Why Singin' in the Rain is NOT the greatest movie musical of all time

However, I don't think people should continue labeling it as the greatest movie musical of all time.

Taste is subjective. If you don't think "Singin' in the Rain" is the greatest movie musical of all time, that's fine - no one is saying that's how you HAVE to feel. But you can't regulate how other people feel. And if someone else thinks it's the greatest, that's perfectly valid. Whatever people consider "the greatest" will be entirely in the eye of the beholder. I'm aware the film isn't flawless, but if someone asked me what I thought the greatest movie musical of all time was, I'd say "Singin' in the Rain" in a heartbeat (with "Wizard of Oz" and "The Music Man" running close behind).

But that's just me. And if someone else feels differently, that's OK too. But I'm not going to go around saying "You think that film is the greatest? You shouldn't, because I don't think it is." Making statements like that not only smacks of intolerance, it's absurd.

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If you ask me, the most effective musicals use the songs to help tell the story. ... The definitive musical storytelling style didn't come along until Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in 1943. That was the first time that songs, dances, and dialogue all played an equal part in telling the story and showing character development. This is considered the superior musical format and is still used with new musicals today.

The Oklahoma!-style integrated musical--with mostly non-diegetic musical numbers growing directly out of the characters and the narrative--is merely one approach to musical theater storytelling (and even Rodgers & Hammerstein didn't restrict themselves to this model). There were lots of experiments in this direction before 1943, but yes, the shows that shortly followed Oklahoma! made their point with the audience, who began to see anything different from that as old-fashioned. This template dominated Broadway for about twenty years, from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, but it is not universally considered the "superior musical format." There is no such thing; there is only the appropriate approach for the individual project.

Cabaret in 1966 was maybe the first successful Broadway musical to attempt to break the Rodgers-&-Hammerstein mold, although there had been attempts to buck the trend before that (e.g. the brilliant Love Life in 1948), and creators of musical theater have continued to experiment with such devices as numbers interrupting the dramatic action to comment upon it (as in Company and Chicago) and diegetic "performance" numbers serving the same purpose (as in Follies). We are now in an era where anything goes, and only the creators' firm grip on their concept and the material need to define what the rules are.

I would also say that you are confusing the needs of the stage and the needs of film, and they are quite different. This "integrated" musical format only gradually seeped into the movies by way of Broadway's influence, and never really dominated in Hollywood anyway. For every Annie Get Your Gun and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers there are a dozen movies with Betty Grable, Elvis Presley and others, movies with all the numbers on a stage of some kind, having nothing to do with the story. And thank goodness. Even during the Rodgers-&-Hammerstein era, it was always difficult to sustain the fun without resorting to such non-narrative numbers as "Honey Bun" in South Pacific and "Shipoopi" (wtf?!) in The Music Man.

So I suggest you discard the idea that any one format, for film or stage, is superior. You may also want to see a lot more musicals and see how incredibly varied and creative the use of words and music in musicals have been put to.

And I am not worried about suspending my disbelief in musicals (or much anything else). Sometimes it is my very disbelief that provides me my greatest pleasure! Different movies require different things from us, and to expect Singin' in the Rain to play by the same rules as On the Waterfront is not an attitude I would expect from anyone who has seen more than one movie.






I don't know if it's "really wacky," but your French is coming along.

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@Brent

Which is your favorite movie musical? Was it Oklahoma or another?
Just curious.

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Another overthinker. This kind of thinking could screw up a one car funeral.

Really. Who CARES if they could get it done in six weeks or not? First of all, they probably could because they weren't distracted by cellphone, iPods, and other technology. They had nothing but time on their hands. But the point is, IT'S A MOVIE!

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Singing in the Rain is the greatest musical of all time without question. :p

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Paragraphs--who needs 'em?


"Your petty vengeance fetish will have to do withOUT Mr. Groin!"

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