Review of Chicago (1927) by Sandra C — 05 Aug 2010

Chicago is a great movie version of musical I?ve ever seen! I love every songs and dances in it because it is very brilliant. The movie describes vividly about the life in 1920s that can make us flash back to that time. Actually, this is a movie version of musical which is shot in 2002 and takes lots of time to teach the actors about the dances. Chicago became a really big hit and won 6 Academy Awards finally, including Best Picture and Best Costume Design.

Chicago is a film that ironically talks about the themes of fame, scandal, celebrity, and corruption in the 1920s. The main character, Roxie Hart, is a married woman who always has a dream about being on stage to sing and dance. One day, she kills her lover and that?s why she is put in jail. Her husband, Amos, tries hard to hire a never-lose-lawyer named Billy Flynn to defend Roxie. However, he doesn?t have enough money, so Billy takes advantage of Roxie to make a fortune. In the jail, she finds her idol Velma was also arrested because Velma kills her own husband and her sister. Since Chicago?s mass media loves news, Roxie and Velma have a keen competition for hitting the headlines in the jail.

I think that the way Chicago shows the movie is fantastic. Directed by Rob Marshall, Chicago links up all songs and dances with the story naturally by using Roxie?s imagination. That is, all of the colorful dancing scenes are fantasized by Roxie in her mind when she sees or hears something. For example, when she first calls a press conference, she creates the image that she is a puppet controlled by Billy and every word she says is made from ventriloquism. I think it is very interesting because the Rob shows to us lights up the whole story and make it even better than the original Broadway musical.

Moreover, Chicago makes best of the editing technique to show the alternation between reality and virtuality that cannot directly convey on the stage. The color and the costume are also important supporting roles to their editing. We can see that most of the colorful, magnificent, and splendid scenes are imagined by Roxie. When the scene goes back to the prison, the color will turn to monotonous grey so that we will know that it comes back to the earth now.

My favorite song and dance in Chicago is Cell Block Tango. It talks about six female murderer?s confession about how and why they killed their husband. I love it not only because the dance is gorgeous but because it shows the story of six women individually in only one song. Rob Marshall, who is also their choreographer, use several kinds of dance to show every woman?s personality and their inner world, such as jazz, ballet, and tango. I think it is the variety that makes Chicago so popular and beloved by people all over the world.

I love Chicago so much that I have seen it and Cell Block Tango over and over again. I highly recommend it to everyone. If you are a person who don?t like musical, Chicago will overthrow all the stereotypes you give to it because it?s really amazing!