I read a little about AHDN on Wikipedia the other day and discovered it scores in the top 5 of RottenTomatoes' "Top 100 Musical & Performing Arts Movies". I looked up the list on RT itself. Take a look at the top 10:
1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
2. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
3. La La Land (2016)
4. Top Hat (1935)
5. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
6. Pinocchio (1940)
7. An American in Paris (1951)
8. The Red Shoes (1948)
9. Amazing Grace (2019)
10. Mary Poppins (1964)
It's hard to argue with the top two, altho I'd switch them, but where's
The Sound of Music? It's not even in the top 100! Sure, it may be corny but, for sheer ticket sales, it's in the top 3 of ALL movies of all time! And, yes, I think it's a good movie.
And
Top Hat at #4?? Please! I finally saw it in the past year and I wasn't that impressed.
FWIW, I never really considered a movie like
A Hard Day's Night a musical. But RT's list made me rethink that, and in the broadest definition, I guess it is.
As for the rest, including 11-100, I couldn't really care less since Musical is my least favorite genre of movie; I generally think they're stupid, especially the ones with lots of choreography. Just not my thing. I remember when I was in high school I took a film studies class called "Fiction into Film", which was good for an English credit, btw. Anyway, we were watching a movie and there was a strange pause in the dialogue before it started up again. A guy sitting next to me said, "whew. For a minute there I thought they were going into a song." I cracked up and got us in trouble. But his comment illustrates my biggest complaint with musicals: they make no sense. Yes, I know, it's not about that. Of course, 9 times out of 10, the music in musicals sucks, too.
If you're curious, here's the link:
Top 100 Musicals
In comparison, here's AFI's list of greatest musicals:
1 Singin' in the Rain
2 West Side Story
3 The Wizard of Oz
4 The Sound of Music
5 Cabaret
6 Mary Poppins
7 A Star Is Born (1954)
8 My Fair Lady
9 An American in Paris
10 Meet Me in St. Louis
11 The King and I
12 Chicago
13 42nd Street
14 All That Jazz
15 Top Hat
16 Funny Girl
17 The Band Wagon
18 Yankee Doodle Dandy
19 On the Town
20 Grease
21 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
22 Beauty and the Beast
23 Guys and Dolls
24 Show Boat
25 Moulin Rouge!
Again, I don't particularly care. To me, what makes a musical good is if I'm willing to see it again and by that criteria, this would be my top - and only - 11:
1. Singin' in the Rain (this is just an excellent movie)
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. Paint Your Wagon (no, Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin can't really sing. But who cares? It's a funny movie)
4. The Wizard of Oz
5. The Commitments (a sleeper and cult film from Ireland. If you've never seen it, do! Tons of great music and quite funny, as well. It won four BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing)
6. Yellow Submarine
7. The Sound of Music
8. Meet Me in St Louis
9. Help!
10. All That Jazz (which I guess is a musical. <shrug> Roy Scheider is great in it)
11. A Star is Born (1976) (it's kind of hokey but I actually liked it; never seen any of the others)
Disclaimers:
• I've never seen
An American in Paris and have wanted to because, well... Gene Kelly is the boss.
• I've wanted to see
Cabaret for a long time. Not sure why. And I wouldn't mind seeing
42nd Street, too.
• I would rather never see another movie than ever have to see
Grease. Having to hear that stupid fucking song (You're the One That I Want) every time I turned on the radio in 1978 was enough for me.
• I would rather have my eyes poked out than ever see
Footloose again... or to finish it. IIRC, I walked out before the 2nd act even started. No, it wasn't my choice to see it.
Incidentally, the only musical I've ever seen on the stage (on Broadway, no less) was
Oh! Calcutta! It was actually good. The nudity helped.
Bookmarks