First of all, this had no business being framed as a biopic. It’s a hundred percent made up and still dull as dirt. I think it would’ve been a lot stronger if they cut out that pretense and just put out a greatest hits tribute to the then-recently deceased Jerome Kern. The musical sequences are good enough to stand on their own.
Second of all, this does not hold up nearly as well as the more well-known movie musical masterpiece from its day. It’s borderline prohibitively written for moviegoers of the mid-1940s, a demographic that was far more likely than modern audiences to:
1. Know and care about Kern
2. Be deeply fond of MGM’s roster of stars (Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Frank Sinatra among them)
3. Have a working knowledge of the plot and music from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat (the Hamilton of its day)
If none of that applies to you, you won’t like. Hell, you might not like it if ALL of this applies to you. There are much better movies out there that deal with these themes.
But me? I’m a simple gal. I see Judy Garland in musical sequences directed by Vincente Minnelli and I clap like a seal. (I didn’t like the rest of it, though.)
First of all, this had no business being framed as a biopic. It’s a hundred percent made up and still dull as dirt. I think it would’ve been a lot stronger if they cut out that pretense and just put out a greatest hits tribute to the then-recently deceased Jerome Kern. The musical sequences are good enough to stand on their own.
Second of all, this does not hold up nearly as well as the more well-known movie musical masterpiece from its day. It’s borderline prohibitively written for moviegoers of the mid-1940s, a demographic that was far more likely than modern audiences to:
1. Know and care about Kern
2. Be deeply fond of MGM’s roster of stars (Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Frank Sinatra among them)
3. Have a working knowledge of the plot and music from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat (the Hamilton of its day)
If none of that applies to you, you won’t like. Hell, you might not like it if ALL of this applies to you. There are much better movies out there that deal with these themes.
But me? I’m a simple gal. I see Judy Garland in musical sequences directed by Vincente Minnelli and I clap like a seal. (I didn’t like the rest of it, though.)
