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jackI recently watched Hairspray, the film of the musical where Tracy Turnblad becomes a dancer on Baltimore's Corny Collins Show against the odds, and becomes emroiled in a drive for black/white integration.
Initially I wasn't very drawn in, but by the end I loved it.
It was fairly gentle. (Apparently the musical was slightly less gentle: eg. we do see Tracy and the others in Jail. And also may have more weird humour.) Despite dire warnings that Tracy would never be on TV again if she got involved in the protest, and everyone being exposed to brutal arrest, you don't get the feeling that's actually likely. (In contrast to the last musical I saw: Chicago.) But it was very uplifting. And I may be slow, but there was at least one twist I didn't anticipate.
It's the only film I can recall seeing where I actually had to get up and dance to it!
I liked the attitudes of the characters. A couple are fired with righteousness, a couple are nasty bad eggs, but most people exemplify "well, I'm generally in favour of righteousness, but I'll just keep my head down and go along with things until I see the wind's definitely blowing the other way", and it felt realistic that there was a spectrum, with most people willing but too shy to do anything about it.
Indeed, I liked the attitude of the teenagers to each other as well. In many films, cool-love-interest and cool-antagonist are in love, and then something dramatic happens, and cool-love-interest and uncool-hero fall in love, etc, etc and it feels cliched and fake and not how people actually behave. Here it felt realistic that cool-love-interest became increasingly dissatisfied with cool-antagonist, and increasingly intrigued with hero, directly after hero did interesting and awesome things.
I liked Tracy. She was overweight, but they didn't slap a pair of glasses on Sandra Bullock and rely on other characters' attitudes to her to convey that she was "supposed to be ugly", and remove the glasses at the appropriate point. Instead, she was actually bulkier than average, and the change from dorky to beautiful was conveyed entirely by her body language.
Initially I wasn't very drawn in, but by the end I loved it.
It was fairly gentle. (Apparently the musical was slightly less gentle: eg. we do see Tracy and the others in Jail. And also may have more weird humour.) Despite dire warnings that Tracy would never be on TV again if she got involved in the protest, and everyone being exposed to brutal arrest, you don't get the feeling that's actually likely. (In contrast to the last musical I saw: Chicago.) But it was very uplifting. And I may be slow, but there was at least one twist I didn't anticipate.
It's the only film I can recall seeing where I actually had to get up and dance to it!
I liked the attitudes of the characters. A couple are fired with righteousness, a couple are nasty bad eggs, but most people exemplify "well, I'm generally in favour of righteousness, but I'll just keep my head down and go along with things until I see the wind's definitely blowing the other way", and it felt realistic that there was a spectrum, with most people willing but too shy to do anything about it.
Indeed, I liked the attitude of the teenagers to each other as well. In many films, cool-love-interest and cool-antagonist are in love, and then something dramatic happens, and cool-love-interest and uncool-hero fall in love, etc, etc and it feels cliched and fake and not how people actually behave. Here it felt realistic that cool-love-interest became increasingly dissatisfied with cool-antagonist, and increasingly intrigued with hero, directly after hero did interesting and awesome things.
I liked Tracy. She was overweight, but they didn't slap a pair of glasses on Sandra Bullock and rely on other characters' attitudes to her to convey that she was "supposed to be ugly", and remove the glasses at the appropriate point. Instead, she was actually bulkier than average, and the change from dorky to beautiful was conveyed entirely by her body language.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 02:41 pm (UTC)Oh, good, thanks. I knew what I meant, but when I write I often become several levels of analogy removed from what I was trying to say, and worried that it might sound offensive.
It sounds like this is the more recent version of the film you saw?
Yeah. I wasn't even aware what it was based on until I checked wikipedia just now. I was a little curious to know what the other film and musical were like, but I'll probably not get round to seeing it. Did you see both; which did you prefer?
I could have done with slightly more uncertainty about what was going to happen, but on the other hand, I see lots of depressing films, I generally enjoy something uplifting for a change. I just had a nagging feeling someone was going to come in and say "Cartesiandaemon, you can't have liked that film! Integration wasn't that simple!" :)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 02:53 pm (UTC)LOL!
I did see both, older one first and the newer one about a week later; I preferred the older one, because the newer one did seem to have some of the points (which were made quite hard-hitting in the first one) sort of muted, or dulled, if that makes sense. It was still just as uplifting as the newer version :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 04:01 pm (UTC)Wait, you mean you aren't constantly trying to say things that are several levels of analogy and abstraction away from reality? I've completely misunderstood you for as long as I've known you! :-)
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Date: 2009-01-15 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 06:46 pm (UTC)