Antonio Banderas and Madonna, which I rented with a college friend. I promptly fell madly in love with it (the movie, not the friend) and went right out and bought the soundtrack. The movie is rich, nuanced, probably historically inaccurate, and wonderful.
Everyone knows "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," so I won't say much about it here. There's a reason it's famous, though -- it's quite stirring. I'm always disappointed it's not actually about a guy named Argentina, though. I heard a bunch of the music before I saw the movie, but I didn't know the story line at all, so I made up what I thought all the songs were about, and on some of them I was fairly close (hard not to figure out "Another Suitcase, Another Hall"), but on others, I was very off.
Speaking of "Another Suitcase, Another Hall," here it is. I like how subdued and heart-achy it is. Much of Evita is militant and brash, but this is very emotional. It's about how young Eva has to turn to being a "kept woman" to support herself, but she never stays with a man long, so she always ends up holding her suitcase, standing in a hall outside a place she's leaving.
Here's a much more fun song, "And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)." This one has such a great energy, and of course, lots of Antonio Banderas singing. In the musical, his character Che is the narrator, but he also interacts with other characters, he doesn't just stand on the sidelines and watch, though sometimes he does that too. It's a really nifty device, and one of my favorite things about Evita. In this song, Che is explaining how, once she's the first lady of Argentina, Eva starts this fund to help the poor, but everyone's so busy collecting and distributing the money, no one's keeping books, so there might be some corruption going on, but who cares as long as the money keeps pouring out, right?
"High Flying, Adored" is my most favoritest song on the whole soundtrack. Che singing about how Eva has become super famous, but so easily and so young that she's in danger of becoming bored with everything. It is elegant and soaring and delicious. Eva insists it won't be a problem, she's not that special.
Even if you don't like musicals (and that's not a sin), if you're interested in politics, corruption, or the history of South America (though I've heard this is not entirely accurate), you might enjoy it. It's rated PG, but there is a lot of innuendo, the Argentinian version of the middle finger, some rough language, and violence. You can read imdb.com's Parent's Guide for it here if you want to know more. Also, it's a light opera more than just a musical -- nearly every line is song, as is typical for Andrew Lloyd' Webber's shows. People don't periodically dance about and burst into song, they do that for the whole movie.
You knew I was gonna add one more picture of Antonio Banderas, didn't you? I can't help it -- he's perfect in this.
Hey, It's Jamie again! Today I'm going to be reviewing Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the horror/musical adapted to the screen by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, along with Alan Rickman. There are several reasons why I wanted to review this movie; it's multi-faceted and you can look at it from many angles. I'm going to start off explaining how I, a sheltered homeschooler, got around to seeing a movie like Sweeney Todd and why I actually enjoyed it. I'll cover the plot, the music and a few of the characters, too. While the film is not for everyone, it was a fascinating piece to view and I hope you will enjoy my post.
Short Plot Summary: The film retells the Victorianmelodramatic story of a revenge-seekingSweeney Todd, aEnglishbarber who becomes a serial killer who murders his many of his costumers, then allows his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, to process their corpses into meat pies, while he waits for the man who destroyed his family and life to come pay the barber shop a visit....
Warning to Viewers: this film is rated R for graphic bloody violence. I would not recommend anyone under the age of sixteen to view unless you are used to seeing bloody films or have someone there to warn you when to look away if you prefer doing that.
I was maybe fifteen or sixteen when I first crossed paths with Sweeney Todd and it was through the soundtrack. I was in a habit of bringing home a lot of soundtracks from the library to listen to, and one day I picked up Sweeney Todd without realizing it was a musical. However, upon listening to it, I discovered I really liked some of the songs. I managed to paste together the story's idea via the lyrics and pictures in the cd's booklet. Songs like "The Worst Pies In London" "Johanna" "Pirelli's Miracle Elixer" "By the Sea" and of course the vicious "Epiphany" quickly became my favorites and the ones that I re-listened to the most.
It wasn't until this past Spring that I started borrowing darker movies to watch and re-stumbled over the film while making a list of all the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movies I wanted to see. Because of my recent love of dark Victorian tales and my familiarity with the songs, I got up the courage to borrow the film even with it's R rating. And that's my long journey that led me to finally watch the film.
As I said above, you can look at this movie in different ways. This is the story of a mad man who committed unbelievably cold acts of murder while being completely obsessed with seeing the one man who wronged him suffer his deserved revenge. This is also the story of a once husband and father who lost all that was dear to him and was himself inwardly destroyed and lost all will to live outside of revenge. It's a story where everyone is both a hero and a villain; well, except for Alan Rickman's character, of course.
When you look at it, it's an extremely dark story with extremely dark elements: lots of murder, rape (alluded to, not shown), cannibalism, ect. To me, the ultimate message of the movie was that revenge, however sweet at the moment, is not healing. Revenge only brings on more death and you end up hurting those you care for most.
Johnny Depp was amazing. According the special features on the disc, he had never sung before and the first song he ever sang was "My Friends". Even though he's not a professional singer, he did a fabulous job with his songs and really brought out many depths of emotion for his character: broken-heartedness, anger, oily smugness. His acting earns, of course, an A+ from me.
As to my thoughts on Sweeney Todd, or Benjamin Barker, himself: I felt very sorry for him. While there was nothing to excuse his acts of murder, he was actually doing something that made sense to him. Without knowing the message of grace and redemption from Christ, Sweeney could only come to the conclusion that all men deserved die and he was willing to do the job himself. "Emphiny" bring this thought process to life.
I feel very sorry for Sweeney for how he came to that state; especially when in the flashbacks at the beginning of the film you see that he was once happy. What I did love about Sweeney was how much he loved his wife and daughter even though he had lost them, you can tell he had invested his life into them. So when they were taken, he became like one dead. Overall, he's actually a simple but interesting character who should certainly make you sympathize his plight.
Mrs Lovett was played by Helena Bonham Carter; I've loved her singing voice since I first heard "Worst Pies In London" and I loved seeing her act; she and Johnny make a great couple. A personally side note; I would love to cosplay Mrs Lovett someday because she's a) beautiful b) has a wardrobe that I love (neck line could be higher but besides that) c) she has a fun accent that I can actually manage out when I sing her lines d) I love almost all of her songs and e) I can easily relate to the henchmen role that she has.
As to the character Mrs Lovett herself: she's a great sidekick for Sweeney. You can quickly tell she loves him and wishes he returned her feelings. By the end of the film, however, it's clear that her love is only a selfish love and it doesn't keep her safe around a man like him. As a person, she's rough around the edges, full of good intentions and a horrible cook until she starts using Sweeney's victims in her pies; then, grossly enough, her business picks up. She becomes a mother figure to a orphan who was the servant of Sweeney's first victim and she cares for him very much, showing she has a tender heart afterall. I really like Mrs Lovett and I feel sorry for her too because there was never a chance for Sweeney to return her love.
About eighty percent of this movie is music. While it's not sung all the way through like Les Miserables, the story is carried by song and the use of actual dialogue is a small. The songs themselves all pull together well. The singing feels more natural then the musicals where out-of-the-blue the characters go from talking to doing a musical number in the streets. The characters sing as though it is their way of communicating their emotions and problems to each other. It works for me. Below is opening titles.
Overall: Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a sobering, dark story full of beautiful songs that speak of the depravity of the human race and how it effected one man's life for the worst. This film is not for all. But those who enjoy dark Victorian England, musicals, horror or just the overall world of Tim Burton, should give this film a try if you can stomach the gore that comes with it (or can watch through your fingers like myself). What I took away from the film is that revenge, no matter how sweet, is never the ultimate answer.
And make sure you know what's in your pie before you take a bite....
~Jamie
Thanks Jamie for another awesome guest review. Be sure to follow her blogs Through Two Blue Eyes! and Fandoms and Films. Please comment and check back tomorrow for my Lego Movie Trailer Review.
