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A Chorus Line
Studio: MGM
Year: 1985
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 118 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (2.35:1)
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
A Chorus Line is the most typical of backstage
musicals, a celebration of the lives and hard times
of the gypsy dancers who turn up by the hundreds to
audition for a handful of jobs on Broadway. During
its record 15 years and 6,137 performances at the
Shubert Theatre on Broadway, A Chorus Line enchanted
more than 6.5 million theatre-goers and went on to
win ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics
Award for Best Musical, and five Drama Desk Awards.
If any Broadway show was destined to go to the
big screen it was this one! Problem is, from what
I read, the film became a result of a variety of
unwise deals made in many attempts to get the picture
into production. It's also obvious that the filmmakers
had no faith in the original vision of the play. Thus,
A Chorus Line becomes the perfect example of a
Broadway show that doesn't translate well to screen.
Anyone that has seen this show on stage will be
quite disturbed over the way the film has reworked
many of the original dance numbers to the point where
they just fall flat on their face.
It seems that A Chorus Line the film was more
of an attempt to make a Michael Douglas movie than
a musical. In the stage play, the role of Zach was
on off-stage presence whose God-like voice boomed
over the entire stage. Here, the filmmakers chose
build an entire romance plot around Zach (Douglas)
and Cassie (Alyson Reed), changing the entire focus
of the play, even to the point of reworking the
meaning of the show's most heartfelt song, What
I Did for Love.
How is the transfer?
The film looks fairly decent. My major gripe is that
visually, the film looks as lifeless as the production
itself. The entire film takes place in an empty
theater, on a huge stage adorned with mirrors. The
film is wrapped in somber hues, looking sort of drab,
with colors never looking overly vibrant. Flesh tones
are very accurate and black levels are deep. There is
the slightest detection of background mosquito noise
in the dark walls surrounding the stage. There are
small amounts of noticeable speckle scattered
throughout. I think MGM did a reasonably good job
with this transfer as (other than the blemishes) it
best represents how the film looked theatrically.
Though presented in standard Dolby Digital surround,
I was elated to find that this was somewhat of an
enveloping sonic experience. The music seems to
have some nice kick to it, coming across the front
speakers with good dynamic range and bass response.
Dialogue is very strong in the center channel with
bleeds to the front. The rears really shine here,
supporting the voices of the actors and events
happening on stage. It's not uncommon to listen to
any one of the song numbers and feel surrounded by
a chorus of singers. The rears even manage to
capture the ambience of the quick NYC exterior scenes.
The soundtrack is certainly not as robust as what
I would expect from a well mixed 5.1 musical track,
but for a film that's nearly 20 years old, it holds
its own very well.
Special Features
I didn't expect much in the way of extras on this
title, but MGM managed came through with a rather
nice little featurette....
Marvin Hamlisch: Broadway to Hollywood introduces
us to the famous composer who talks about how as a
young boy he was able to watch his sister at piano
lessons, only to mimic later what she had learned
on his own. Such talent paved the way for an education
at the Julliard School. By the early 70s Hamlisch
had two big pictures under his belt, The Way We
Were and The Sting. It was at that time
that he was contacted by Michael Bennett who
approached the composer about putting together a
Broadway show about the lives of dancers. Of course,
that show became the highly successful A Chorus
Line. Hamlisch talks about his masterpiece
and how he put together many of the songs, including
the show-stopping tune One.
(length: approx. 19 minutes)
The film's original theatrical trailer is
also included.
May I also note here that MGM included no inner
cover booklet for this film (at least my sealed
copy had none), so finding a favorite song or
chapter stop is going to be difficult.
Final Thoughts
A Chorus Line is perhaps the most lifeless
of all stage-to-screen movie musicals ever made. I
would only recommend it for those that have witnessed
the stage version and want to see how it has been
poorly reworked for the screen. As for everyone
else, I would suggest waiting for the this year's
DVD releases of All That Jazz and Chicago.
Release Date: April 15, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
