*** Official "CHICAGO" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Vickie_M]

I liken it to the group who love The Hours simply because they think they're sophisticated in doing so.

Just like that.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I don't remember if I ever responded in this thread or not. I'm too lazy to look. :p)

Either way, I'm chiming in with my two cents and saying I liked it a lot. It didn't bother me a bit that it won Best Picture.

 

[teapot2001]

Among 14,000 movies Bill Reid has seen, Chicago is one of his 10 favorites of all-time. Who's Bill Reid?
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedi...a26mar26.story
~T

 

[OcieB]

chicago was a good musical. it was also a movie that really had no feeling outside of the dancing sequences that didnt really impress me all that much.
Tim Goodman sums it all up... who is Tim Gooman?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...1/DD269064.DTL

 

[Quentin]

I've also noticed a backlash...not surprising...but, it's not a big one because "Chicago" is only marginally successful ($150 mil expected?). Nothing like what you get with the big money makers like "Titanic" and "Forrest Gump". More like what we saw last year with "A Beautiful Mind". In fact, I equate the two in my mind! I'm not really bothered by their wins, nor do I think they come close to deserving them. Par for the course for Oscar...

 

[PatrickL]

The "All That Jazz" number at the opening of the film was so good but I was endlessly disappointed when the camera cut away...interrupting the flow of the number.

I don't know. The first couple of times I saw the movie I also wanted a better look at the number. Then I got one, on the Kennedy Center Honors, when Valerie Pettiford and a team of dancers did Marshall's movie choreography for the number, rather than the Fosse-derived stage choreography that's been shown dozens of times already on tv. It seemed clear to me that, for that number anyway, Marshall choreographed it for the movie well aware that he would be cutting it up and interpolating it with the scenes of Roxie. In other words, it doesn't really hold together uninterrupted - it looked choppy, and is full of gestures (like Velma throwing her arms back) that are meant to cut with similar action in Roxie's scene.

Other numbers in the movie are far less edited, and those that aren't interpolated with non-music action are cut so that the choreographic gesture is not lost - I appreciated that immensely. It's right out of Fosse's playbook.

I do get your point that Marshall could have choreographed and staged the number to allow the kind of look we get at the "Roxie" number, for instance. But I can't carp, because I think the opening sequence of the movie is masterfully edited and communicates a lot of story quickly.

 

[Arman]

"Bill Reid's all-time top-10 favorites
1. "Gone With the Wind" (1939)
2. "Casablanca" (1942)
3. "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
4. "It Happened One Night" (1934)
5. "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)
6. "Ben-Hur" (1959)
7. "On the Waterfront" (1954)
8. "Chicago" (2002)
9. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
10. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)"
I'm guessing, he is one of Academy's oldest active voting members.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I liken it to the group who love The Hours simply because they think they're sophisticated in doing so. Entertainment Weekly said it best a couple of weeks ago. Have to find that quote.

Is it possible to like The Hours, without being part of that group?

Or is this just a general ‘guilt by association’ charge?

 

[ArmandV]

Left to my own devices, I would not have gone out to see Chicago as I am not a movie musical or Richard Gere fan.
However, my mother wanted to see it a couple of months ago, so I took her and I was pleasantly surprised! The movie was very enjoyable and Richard Gere actually did a superb job. He deserved an Oscar nomination.
I was not disappointed that it won "Best Picture."