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Carousel [VHS] 
Actors : Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Ruick, Claramae Turner
Studio : 20th Century Fox
by 20th Century Fox
Release Date : 1991-09-26
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9786301759076
UPC : 008616217133
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 89 reviews)
List Price : $19.98
Our Price : $3.80
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Cooltechelectronics.com |
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Like its immediate predecessor, Oklahoma!, this 1956 screen musical boasted then state-of-the-art widescreen cinematography, stereophonic sound, a starring romantic duo with onscreen chemistry, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein imprimatur. Adding to its promise was a source (the venerable Ferenc Molnar play Liliom) that had already been filmed three times. Yet unlike the original Broadway production, and despite evident craft, Carousel proved a box-office disappointment. Why? Hindsight argues that '50s moviegoers may have been unprepared for its tragic narrative, the sometimes unsympathetic protagonist, and a spiritual subtext addressing life after death. Whatever the obstacle, Carousel may well be a revelation to first-time viewers. The score is among the composers' most affecting, from the glorious instrumental "Carousel Waltz" to a succession of exquisite love songs ("If I Loved You"), a heart-rending secular hymn ("You'll Never Walk Alone"), and the expectant father's poignant reverie, "Soliloquy." Top-lined stars Shirley Jones (as factory worker Julie Jordan) and Gordon MacRae (as Billy Bigelow, the carnival barker who woos and weds her) achieve greater dramatic urgency here than in the more successful Oklahoma!, with MacRae in particular attaining a personal best as the conflicted Billy, whose anxiety and wounded pride after losing his job are crucial to the plot. It's Billy's impatience to support his new family that drives him to an ill-fated decision that transforms the fable into a ghost story. Adding to the luster are the coastal Maine locations where 20th Century Fox filmed principal photography. Newly remastered by THX, Carousel looks and sounds better than ever. --Sam Sutherland |
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Great product, sad story |
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The DVD arrived in great condition, the music was beautiful, the color true, but the story was so sad I will probably not watch this very often. |
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Carousel DVD |
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This old movie is one of my favorites. I have been to the location at which it was filmed so I love seeing it again. |
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Great Music - Fabulous Ballet |
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While the story line is less than plausible, the final message is touching. Shirley Jones' songs our outstanding, although she seems somewhat typecast, she pulled off the role. The music is great and the ballet sequence with the dancers becoming the carousal animals, stupendous. |
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Mixed Messages, for a Film this Old... |
This review contains a few spoilers. I'm also reviewing this from the perspective of the decade in which it was released, so you may find me a bit paranoid.
The things that I most enjoy about films from this era is their virtually-ironclad understanding of ethics and fear of God. It's for this reason that initially, I was turned off by Carousel. There were times, in fact, midway through the film, where I felt that it was genuinely trying to lose me, and working hard to ditch both the ethical and theological beliefs of its audience, but after having thought about it for a while, however, I'm no longer convinced of that.
Carousel is a Rodgers & Hammerstein production, and like all of their classic productions, it's rich with music and dance, and the singing is excellent. They clearly had to go to a lot of trouble to find talent for films like this, and I appreciate the work they did. Before computers started taking the place of actors, this was how it was always done, though certainly they did it better than most. The sets are nice, the costumes appropriately-tasteful for the most part, though not extravagant, and the performances of dancing and singing were impressively-done.
In this film, a carousel barker named Billy Bigelow falls for a young girl named Julie, and they later elope together. Billy, however, has never been able to control his temper, and is more than a little arrogant and self-righteous to boot, to say nothing of being rash, impulsive and having an easy time justifying acts of wickedness, if he thinks he can get something out of it, and he's the main character of the drama.
Eventually, it turns out that Julie is pregnant, and Billy commits to assisting a delinquent friend of his (even worse than him) in robbing a rich man in order to help support his own family. However, the robbery doesn't go off as planned, and Billy dies in the process. He ends up in a place that certainly isn't Heaven, but doesn't quite seem to be Hell either, and there, he's given one day to go back to Earth and change things for the betterment of his wife and daughter, who is now fifteen.
Billy is depicted as a reprobate at every turn. For a while, I figured this film would pull out of that trend, much like Groundhog Day or Liar Liar. However, much to my surprise, the character retains his rash, foolish, arrogant demeanor up to the very end, regardless of any positive character traits that he might also have.
At first, that confused me, because many of the other characters seemed so accomodating to his behavior, even to the point of treating his abuse like it was something other that what it was; a lack of real consideration for other people's feelings. I just couldn't make heads or tails of what they were trying to say.
I was ready to pronounce firm judgement on this film based on that alone, when it occurred to me to look at it in a different way, and suddenly, I found that the film, while still imperfect, wasn't trying to tear ethics to shreds anymore. If I were to rate this film, though, I would label it PG-13, because moral people will dislike it unless they look at it in one specific way. Just the fact that I have to think about it this way, though, is probably a point for it, rather than against it.
This movie is essentially the story of an anti-hero struggling for redemption, while still burdened by all his own faults. In some ways, this story is tragic, and the character of Billy Bigelow is tragic as well, because his own behavior and pride are what keep him from this redemption, but he is at least able to change enough that the people closest to him don't suffer too much from his presence in their lives.
In that respect, it's a bit like trying to filter "It's a Wonderful Life" through "The Picture of Dorian Gray." They go out of their way to imply that Billy is definitely as much of a jerk as he seems to be; that he really is guilty of everything the other characters accuse him of, and that he has absolutely no regrets about it, aside from the way things turned out. However, he does still seem to have this desire to not hurt the people in his life, even though it doesn't motivate any of his real actions until the very end of the picture.
The other characters, however, give him much more leeway than he deserves, and he, predictably, abuses their trust. Again and again, he makes a mess of his life, and it's only by great care and subtlety that he manages to avoid destroying his wife and daughter too.
This, I'm convinced, was the real point of the movie; the fact that our actions do have consequences for the people in our lives, for good or ill. By dwelling on this wicked man, and how he ruined his own life, we can be led to question our own actions; are we truly doing the right thing, or are we leading ourselves down a path of despair and emptiness by thinking too much of our own desires, when others depend on us?
Watching the film with this mentality dispels all my issues with it except two, and these two are the reason why I gave it one star down. The first is that half the musical numbers felt surreal and abstract, as if they didn't really belong where they were put, and didn't have much to do with the plot of the movie as a whole, but this is just a design choice when you get down to it, and it's not movie-wrecking on its own.
The second point is Louise on the beach in her invisible stockings and shoes. Near the end of the film, one of the characters says that Louise is on the beach in stockings and shoes, just like Billy used to be, but when we see her, she's completely barefoot, and not only that, but she does several dance moves which reveal virtually her whole legs under her dress, just before a selection of oddly-dressed circus performers dance out and imitate a carousel. Not only is this completely out of nowhere, but if this were a more recent film, I'd almost accuse it of doing this whole sequence for shock value. Heck, if it were a more recent film, it WOULD have been done for shock value, and it would have been a lot more shocking and revealing, so I'm glad it wasn't a more recent film. I hope no one ever re-makes this movie, based on this alone. What's going on on the screen may seem tame to us, but in the fifties, this was what it meant to push the bar, and I'm not really in favor of doing that.
On the whole, though, this is not an unenjoyable movie. Just don't show it to kids, because the mixed messages are so thick, you could cut them with a broadaxe. I said earlier that I'd rate this PG-13, and I stand by that. If you show this to your kids, be prepared to do a lot of parental guiding. |
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Wonderful adaptation |
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Quite simply a wonderful adaptation of the stage musical. Jones and MacRae are perfectly cast and perform peerlessly. A moving and beautiful production. |
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