As usual I’ve missed the historical context of this film: 1920’s Chicago, Bob Fosse choreography, the original broadway musical, and the revival. The city is portrayed as a place where vengeful beauties murder their husbands and lovers daily, and the public follows the drama through the press with rapt adoration. I didn’t like this setup at first, but the performances are persuasive. The whole story soon becomes a skewering of mass media, masses in general, and the justice system that I won’t argue with, but in the end feels sort of like being buried alive in glitter.
5 responses to “Movie: Chicago”
Hi Dylan! Hi Ann!
I loved Chicago and we bought the DVD. I’m not a *big* fan of musicals but I really love the dance number at the end of this one. I like that 1920’s dance style.
Catherine Zeta-Jones. What a doll!!!!! I don’t know if it’s her eyes, her face, her hair or just everything, but she is to die for. Reminds me of Clara Bow the “It” girl of the 1920’s.
It figures this happens in Chicago. Chicago has always been crooked since the Black Sox, Al Capone and right on through Mayor Dayley giving Kennedy the city, hence the state of Illinois’ electoral votes and the election of 1960. The city of the “Big Shoulders”. Later -wdr
Hey Walter!
I definitely had no problem looking at Catherine either! Maybe I feel a little defensive of Chicago since I graduated from DePaul. It defintely gets portrayed as corrupt often, like in The Jungle. I don’t know much of the actual history, though…
Hi Ann and Dylan,
Sorry I missed you when you were in Redlands. Hope all is going well. I miss both of you already!
Dylan,
after all this talk yesterday about Catherine Zeta-Jones I had to go rent Intolerable Cruelty last night. It stars her and George Cooney. A very funny movie and very entertaining.
Growing up in down state Illinois we had mixed feelings about Chicago. Proud of it on one hand but on the other hand we felt a lot of our tax dollars went there and *not* back down state. I don’t know that Chicago was any more crooked than New York but it sure seemed to get caught more often. I had forgot about Union Stockyards. I went there once when I was about 6 with my dad. He was taking some cattle up for sale and we rode in the semi up to Chicago. We stayed in a hotel that had a big Buffalo head in the lobby. Then we rode the train back to Macomb and I got my first ride in a Vista-Dome! That was a great adventure for a little boy. -wdr
Walter – Wow! I wonder if you witnessed any of the “ugly” side of the stockyards that Sinclair wrote about?
Lana – thanks! So far, so good…