Customer Reviews

The Band Wagon (Two-Disc Special Edition)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No movie musical comes close to []the Band Wagon. The film is physically stunning and varied in terms of musical numbers. In fact, it's fantastic in every department. This is []the ultimate Vincente Minnelli musical. His brilliant use of sets in such numbers as A SHINE ON YOUR SHOES, DANCING IN THE DARK, and THE GIRL HUNT make the film one of the most atmospheric musicals to hit the screen. The quality of musical numbers in THE BAND WAGON is far more consistent than in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. For instance, TRIPLETS is funnier, and more original than MAKE 'EM LAUGH. In A SHINE ON YOUR SHOES, Minnelli treats the "breaking into song and dance" concept literally. In a 1930s musical, extras would stand around the action with a fake smile. Here the people in the background react realistically to Astaire's routine (everything from walking by to screaming from fright). The blending of real and unreal adds an entire dimension to the number. THE GIRL HUNT BALLET manages to be dream-like, humourous, and structured. It has a magical quality without being as lasse faire as the ballets in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN or AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. It's my candidate for the greatest musical number ever filmed...a close race with everything else in THE BAND WAGON. Oh, yeah. Many consider this film to include Fred Astaire's finest performance. He's a fabulous performer, in a semi-autobiographical role.

This is one of my favourite musicals, with lots of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire. The musical numbers are a mix of beauty and riotous humour. This was during the last hurrah of the studio era's musicals, and a later Astaire film in which he shines. I highly recommend it for any musical fan.

Astaire & buddies decide to put on a travelling show. This somewhat defiant response to Gene Kelly's forward looking & somewhat cynical Singin in the Rain, provided a big screen platform for an odd combination of small stage entertainment and Astaire's signature tap dancing mixed with ballroom dancing. The movie adopts a cheerful & innocent entertain the masses approach. Old fashioned on purpose. His dancing is wonderful and the film suffers in the scenes and numbers where he isn't front and center. Corny old songs like "Triplets" and "Louisiana Hayride" are dragged out & dusted off. Was Astaire really this devoted to his vaudeville roots or was it all he knew how to do? Astaire may not have born wearing a top hat and tails but he might as well have been. I wonder if it got to the point where someone he trusted had to sit down with Fred and convince him to let it go. Obviously, Singin in the Rain resonated more deeply with public. Astaire finally gave up on these throwback movies & took on dramatic roles in the late 50's. Big budget modernized musicals dominated the 50's & 60's.

This movie came out a year or two after Singing in the Rain. Fred meant it to be his answer to that movie. Many people remember the Gene Kelly movie but not this one. In many ways I think Band Wagon is better. WHY ISN'T IT ON DVD?

The Band Wagon is a very good movie!
It's list of musical numbers include, That's Entertainment!, The Girl Hunt, and Triplets.
It's a must see for any musical movie fans,or anyone else for that matter!
I realy wish I could rate it with 10 Stars!

In my opinion, I think that 'The Bandwagon' is one of the best and certainly the funniest musicals of all time. Cyd and Fred sparkle on screen. The plot is classic, but wonderful. As for the songs and dances, they are definately some of the best. 'A Shine on My Shoes', 'Dancing in the Dark', 'Triplets', and 'I Love Louisa' are wonderful and creative.
I have to admit, though my favorite person in the film is Fred, I have to say that my second favorite character is Jeff Cordova (Buchanan). He is the most hilarious and wonderfully stereotypical character I have ever seen!
This film is certianly one of the best, so see it today!

A muddled Fred Astaire musical, which starts out with a brilliant opening sequence wherein Tony Hunter, a thinly-veiled Astaire stand-in, returns to a modern, new, 1950s New York, which has adopted a brash, gritty form of glitz which feels foreign to the debonaire star of 'Thirties film and stage. Broadway has been overrun with garish and pretentiously lofty Big Concept plays, and the good clean fun of Fred and Ginger's era seems hokey and out-of-date. Still, his loyal pals, a successful playwright and librettist, hustle him up some work, which turns out to be with the most pompous of the new theatre elite. Astaire's outsider-looking-in view of Broadway in transition -- the sort of big city symphony that director Vincente Minnelli excelled at -- is fascinating (while Fred's visit to an old Times Square theatre that's been renovated into a penny arcade is amusing in retrospect, considering that the neighborhood soon became overrun with porno parlours...) Teaming Astaire up with Cyd Charisse is a joy to behold as well... Apparently he is quoted as saying she was his favorite dance partner (Ginger Rogers fans, all gasp now...) but you can kinda see what he means... Where the graceful Rogers was a perfect partner to Astaire, the statuesque Charisse is more of counterpoint, an equal presence, if not as intuitive and inventive a dancer. There's a much greater physical charge between them, and it's a very different viewing experience. Anyway, long story short: this film has a great premise, but falls apart when they actually find a barn and start to put on a show. The highbrow producer stages a flop, and Astaire and company decide they can't quit now, so they're just going to put on some good, old-fashioned singing and dancing revue, like folks loved in the old days. That's all very well and fine, but the big old, sockaroony extravaganza that takes up the last quarter of the film simply makes no sense. It's a bizarre Technicolor pastiche of old routines: a hick skit, a terrible old Vaudeville routine (Triplets), and a fun (but overlong) parody of then-contemporary film noir craze, featuring Astaire in the tough-guy role. It just doesn't hang together, which is a pity, since the film ultimately doesn't deliver on its promise to give the "new" theatre its comeuppance... Maybe with a little more delicacy or stronger writing, they would have, but the Really Big Show is kind of half-baked. Stiil, Astaire & Charisse... what's not to like?

Yes, this is one of the best MGM musicals for sure. You'll read some reviews that say the romance is wearisome or that the plot is thin, but I don't think any of that holds water. I will grant you, though, that it gets a tad long, but I think you'll find that true of almost every single musical anyway, my gosh how many hours long is "Carousel"?

Fred Astaire just got better as he got older, and that's pretty darn hard to do as a dancer--I remember that all the cast in "A Chorus Line" are dreading turning thirty because they'd be has-beens. Well, here our Fred is a spry 54 and dancing up a storm, even in a new style. While every number is great, I'd have to say that the standout for me is "Dancing in the Dark", where he and Cyd Charisse begin by walking through a mock Central Park and by bits and pieces go into a beautifully smooth dance number. Look at it closely--there's only one camera cut in the whole number, and I think that's just that they moved out of range. Which is to say, that you're almost watching a live performance in one take--incredible!

Like one of the previous reviewers, I will also single out Jack Buchanan's great performance as the hambone director of the Faust play. What a pity that there doesn't seem to be anything else of his around to keep viewing his significant persona. When he and Fred do a number together towards the end, "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans", gotta admit, most of the time I was watching Jack not Fred. Such aplomb! I wish I knew him!

And of course, there are plenty of other classic routines, not the least of which is "That's Entertainment", well put over by Fred, Jack, and Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray. Yep, that's entertainment all right!

So to sum up, scurry aboard "The Band Wagon" and ride on out to wherever with these great stars--hot time in the old town tonight.

THE BAND WAGON is a unique film which gently mocks the conventions of the "backstage musical" genre by piling stereotype upon stereotype to comic effect. While some viewers see the film as purely cliche and dismiss it as such, those in tune with its covert satire often rank it as one of Hollywood's finest musicals. But however you look at it, THE BAND WAGON offers two of Hollywood's greatest dancers, three memorable character actors, fabulous music, and some of the finest musical set pieces ever created for film.

The story is slight but contains unexpected twists. Fred Astaire is a has-been movie musical star (much of the film actually parodies his own history) who decides to return to Broadway--and unexpectedly finds himself trapped in a musical adaptation of Faust with a neurotic director (Jack Buchanan), two irate writers (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray) and a decidedly icy leading lady (Cyd Charisse.) Needless to say, disaster follows disaster until every one concerned decides to junk the Faust element and do something purely entertaining instead. As with most Vincent Minnelli films, THE BAND WAGON is visually stunning in virtually every manner possible, and the loose plot offers plenty of room for one dazzling musical number after another. Astaire literally defies time with his work in this film and Charisse makes an exceptional partner; at the same time, Buchanan, Fabray, and Levant lend a touch of acid humor that adds considerably to the fun.

The musical numbers are everything here, and they are all--including the disasterous Faust rehearsal--beautifully and memorably staged: the opening shoe shine number, the simple beauty of 'Dancing in the Dark,' the brief turns by Buchanan, Fabray and Levant are all charmers... and 'That's Entertainment' sums up the intent of the film. Although some find it extremely slight, THE BAND WAGON remains one of the few truly great movie musicals of the 1950s--and easily one of the truly great movie musicals of Hollywood's golden age. Recommended.

In this age of angst (to say the least), what better elixir than Fred Astaire, who is pure joy himself. Sure, he had problems professionally and in life like the rest of us, but you know what? The essence of this man transcended all of that, and I believe that is why we are all so drawn to his films today. Not only that, but this film takes place when the movies were leaving hoofers (tap dancing) behind, and moving into the realm of modern dance and ballet. Even in those territories, Fred holds his own. It is my belief that the decline in the producing and popularity of musicals from the late 40's and 50's to this day is because we left tap dancing (primal rhythm) behind for a mode that was too effete for most people to be affected by.

As for the film, great!!! Have to admit the last production bored me, but is was worth the rest of the film. Shall we cherish Ms. Charrise now or later. I say always!!