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Chicago (Full Screen Edition) Customer Reviews (91 - 93 of 120 Reviews)

For all the "Irony-Challenged" out there: It's a SATIRE!
I don't think the reviewer from Charlotte, N.C. quite "got" it. Chicago is NOT a simple morality tale - nor is it some innocuous MGM musical with Doris Day. It works on an entirely different level, beyond the jazzy music and dance numbers. There's a subtext here, and it's a dark, cynical one ( what else would you expect from a black comedy? ) Chicago is ultimately a comment on the justice system, especially as it pertains to sensational, media-hyped circus trials, and the cult of celebrity in America. That's why the stage version was re-written for the screen - in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial, I'm sure - to reflect this new "Court TV" brand of mega-market, publicity-powered "justice". ( Can anyone watch Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in this movie, and NOT picture Johnny Cochran? ) It's not a glorification of murderers and immorality, as the previously-mentioned reviewer seems to be suggesting. Instead it's a satirical condemnation of sensationalist journalism, shrewd but morally bankrupt defense attorneys, and a parody of the fickle public's naivete. The 3 main characters are unsympathetic because they're MEANT to be. The ending, like the similar ending to King Of Comedy, is richly ironic.

Imagine if the gender roles had been reversed...
Imagine a musical that glorifies men who kill their wives. That has scenes of men in prison talking about how they shot, stabbed, or poisoned their wives and how the wives deserved it! That glorifies slimebag attorneys who defend these men and who have "never lost a case".

Such a musical wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being produced today, if ever. Everything associated with such a production would be subjected to massive boycotts and PR campaigns by womens' groups, and would be stopped dead in its tracks. In fact, pre-censorship would prevail and the project would never seriously be considered.

Coincidentally, I borrowed this DVD from my local library while I was reading the chapter in Warren Farrell's terrific book, "The Myth of Male Power - Why Men are the Disposable Sex" that discusses how women receive much more lenient sentences for committing the same crimes as men.

The media is literally saturated with anti-male propaganda that women would never tolerate. This film is just one example. Most men are where women were in the 1950s, in terms of their consciousness of their own oppression and of how in so many ways they literally are "the disposable sex". I've been radicalized, and I'm not staying silent any longer.

"In this town, murder's a form of entertainment..."
and entertainment is plentiful, but there just aren't enough stars for the marvelous, "Chicago".

Just as poet Carl Sandburg immortalized the raw power and audacity of the city in his poem nearly 100 years ago ("Chicago, by Sandburg, 1914), so do the creators of the film version of Chicago...Fosse for his brilliance years ago, and a production team who bring it burning incandescent to the big screen. Chicago takes you on a musical experience that makes 2001's lesser film, "Moulin Rouge", pale by comparison.

Direction is strong by newcomer Rob Marshall, who "wows" us with the film's energy. Sets, camerawork, editing, visualization and pace are superb. Captured for this film, (as in so many others where the music stands completely on its own) are the talents of music director Danny Elfman. A genius at musical transition, Elfman lets the score soar, while mixing new life into its vocals, even with lesser singing talents such as Gere and Zellwegger. The cast was well prepared vocally, and the choreography blinds you. Lights, camera angles, sets and costumes blend into the showcase rather than eclipse it.

Star talent is plentiful -- there is too much for one film! Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly and Catherine Zeta-Jones (as vixen, Velma) play to type strongly and vocalize beautifully. Zeta Jones is a marvelous dancer, and her beauty quite takes your breath away. This is Richard Gere's best performance (by far!) of a long and somewhat "wooden" career. Glinting, slick, manipulative -- he's truly the "puppeteer" of the script. His courtroom tapdance, the "Cell Block Tango" and Latifah's bawdy solo, "When You're Good to Mama" are the highlights of the show, for me.

We even get glimpses of greatness in minor roles with virtual cameos by stage and screen stars Christine Baranski, Colm Feore, Taye Diggs and viperous Lucy Liu. But NOTHING quite prepares you for Zellwegger. There's a palpable charisma about her onscreen; the sort of light from within that Monroe had, and, indeed her solo, "Roxie Hart" is reminiscent of Monroe. We've loved Renee when "he had her at hello", she showed us her flair for black comedy as "Nurse Betty", and her talent for romantic farce as Bridget, but she sets the screen on fire in this film. She's equally at home with anger, awe, naivete, chutzpah and misery in "Chicago". The camera loves her, polishes her, allows her to outvamp Zeta-Jones in the closing act. She may not win an Oscar, because the competition is so fierce, but she will ever be associated with a brilliant film turn as Roxie.

"Chicago" is, without a doubt, the best film of the year, and potentially the best musical ever brought to the big screen. Thanks to this 21st century masterpiece, Chicago is still...

"singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning"
--Sandburg, 1914

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